Shansi

### Occupation

Artist (1968-Present), Secretary (1972-1973), Gardener (1985-Present), Martial Arts Practitioner (1988-Present), Teacher of Martial Arts (2020-Present), Actor (2020-2020)

## Womble Information

### Burrow

Wimbledon Burrow (1968-1991, 1997-Present)Shanghai Burrow (1960-1968)

Amazon River Burrow (1991-1997)

### Position in Burrow

Teacher of Martial Arts (2020-Present), Gardener (1985-Present), Secretary (1972-1973), Operator of the Wimbledon Burrow Snack Trolley (1970-1985), Artist (1968-Present)

## Relations

### Friends

Obidos, Alderney, Wellington, Tomsk, Orinoco, Bungo, Stepney, Madame Cholet, Miss Adelaide, Tobermory, Great Uncle Bulgaria, Cousin Botany, Cousin Yellowstone

### Acquaintances

Cairngorm The MacWomble The Terrible

**Shansi** (commonly known as **Pink Womble**) (born 1960) is a womble who resides at the Wimbledon Burrow, a womble burrow located on Wimbledon Common, London, England, Earth, Milky Way. She was born in the Shanghai Burrow in 1960 and resided there from her birth to her relocation to the Wimbledon Burrow for an exchange trip in 1968.

