Using the money for a down payment, they bought their first property, a choice which turned out to be very smart, as Beijing's property market has since skyrocketed. When he received a check for 150,000 yuan ($22,390) in 2001, the single largest sum of money he had ever earned at that time, his wife persuaded him to invest in real estate. 'Without her, I might have ended up living on the street,' Kos-Read said. 'It's she who helped make my life count,' he said.Īs someone who enjoys spending money and who used to struggle to make ends meet every month, Kos-Read followed his wife's suggestions to make investments. Kos-Read married a Beijing local soon after moving to China. His visit ended up lasting almost 20 years, partly due to romance. After graduating from NYU with a degree in microbiology, Kos-Read made the trip in 1997 out of curiosity with little money and no idea what to do. What is cooler than learning Chinese is to visit this country. 'This name always appears in Chinese ancient stories and is frequently used in proverbs, and it looks easy to remember,' Kos-Read said. He chose 'Cao Cao,' the name of a famous historical figure-the penultimate chancellor of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), as his Chinese name. For him, it felt cool for a white man to speak an Asian language. While majoring in acting at New York University (NYU), he was required to learn a foreign language and chose Chinese.

With a strong sense of adventure, Kos-Read is keen on exploring fresh and strange experiences. He stumbled on the career of acting in a post-college quest for adventure and idiosyncrasy. It's the charm of this career-you can experience many different lives.'Īs a novel fan from childhood, Kos-Read, born in Torrance (Los Angeles County), always soaked himself in the novel's story and imagined himself living like a character in the novel. 'I love being a wizard with magic powers,' he said. Having played stereotype foreigner roles for years-soldiers, businessmen, priests-Kos-Read loves the part he plays in the Internet movie. Having moved with his family-wife, two daughters and mother-in-law-from Beijing to Oakland last year, he now crosses the Pacific between home and work. 'Then, I don't know what comes next,' Kos-Read told Beijing Review. After this movie, he's off to Zhejiang Province to take part in a TV show. The story concerns a group of heroes protecting Earth from invasion by dark wizards, and Kos-Read plays the leading wizard. Currently on location in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, he is acting in a movie soon to be released on the Internet. Getting up at noon and going to bed at 6 a.m.-this has been American actor Jonathan Kos-Read's schedule for the past month. Jonathan Kos-Read in the 2015 blockbuster Mojin-The Lost Legend (FILE)

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