You may have noticed a slight change this week: our name has been shortened from beijingkids to simply Jingkids International.

What is this sorcery, you may ask? Is this a knockoff product produced by pirates? Have we been taken over by some external force? Are we leaving Beijing?

Nope, it’s still us, the same beijingkids you’ve come to know and (hopefully) love for a decade and a half.

The name change is something we’ve anticipated for over a decade, and believe it or not, marks the fourth (!) name we’ve used for this magazine in the 14 years since we published our first product in the spring of 2006.

Back then, we launched as a small quarterly handbook called Kids in Beijing, which was part of our now-discontinued Immersion Guides book series:

We produced four of these to great fanfare. Reader demand moved us to a full-on monthly magazine the next year, which we named tbjkids (using the “tbj” from thebeijinger, from which we sprung).

This lasted for 17 months until we expanded the name to deepen the connection to Beijing, by rebranding as beijingkids at the same time Beijing was hosting the 2008 Olympics:

We soldiered on with that name until we decided to launch our Chinese edition in 2012, which we named Jing – not the “jing” from the word Beijing (京), but the homonym Jing (菁), which is a component of words such as essence, luxuriant and elite.

Since that time, our Chinese brand Jing has grown by leaps and bounds, expanded to Shanghai, and become more and more of a central brand. Though the contents of each magazine are entirely independent, much of what we do – such as our school choice expos and our school choice guides – are joint efforts, and thus it only made sense for us to unify our efforts into one brand.

Our commitment to you as Beijing’s Essential International Family Resource remains the same. You can still find us at our URL at www.beijing-kids.com and on WeChat at bjkids, and you can reach us at our same email addresses.

Thanks for your continued support!

Michael Wester
CEO and Co-Founder,
True Run Media

Images: Pexels

Anyway, I was in Beijing for about three months when one of the students I was teaching introduced me to a Chinese proverb that really hit home with me. The student was going to be leaving my class, and I was sad to see him go.

天下没有不散的筵席
tian xia mei you bu san de yan xi

“There isn’t a banquet in the world that doesn’t come to an end.”

My time at tbjkids has come to an end today; I’ve eaten my fill, I’ve had an amazing time meeting so many great families and hearing their stories, but my taxi has arrived and it’s really time for me to make a move. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out with the magazine for the past 18 months and I hope to see it grow and mature a lot more in the future.

More than any of the precious birthday anniversaries to ensue, there is something about turning one that changes everything. It is a morphing from infanthood to childhood. It is a milestone time of enormous leaps and bounds. It is a time to celebrate an emerging personality and individuality, slowly unfurling and spreading its lanky legs into the world.

When my daughter, Miss 7 (M7) turned one, she almost instantly began to show semblance of becoming a “girl” – the girl she is today. Within weeks, she was stretching her dimpled baby hand from the shopping trolley, swiping at anything sparkly, bedazzled or pink-glitzed. This astounded me, as I had only ever dressed her in neutral colors since birth – without a trace of tizz, feather boa or rhinestone. M7 also showed almost immediate preference for anything art-related, clutching plump crayons in her fists long before she could scrawl and wriggling her fat, nappy-padded behind to funky music and pointing with bubbling glee at anything even remotely resembling a fairy, mermaid or princess.

When my son, master 5 (M5) turned one, he took to his feet suddenly. A calm, amiable and sweet baby, within weeks he was off and running, and with this transition, the sugar coating rapidly dissolved and suddenly, rough-tumblingly, we had a fast-tracked, fiercely independent and somewhat energetic boy on our hands, who ceaselessly began to challenge every parenting skill Dear Spouse (DS) and I had ever initiated with M7.

Yes, turning one is a milestone.

Fast forward several years and, thankfully, it’s not all fluff and glitz with M7, who is also a clever, deep thinking and enormously compassionate child. And the sugar coating M5 left behind still intently lingers in that sweet, baby-smelling place at the nook of his neck, in his doe-like eyelashes and the pure affection and self-effacement he imparts, even as a roustabout young boy.

Another thing I will never forget when my kids turned one is the influx of thoughts and wishes written inside the gift cards of so many people – from the checkout chick at the supermarket to my mother-in-law’s neighbors. Amongst these lovely wishes, however, it was my sister-in-law Margot who wrote something very special. Instead of congratulating our children on achieving this one year milestone, she congratulated DS and me. For getting through that very first life-altering year. For forging the vital bonds in our family so selflessly, for supporting each other let alone the positive wellbeing and development of our babies. It was a stunning gift to receive this acknowledgement and it’s something that remains precious to us, even now.

This month, tbjkids turns one year old. Like a child, the magazine has grown and developed though its first year into a unique and wonderful personality. But it has taken the dedication and responsibility of many affectionate and loving ‘parents’ to raise it to one year old. In this regard, I would like to offer my congratulations to all who have participated in this treasured time – from conception to first birthday. And congrats also go to tbjkids readers, for the added and vital support that makes the life of any one-year-old so rich with reward.

Let’s get this party started! Come along and celebrate at the tbjkids www.tbjkids.com/tbjkids-events/tbjkids-birthday-party.html first birthday party! Saturday March 15, 4-7pm at Steak & Eggs, Shunyi. Contact marketing@tbjkids.com quickly to reserve a place.