When Shansi was around four years old, in 1964, she entered the Shanghai Burrow Womblegarten. Shansi excelled with arts and craft but somewhat struggled with academic subjects; despite these early struggles, she did very well in the Womblegarten and was selected to take part in an exchange trip in 1968 with the Wimbledon Burrow. Shansi was excited to be chosen and looked forward to meeting the Wimbledon wombles; she departed on a ship bound for England from Shanghai in March 1968 and arrived in England the following month. She arrived at Southampton and was received by Tobermory, who transported her to the Wimbledon Burrow in the burrow’s car, The Silver Womble. When she arrived at the Wimbledon Burrow, she was welcomed by burrow leader Great Uncle Bulgaria. Shansi was welcomed by the Wimbledon wombles and enjoyed her new burrow, despite being very shy at first. As she was still young, she was enrolled into the Wimbledon Burrow Womblegarten under Miss Adelaide and continued her education in the UK. Shortly after enrolling in the Womblegarten, Shansi met Alderney, a Womble who has been her close friend for over fifty years. Shansi was very skilled in arts and craft and was able to design and make acclaimed art out of litter collected on Wimbledon Common. Despite her relocation, she continued to excel in education and assisted Miss Adelaide in preparing the lessons. In 1970, Shansi graduated from the Womblegarten at the age of 10, but instead of becoming a refuse collector, she joined Alderney in the kitchen and helped to deliver snacks around the burrow. She also continued to help Miss Adelaide in the procurement and division of resources for the Womblegarten. In 1972, when Great Uncle Bulgaria started a program for Wimbledon Wombles to explore the world, he selected Shansi to assist him in the administration and planning of the trip. She joined him in his study, where she would bring him and Tobermory refreshments, and, with Alderney, use a typewriter to write out messages to other wombles and other important documents. Shansi enjoyed her work as she felt it was very important and it meant she could spend more time with her friend Alderney. Great Uncle Bulgaria was very busy during the operation and as such had little sleep, this caused him to become easily irritable and shout at Shansi when she made the slightest of errors. On one occasion, he shouted so loudly that she dropped the drinks she was carrying and was reduced to tears. Great Uncle Bulgaria was apologetic, but Shansi continued to cry as she felt she had failed him. Despite these incidents, the operation went very well and Shansi was pleased to be involved in the production of the *Womble History of the World Volume 10*.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Shansi continued to work with Alderney, operating the Wimbledon Burrow Snack Trolley, but in around 1985, she decided she wanted to focus on art work and gardening, so she resigned from her job in the kitchen and instead began to grow a strawberry patch. She was very skilled at gardening and the other wombles praised her strawberries as ‘’always fresh’’ and ‘’delicious’’. Shansi was also a craftswomble who made, repaired and decorated items such as plates, cups and other crockery, which she did to a professional standard. Through she greatly enjoyed these occupations, she would not find her true vocation until 1988 when she met Obidos. She first met Obidos when he visited the Wimbledon Burrow in 1988 to share ideas with the Wimbledon wombles on how to protect the environment. He told them about his work protecting the Amazon Rainforest and also showed them karate, of which he was a master practitioner. This greatly interested Shansi and she asked Obidos if, before he went back home, he could give her a karate lesson. Obidos agreed and scheduled a lesson for the following day which Shansi excitedly, but somewhat nervously, attended. Though she was somewhat nervous at first, she soon became very conformable with Obidos and relaxed whilst in his company. Shansi had always been a very shy womble, but finally began to feel confident whilst she was learning karate and was a very good student. She took to karate very quickly and within just a few years was at a level which would usually take a decade to attain. Obidos decided to stay in England until 1989, so he could continue to teach Shansi karate and was very impressed with her skills, but despite this, he announced that he had to go back to Brazil, but would communicate via the Welecom and visit again soon. Shansi asked if she could go with Obidos for a three-month period and he accepted, so she went to Brazil with him to continue her karate lessons. She continued to excel at karate and greatly enjoyed her trip to brazil, but she eventually had to go back to England and conduct her karate lessons via the Welecom. She continued to do well in her virtual lessons, but missed the greater connection she had with Obidos when they were together physically, so in 1991, she announced her intention to move to Brazil. The wombles of Wimbledon were sad to see her depart, but wished her the best of luck with Obidos in her new burrow and promised that they would keep in close contact and visit her often. Obidos was exited to spend more time with Shansi and she was welcomed by the wombles of the Amazon River Burrow. She continued her karate training in Brazil for the next 6 years, until 1997, when she decided she wanted to go back to the Wimbledon Burrow as she missed the wombles who lived there. By this time, Shansi was extremely skilled at karate, but still had a lot to learn. Obidos greatly enjoyed his time with Shansi, so was upset to see her leave the burrow, but respected her decision. She promised she was visit him and Obidos promised the same. She arrived back in the Wimbledon Burrow in early 1997 and was welcomed back by all the wombles there, especially Alderney who had greatly missed her. Upon returning to Wimbledon, she once again started to grow strawberries in her strawberry patch, which had been cared for by Alderney and Botany. Shansi quickly settled back into life at Wimbledon and was markedly less shy than before, because of her newly-learned karate skills. She was very pleased to see Alderney again and they continued their long-lasting friendship. Obidos would often use the Welecom to speak to Shansi and continue to teach her karate, but thought that virtue lessons lacked the ‘’deep spiritual understanding’’ that he thought physical lessons had. For this reason, just a few months later, in May 1997, Obidos visited the Wimbledon Burrow to continue to teach Shansi karate. At first, he stayed for only a few days, as he was very busy in Brazil and had to go back, but he entertained the idea of eventually moving to Wimbledon. He visited again for the celebration of the new year 2000, when he attended the Wimbledon Burrow New Year 2000 Party, with over 300 other wombles and on that occasion stayed for a few weeks. He eventually decided to move to Wimbledon later that year and arrived in June 2000, much to the celebration of all the Wimbledon wombles, but especially Shansi. After Obidos arrived, he gave Shansi karate lessons almost every day and she progressed even quicker than she had before. Soon, Shansi and Obidos had become inseparable and by 2005, Shansi was able to participate in karate fights with Obidos and other wombles. Despite her great skills and years of practice, she still had a lot to learn from Obidos, so they continued their karate lessons for years to come. For the next twelve years, Shansi continued to progress with her karate and by 2017, she was a master in her own right. Finally, in 2017, after 29 years of learning Karate, Obidos declared that Shansi had officially become a master and attained the Black Belt in Karate, but despite this official declaration, Obidos continued to teach Shansi informally as he believes that one can always learn more from one’s master. Shansi continued practicing her karate and taking part in fights with other wombles to prove her skills, but also spends her time helping to preserve the environment, which she is also very passionate about. In the next few years, Shansi and Obidos continued to be very close and spend a lot of time together and were fortunate enough to avoid the negative situations many other wombles were involved in. In 2020, Obidos and Shansi decided to start karate classes in a school designed for learning different skills. These classes were very successful and popular and many individuals enrolled in their classes to learn Karate. Shansi and Obidos also offer several private karate lessons a week for the comparatively low price of £20. In mid 2020, Shansi and Obidos were asked to star in an action movie which would see them use their karate skills to battle and defeat an invading army. This movie would be set in 17th century China, as karate is not effective against firearms. As of November 2020, the movie has not yet been made and it is unclear whether production will commence as several worldwide events impeded its production when it was originally planned. As of July 2022, Shansi continues to practice and teach Karate. She is also still close friends with Obidos, with whom she inhabits a distinct area of the Wimbledon Burrow with, in which they conduct their karate teaching and training.