their text literally from xinhua. which is why ijoined them, i because if you're going to be in china you might as wellj start centrally, at the top! did you see yourself as a journalist? oh, no, no, i had no background at all. i i mean, i studied media at university, but, no, i i worked in local government in the uk _ so, why did you do it? for love, basically. i met a girl, moved to china. she had a job there, - so i moved for a holiday, and i thought, if i'm - going to be in this place, i might as well experience the country as close - as possible. and to the point that howard and yuan were making, did you feel that your presence within a chinese media organisation like xinhua had extra currency because of the fact that you were british? 0h, of course. i'm a face. that's how we call ourselves. so, i knew i got in. because i'm english, i'm six foot, i'm white, i have a broadly- neutral accent. these things increased my pay packet - did you feel uncomfortable about that, playing that role?