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Good neighbors, international communities
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AUSTRALIAN hotelier Peter Zaunmayr recently received a “Good Neighbor” citation at the Hangzhou Neighbor Festival in recognition for his help to the Xixi community where he has lived for three years.
Zaunmayr who has lived in Hangzhou for 15 years is well known in the community. He has participated in an English Corner, where Chinese can practice their English. For the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, he delivered mooncakes to the elderly and ailing in the neighborhood. Last week, he initiated a contribution fund to help a local 5-year-old migrant boy who suffers from leukemia.
“I work in a foreign company, but this is my local community and I want to help,” said the Australian, who is general manager at Oakwood Residence, an international hotel and serviced-apartment complex.
The Hangzhou Neighbor Festival has been held for 13 years, and “Good Neighbor” awards are part of the tradition. Honorees are elected by local residents.
Zaunmayr and German-Chinese Qi Zhonghao, who also won an award this year, are the first two foreigners to receive the honor.
Qi, who was born and raised in Hangzhou, lived in Germany for over 10 years before returning home about a dozen years ago. She speaks Chinese, English, German and the Hangzhou dialect and is considered a “jack of all trades” in the Dongxin community where she lives.
In the 2,000-plus-household community, which sits across from the Hangzhou International School, 500 are foreigners. Qi volunteers her services to help them with assimilation problems and mediate disputes with neighbors.
“Problems are often trivial but they can generate strong feelings,” she said.
She has dealt with issues such as a foreigner’s bike being stolen, an expat child smashing a window and Chinese residents complaining that a neighbor’s Halloween decorations were a fire risk.
Several months ago, when the community office needed information from expats’ passports, distrustful foreigners refused to cooperate. Qi, with her own passport in hand, knocked on expats’ doors, telling them, “I am your neighbor and the mother of your child’s schoolmate. This is my passport. We are doing a census.”
As a former Yueju Opera actress, Qi gives dancing lessons and volunteered to choreograph a show at a local Christian church. She is currently co-producing an international Christmas gala for Chinese and foreign residents in the community.
“I want to show foreigners the best of Chinese culture and show Chinese the best of Western culture,” she said.
According to a city survey, more than 90 percent of communities in urban Hangzhou include foreign residents.
“We need to make communities as foreigner-friendly as possible,” said Ge Weiping, an officer with the Hangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau. “That is part of our strategic goal of becoming an international city.”
Dongxin, where Qi lives, is one of the first 10 neighborhoods in Hangzhou to be designated as an “international community.” Another is the Langqin community in Xiasha District.
Langqin houses 300-plus expats from more than 20 countries. Almost every signboard in the neighborhood is bilingual, and a community service manual in English is available for every foreign resident.
Wang Haifeng, who works in the community office as a foreign liaison staffer, studied English in college.
In recent months, he has helped a German resident obtain a license for his pet dog, directed two South Korean housewives to a place where they could learn yoga and assisted an American family looking for an ayi, or domestic helper.
“For the Chinese people, finding an ayi is very easy, but for those who do not speak Chinese, it could be frustrating,” said Wang.
Wang and his colleagues compiled a questionnaire to ascertain the needs of their foreign neighbors. It was clear from the survey that most expats just want to feel “at home” there.
To achieve that goal, staff have organized activities that include baking lessons from Western housewives, dancing classes from a Russian expat and classes in Chinese musical instruments taught by local teachers. In addition, basketball matches, photography contests and festival activities are held so that local and foreign residents can mingle and get to know each other.
The efforts seem to be drawing expats out of their shell. A young Canadian has volunteered to help with patrols in the community, an Italian couple offered to help distribute posters for the earlier G20 summit in the city, and a Japanese lad won a prize for photos he took of neighborhood activities.
At the Phoenix community in southern Hangzhou, community office staffers He Jingyun and Han Xiaoxue are publishing the first English-language community newspaper. They call it the Phoenix News.
The first issue last August covered practical information about the neighborhood. The second issue reported on tourist attractions and nearby popular restaurants.
“We want to assure foreigners living in our community that there are neighbors trying to understand and accept them,” said He.
According to the Hangzhou Civil Affair Bureau, the city plans to have 30 “international communities” by 2018.
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