Lynn Hicks

lhicks@dmreg.com

Kirsten Jacobsen was in Beijing for only five months, but it's hard to imagine a more inspiring diplomat for U.S.-Chinese relations.

The Des Moines native was recruiting expats and Chinese alike to play on one of Asia's first roller derby teams. She avoided trendy areas populated by Americans and other foreigners, and instead found an apartment in a bustling old neighborhood of narrow alleyways and blinding neon lights. She bridged cultural and political divides daily as an editor at a state-sponsored English-language newspaper.

Jacobsen died Sunday in Beijing. She was 26. She had been hospitalized for 19 days in October with bacterial pneumonia and a pre-existing heart problem, said her father, James Jacobsen of Des Moines.

On Oct. 24, she posted on Facebook that she had been released from the hospital and was feeling healthy.

Register readers knew Jacobsen from a series of colorful articles she wrote called "Making It in China." She started the series in 2012, while teaching English in rural China. She returned to Iowa, then moved to Beijing in June of this year.

I met Jacobsen when she worked as an intern on the Register's business desk in 2011. She came across as shy and quiet, but she showed initiative and curiosity beyond her routine duties. We soon learned she was bound for grand adventures.

In her columns, she explored China's rapid economic and cultural changes and the balance between old and new. "Compared to my former experiences living in a small, rural town in southern Hunan province, life as a tragically poor Chinese speaker in modern Beijing is almost easy," she wrote.

She took readers to Tiananmen Square on June 4, the 25th anniversary of the massacre, to describe the increased security and tensions. In honor of RAGBRAI, she bought a bike for $65, dodged swerving cars and pedestrians and showed readers the city from behind handlebars.

Her father said she had planned to write a column about being treated in a Beijing hospital and comparing the U.S. and Chinese health care systems.

A 2011 University of Iowa graduate, Jacobsen was active in Model United Nations and the Daily Iowan newspaper. She worked as a social media strategist at Prairie Lights Bookstore between her travels. Last year, she traveled to London with Young Americans for Diplomatic Leadership.

Register photographer Rodney White and I had coffee with Jacobsen on Sept. 8 while we were on assignment in China. She was thriving.

Her nights were filled with Mandarin classes and roller derby practices. Concerned about how animals were treated in China, she had rescued two kittens.

She talked about her goal of working in the Foreign Service.

She showed us her latest adventure, represented on her upper arm: a beautiful depiction of a traditional Chinese landscape scene with mountains and a waterfall. Her parents weren't thrilled with the tattoo, but like her pursuit of travel, they understood.

"It symbolized her Chinese dream," her father said. Like the dream, the tattoo was unfinished.