My Cross-Cultural Journey of Love

By Katherine Wei

Katherine Wei shares her journey from a young ballerina growing up during China's Cultural Revolution, to becoming Australia's most successful relationship guru, specialising in cross-cultural relationships. It is told with humour, inspirational ambition and tenderness. A story for anyone who was discovered that their fu

• Language: English
• Publisher: Delphian Books
• Release date: Jun 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9780648761716

Katherine Wei

Katherine Wei is Australia's leading cross-cultural matchmaker. She has made thousands of successful professional introductions between Asian and Australian people seeking love.Katherine has been a cross-cultural relationship specialist for over thirty-three years. She has interviewed and introduced over 50,000 individuals face-to-face, consulting them on their relationship needs. She has coordinated over 150,000 dates and introduced more than 15,000 happy couples in successful relationships. Her agency, Contact AJ, is renowned across Australia and beyond for being the best introduction agency for Asian people seeking love in Australia.She has the burning passion to help others truly connect, to learn how to love and be loved, beyond culture and borders. Katherine Wei was invited as a special guest on the SBS TV show Insight.

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My Cross-Cultural Journey of Love

Katherine Wei

The characters and situations in this publication have been based on the author’s own experiences of actual events.

My Cross-Cultural Journey of Love, Katherine Wei

ISBN: 978-0-6487617-1-6 (ebook)

Copyright © 2023 Katherine Wei

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the author and publisher.

Internal photos provided by Katherine Wei.

About the Author

Katherine Wei is Australia’s leading interracial dating and cross-cultural matchmaking expert and has been helping people find love for over thirty-three years. She is the director and expert matchmaker of Australia’s leading introduction agency specialising in Australian and Asian singles, Contact AJ, which was granted the first matchmaking licence in Australia. Katherine has appeared on SBS Insight and on SBS Radio to discuss her insights after successfully matching thousands of happy couples.

Specialising in East meets West introductions, Katherine has found her niche in the Asian community in Australia.

For Katherine, her job is a passion. ‘I am privileged to be part of so many joyful beginnings in people’s lives. I could not ask for a more fulfilling job!’ she says. ‘My experience helps me bring together couples who are best suited to find happiness with one another. Helping soulmates meet each other is what I live for.’

This book is dedicated to my husband for his understanding and support, and his willingness to make our cross-cultural marriage work.

I also wish to thank my family from both cultures, for giving me the gift of love and an enriched experience of life. I am so lucky to have you, and I would not be able to be who I am today without you.

I love you all,

Katherine

Foreword

"I remember that crisp afternoon of late 2019 vividly. I was running the Foundations of Coaching Success training, one of the profound coaching trainings at The Coaching Institute.

Over the last 17 years, I have met coaches and students from different walks of life who come to learn about coaching, so they can live their dreams of helping others live a life filled with passion, purpose and meaning.

Katherine stood out to me to be someone who is truly passionate about helping others build a deeper connection and meaningful relationships in their lives.

She shared with me her wonderful journey from Beijing to Sydney, from being a soldier to being a cross-culture matchmaker for the last 3 decades. In front of me was a successful business woman who has helped hundreds of thousands of people find true love, who has been interviewed by SBS internationally, who has committed herself to years and years of research, study and training, and wanting to learn more, do more, be more and serve many more.

Beyond all of that I saw in her eyes the burning passion to help other truly connect, to learn how to love and be loved, beyond culture and borders.

As someone who has read and written many books on personal development, relationships, and self-discovery, I know how important they are, and how powerful they can be.

Some relationship books will guide you to external success, while others will take you on an incredible journey of learning how to build meaningful and lasting relationships with yourself and others.

This book is filled with passion, wisdom, insights and practical tools on cross-cultural love relationships and more importantly, how to develop deeper connections beyond any cultural boundaries.

Get ready to engage and participate fully in the ultimate journey to your heart and the hearts of others.

I promise it is worth it."

