Houston Community News >> Foreigners Show Zeal for Local Life in Shanghai
5/10/2007 Beijing – With the
international exchanges deepening, more and more foreigners have come to and
live in Shanghai. They have a growing demand for being part of the local life of
Shanghai and experiencing Chinese culture. Many of them have moved from the
luxury residential communities of Shanghai into common communities near their
Chinese friends. They learn from their Chinese neighbors how to cook Chinese
cuisine, how to speak Chinese. They also want to celebrate Chinese festivals as
Chinese do.
“It's been two years since I came here. I used to live in the Gubei District
where many foreigners live. When I became familiar with this city, I started
looking for a department which could help me better enjoy local life, and I
finally found my new house in the Beixinting Community, where a lot of
Shanghainese live,” said Johnson, from Australia, to the reporter.
According to Johnson, “Xiexie” (thank you) are the only Chinese words he could
speak when he first came to China. But now he has improved so much that he can
even shoot the breeze with his Chinese neighbors. What’s more, he plans to learn
Chinese calligraphy with the help of an old man living in the neighborhood.
The reporter has found this phenomenon popular in other communities in the
districts of Changning, Hongkou, Jing’an, etc.. It is the cheap rent, convenient
transportation and especially the dense local culture that have attracted so
many foreigners to choose to live with Chinese as their next-door neighbors.
Some statistics show that over 10, 000 foreigners are now studying or working in
Shanghai. Local Chinese citizens are getting more and more accustomed to having
people of different nationalities as their friends and neighbors. