Love without borders

The magic and mayhem of an interracial union

- ANJULY MATHAI

It would be an understatement to say that Shivaji Das and Yolanda Yu grew up in vastly different cultures. Shivaji was born in Lumding, a small town in Assam, while Yolanda was born in Shenyang in northeastern China. Neither had any great knowledge of the other’s country. “I had only a vague idea about China, although we lived a mere 150km from the Tibetan border,” writes Shivaji in the book on Indian-Chinese couples that he coauthored with Yolanda—Rebels, Traitors, Peacemakers: True Stories of Love and Conflict in Indian-Chinese Relationships. “My parents often talked about China, but only of their struggles during the 1962 war, when Chinese forces nearly reached Lumding, of how they ran to bomb shelters the moment they heard the sirens, of how food became scarce and they were forced to live on potatoes.”

Yolanda, on the other hand, always thought of India as “exotic”. She remembers being fascinated by the devil-turned-Indian princess in the TV drama, Journey to the West. She also loved Rabindranath Tagore’s poems. “From these poems, I formed a magical image of India where women in braided hair covered with a delicate veil walked to the river accompanied by the melody of their anklet bells,” she writes.