Sharon Pearson

Founder of The Coaching Institute

International bestselling author of six books, including Ultimate You

1. The Course To Love

I have been a cross-cultural relationship specialist for over thirty-three years. I have interviewed and introduced over 50,000 individuals face-to-face, consulting them on their relationship needs. I have coordinated over 150,000 dates and introduced more than 15,000 happy couples in successful relationships. My agency, Contact AJ, is renowned across Australia and beyond for being the best introduction agency for Asian people seeking love in Australia.

As you can imagine, in all those years, with all those couples, I have learnt a lot! I have had the honour and delight of talking to countless people about one of our most private subjects: our hearts. I have developed a wealth of incredible insights into how men and women tick when it comes down to our human nature. The differences between men and women are just the beginning! Because of my personal background and passion for Australia, my home of over thirty years, the love I have for my husband and family, and my strong roots to my Chinese culture, I have become the number one most successful cross-cultural dating expert. Television networks, radio stations and social media platforms seek my knowledge all the time, in my very specialised area of expertise: East meets West.

Finding the love of our lives is tough. We have all heard the relationship challenges over and over again – men are from Mars, women are from Venus. But what about when you throw into that mix, language barriers, cultural barriers, distance barriers, religious and values differences and more? When you add culture clash to the battle of the sexes, it makes the difficult seem almost impossible!

Yet, we have successfully done it. Contact AJ has found the formula of balancing the yin and yang of masculine and feminine AS WELL AS the delicate dance between Eastern and Western cultures, to help people find true love and a life of romantic happiness.

Trust me, it has not always been easy. First, I had to learn it all for myself! Then I got working with people and realised that every single person brings their own experiences to the table. We all have our own emotional baggage … but did you know that most of us carry CULTURAL BAGGAGE?

I had to discover throughout those early years that very often our biggest enemy is ourselves. We self-sabotage our own happiness in love, and that is why we fail over and over again. Too many men and women are sitting on the sidelines of life, watching as everyone around them seems to be falling in love and basking in the glow of true happiness, while they wait, totally confused about why they are not finding the same personal satisfaction. Where is my soulmate? they ask. What’s wrong with me?

In my experience, so often, it is your mindset that is stopping you from gaining one hundred per cent joy. You cannot attract something to you if your mind is blocked with prejudices and ideas that are stopping the flow of positive energy into your heart. What I have learnt over the years, is that once we open ourselves to the possibilities, life can be rich with love and success.

Do not get me wrong. I discovered that wisdom the hard way. It was only because of my own, very unique life experiences and determination to be a student of the human heart (not a heart surgeon, but a heartache surgeon), studying the mistakes, misunderstandings, missteps and missed moments that prevented the people I met on my journey from finding the love that they wanted, only then did I start to see a pattern. And … wow. Do people make some big mistakes on the path to love. Once I realised what they were getting wrong, I started giving advice.

It is all well and good to be able to point out what is going wrong. The real secret is what to do to get it right. Many cultures talk about love as if it is magic or dumb luck – some supernatural force that we have no control over. I am here to tell you, as much as I love a fairy tale, that is just nonsense. The sooner you realise that you have full control over the success you find in love, the sooner you can step away from the walls and join in the dance.

I have coached so many people away from the sidelines and on to the field. I have held their hand through to the grand final (that is an Aussie football thing, do not worry! We will get to sports later) … but, in the end, it is you that has to kick the winning goal.

That is why I had to write this book.

In these pages, I am finally going to put down the wisdom I have gathered from thirty years of matchmaking. I will walk you through:

The wisdom of love from another culture

Why your own preconceived ideas are standing in the way of your own happiness in love

How to attract the relationship you want

How to keep the relationship you want

What makes the difference between a good partnership and a great partnership

Plus, it is sprinkled throughout with stories that will reveal to you just what I have learnt over the years about the East meets West combination.

This book is not just for Western men who have taken a fancy to the Asian look. Nor is it only for Asian