In 2001, Sankar followed Zhu back to Zhengzhou, and the couple has lived there ever since. Now they have two sons, aged 12 and 10.

"She has many Chinese friends," Zhu said. "She often comes with me to visit our relatives." Zhu added that Sankar has adapted well to Chinese food after having lived in China for more than 10 years.

"She loves boiled fish with pickled cabbage and chili," said Zhu Wei. "When we go to restaurants, we often order popular Henan snacks such as soup with pepper and stewed noodles. But generally, we cook at home." He commented that Sankar could only cook a few simple dishes.

Following their marriage, Sankar and Zhu have been engaged in foreign trade business, exporting Chinese and Trinidadian and Tobagonian products to each other's home country. In addition, Sankar regularly participates in cultural exchange activities between the two countries.

"The Emperor, His Bride and The Dragon Robe"

During the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, she served as curator of the Caribbean Community Pavilion. The fairytale book given to President Xi was published at that time.

Sankar originally wrote the story for her children, but she found that Zhu also liked it, so she and Zhu published the book in both English and Chinese.

"Lacking understanding of Chinese culture, many foreign children have the impression that the Chinese dragon is a symbol of evil," Zhu explained. "When Lisa Sankar had a deeper understanding about the Chinese dragon and Chinese culture, she felt she has a responsibility to clear up the misunderstandings from other countries around these ideas. And such work should start from the children." Zhu added that they plan to adapt the fairytale book into a 3D animation film and the project is currently in the early stages of production.

Zhu added that when cultural companies plan to go global, they must undertake thorough research about the consumption patterns and habits of the consumers in their target countries and regions. Without this in-depth understanding, mere word-for-word translations will fail to penetrate the market.