Expats join hands to enhance community life
Print Edition
EXPATS in Changning have expanded their role in community affairs since a squad of 10 foreigners started patrolling their neighborhood while others have volunteered to improve local traffic conditions.
Habib Ur Rehman, a 26-year-old carpet merchant from Pakistan, and Raphael Iltisberger, a 23-year-old German who studies in Shanghai, are two of the foreign Ping An Volunteers at Chengjiaqiao community.
Ping’an in Chinese literally means peace and safe. “I’ll do my best to help improve the safety of my community,” said Rehman.
Rehman has been in Shanghai for seven years and speaks fluent Chinese. He and his partners usually join local officers to patrol surrounding areas.
Other members of the squad come from other nations, including the Netherlands, Italy, France and Argentina.
Apart from regular patrolling, expat volunteers can work as interpreters when Chinese police officers stop foreigners for inspection.
Iltisberger, who planned to stay in Shanghai for a year, said he wanted to get more involved in local affairs and to see the Chinese way of doing things.
Almost at the same time, about 20 expats have been working as traffic volunteers in Changning since a citywide campaign against traffic violations kicked off in March.
They wear orange or green vests when on duty. At the intersection of Hongqiao Road and Yili Road, Daniel Howard from the US is seen to clutch a yellow flag and a stack of leaflets.
Howard uses the flag as a sign to indicate that pedestrians and vehicles need to follow traffic rules while the leaflets are distributed as promotion of the campaign.
Howard, 38, has been living in Shanghai for 14 years and works as a teacher at the Shanghai Community International School. He and nine other residents were honored by the Shanghai government as Exemplary Residents in Promoting Traffic Rules.
Howard was the first foreigner in Shanghai to win the title and has become an “expert” on the city’s traffic rules, particularly when fellow expats inquire with him about the rules, especially those governing e-bikes and scooters, and the ongoing local traffic safety crackdown.
“Love China, love Shanghai” is the common aspiration of the expat volunteers. They come from different countries with different backgrounds. Among them are students, businessmen and even a record producer.
Quite a few of them have been living in Changning for many years and are still unwilling to move. It is community life which enhances ties among themselves and improves their relations with locals.
Changning is home to around 69,000 expats from 78 countries and regions, accounting for one fourth of the city’s expats and nearly 10 percent of the district’s population.
In addition, one third of the consulates-general in Shanghai are in the district while more than half of the diplomats and foreign consular officials also reside here.
Many of the expats cite Changning’s quality buildings, high level urban development, convenient transport and green landscapes for their deep affection for the district.
The city’s first international community, the Ronghua neighborhood, is also in Changning.
Expats in Changning have extensively participated in community affairs through different ways.
At Ronghua neighborhood, Gubei Residents’ Meeting Hall was established as a grassroots democratic self-governance platform for the management of community affairs.
Every resident can have his or her voice heard at the meeting hall while a panel of 12 Chinese and foreign “councilors” draft policies for the entire community.
Around 57 percent of residents in the neighborhood are foreigners. They make the community a “United Nations” within a 2.02 square-kilometer area. Chinese cadres mobilized Chinese and foreign residents who are enthusiastic about public affairs to set up the Gubei Civic Center.
They encourage everyone in the community to contribute ideas for the maintenance and management of their neighborhood. Resident representatives at the center have formulated rules for public welfare in the community and enforce these rules seriously.
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