European blueberries take root on the Western Sichuan Plateau: Dr. De's 15 years of poverty alleviation
Holger Pannell and his Chengdu wife Gan Wenqing.
Holger Pannell bred blueberries suited to plateau cultivation.
Superior plant varieties "cloned" by Holger Pannell.
Side A: Life
The "adorkable" doctoral couple and their "cutest height difference"
In 1997, Holger Pannell was 37 years old. That year, he arranged with several Japanese experts to come to Sichuan for an inspection tour. It was his first time in Sichuan.
The plane landed smoothly, and as he walked out of the airport, he saw a young woman with long flowing hair. She stared blankly for a few seconds, then greeted him; she was there to pick him up. Holger Pannell did not know at the time that this young woman, named Yu Wenqing, had been roped in at the last minute to save the day. A classmate of hers needed a Japanese interpreter, and Yu Wenqing, a Leshan native, had just returned to China after 8 years of study and work in Japan, so she went to the airport. But when she saw the tall German, Holger Pannell, she thought she had picked up the wrong person.
The Japanese experts' plane had not yet arrived, so as the host, Yu Wenqing took this German guest around. They ended up at Wenshu Monastery. Walking through the main gate and going a short way in, the two came to a beautiful covered bridge, with a small pavilion as well. At that moment, many people were sitting on both sides of the covered bridge, chatting.
Suddenly, an elderly man stepped forward, greeted Holger Pannell in English, and struck up a conversation:
"Are you two a couple?" the old man said. "No, we've only just met." Gan Wenqing smiled, a little embarrassed.
"Does this gentleman live at your home?" the old man teased further. "Sir, we've only just met." ... The old man's words later actually came true. Half a year later, this big tall European man married this adorable Sichuan girl: 1.88 m and 1.53 m, they had the most popular "cutest height difference" of the day. In their hearts, that stranger was the one who tied the red thread of fate. They visited that little pavilion many times afterward, always hoping to run into the old man again and tell him that his casual remark had now come true.
"I believe this is fate!" Gan Wenqing said. Having lived abroad for many years, she had not known a single German. Now they have two lovely daughters, both attending school in Chengdu. But because the two often work away from home, they do not spend much time with their daughters.
At home, the family mainly speaks German and English, because Holger Pannell still cannot learn to speak Chinese. Unlike her husband, Gan Wenqing is very gifted with languages; she is fluent in Chinese, English, and Japanese, and after marrying Holger Pannell, she also speaks German especially fluently. She is not only his wife, but also his work partner and his voice in China.
The "rigid" doctor carries a phone but never turns it on
Holger Pannell often says he is a "henpecked husband." Apart from work-related matters, everything must be reported back to the "leader" at home, Gan Wenqing.
In fact, Holger Pannell has given his wife no small amount of worry. He is "missing a nerve" when it comes to many other things in daily life, and this "adorkable" quality often leaves Gan Wenqing not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Last week, they drove together to the school to pick up their daughter and bring her home. Gan Wenqing asked her husband to help their daughter with her luggage while she waited in the car. Holger Pannell got out of the car in a fluster. After a long while, their daughter called her mother to complain: "Has Dad gotten lost again?" Although Holger Pannell has a strong sense of direction in the wild, he constantly gets lost in the city.
"Why didn't you bring your phone again? Your daughter couldn't find you!" Gan Wenqing complained to her husband.
"I did bring it." Holger Pannell looked innocent and fished the phone out of his pocket, only to find he had forgotten to turn it on.
Gan Wenqing said her husband rejects phones in his heart. Even when he carries his old flip phone, he always keeps it off, and he still does not even know how to reply to text messages. He believes a phone is for finding people, and he only turns it on when he needs to find someone else. As soon as the matter is settled, he turns it off again.
The pocket of Holger Pannell's jeans bulges especially. Gan Wenqing jokes that it is his bag of treasures. His wife pointed at the pocket, and Holger Pannell smiled knowingly, immediately stood up, and obediently took the items out one by one: an old flip phone, a tube of hand cream, a set of keys, a wallet, a small camera, and a pair of rubber gloves. He had actually stuffed all these things into his pants pocket.
The strangest item is probably the rubber gloves. Few people carry rubber gloves with them. Holger Pannell's hands were once corroded and are rather sensitive. Even at the roadside, as long as Holger Pannell comes across something that interests him, he will immediately put on the gloves and examine it.
The most treasured item is the camera. He had just bought it from Japan last week, carefully protected with a case. Because his work requires it, he often uses the camera. Looking at the reporter's camera lens, he could immediately identify the model like an expert.
The "meticulous" doctor uses a measuring cup even for cooking
His 12-year-old younger daughter Stephanie wants to be a food critic when she grows up, because she thinks every move her father makes when cooking is especially like a master chef.
Every year before Christmas, Holger Pannell unfailingly makes two dishes for his daughters for more than ten years: Spanish seafood rice and chocolate pudding. He has his wife leave the kitchen, then carefully grinds the chocolate into powder, whips the cream, and takes out a measuring cup to precisely measure the amount needed of every ingredient. The whole process is like conducting an experiment.
Germans are known for being meticulous, and German scientists are even more so. "My surname is Pannell, my first name is Holger, you can call me Dr. Pannell." To avoid mistakes, he specifically writes his English name in a notebook and labels his surname and first name separately in Chinese. When doing experiments, if it is equipment he has decided on, he will use it even if it is expensive. It is no use for other equipment dealers to talk until their lips are worn out. With any experimental data, he insists on refining it to the millimeter, to the micron, before he is satisfied.
Gan Wenqing has grown used to her husband's "meticulousness." Once, she brewed black tea for her husband and casually poured water into the kettle to heat it. Holger Pannell walked over without a sound, looked at the kettle, and poured all the water out. Then he took out a measuring cup, precisely measured the required amount of water, poured it into the kettle, and heated it again.
This meticulous scientist has just one flaw: he loves being late. Often at the very last minute, he is still dawdling in the laboratory. Hurry up, hurry up - Gan Wenqing once again urged her husband: "We agreed to set off at 4:45, and you dawdled until 5 o'clock before leaving the house." Last week, they went to a gathering at the German Consulate General and nearly arrived late. And at ordinary social gatherings, his being ten or twenty minutes late is routine.
Side B: Work
His bond with Sichuan and love changed his whole life
With 15 years of staying here, Holger Pannell's fondness for Sichuan is self-evident. Barring any accident, he will live here all his life.
Love changed Holger Pannell's life. He often says that if he had not met Gan Wenqing back then, he might have returned to Germany long ago. If it were not for his family being in Sichuan, he could not have lived here so long. Now, after 20 years of mutual support, he can no longer be separated from this place. Sichuan is full of his memories. When his daughter caught a cold and had a runny nose as a child, he stuffed a pack of toilet paper in his pocket and ran after his daughter to wipe her nose.