Volunteer bridges Chinese-foreign cultural gaps

SHANGHAI - The 143,200 foreigners living in Shanghai can be a firm evidence of the city's opening up and its mingling with the world. But for day-to-day society, foreigners remain far from being flawlessly assimilated with their native neighbours.

The toughness of the task is being put to the test in one multinational housing compound, where a particularly community-minded foreigner, or laowai, has been welcomed onto a management committee to help unite residents of different nationalities and bridge some social gaps.

Brazilian-American Rosangela Christine Muller began volunteering last month as a "promoter of cultural progress" in Yanlord Gardens, an upscale neighbourhood in Shanghai's financial heartland of Lujiazui. Sixty percent of Yanlord's 1,200 home-owners or tenants are not Chinese.

The role involves helping organize culture-based recreations for residents, both Chinese and foreigners, and Tuesday will be a big test of how much progress needs to be made in this regard.

Muller's first assignment was to mobilize residents to participate in Yanlord's activities for the Double Ninth Festival(the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar), an important occasion to show respect to seniors. The festival falls on October 23 this year.

But she is not optimistic about her chances of success.

The 41-year-old says the calligraphy-writing on offer for the occasion has little chance of drawing non-Chinese, particularly young ones. "The committee tried to attract foreigners to this old people's festival, but they are not going to come," she warns. "They are younger. I told them to make something for kids because families will bring their little ones."

"I have found the job rather tricky so far. Foreigners think in one way and Chinese think in another."

But Muller seems like a good candidate to strengthen Chinese-foreigner relations in her community in the longer term.

After moving to Shanghai last year with her husband, the housewife gained acclaim for helping stop a conflict involving a resident's pet. A foreigner's dog barked at a Chinese resident, with the incident eventually escalating into a brawl due to the language barrier.

"Rosangela, who can speak a little Chinese, managed to calm it down," remembers Zhang Wenxia, Yanlord's committee head. "That's how we saw we had to get her involved in some way."

"I realized we cannot follow the beaten path to apply old management methods. We have many foreign neighbours, so we should change our service mentality."

Muller needed little persuading. Since arriving, she had been struck by how unassimilated Chinese and non-Chinese were. Although global business rules have formalized strong international relationships in Shanghai, the same can not be said for day-to-day society.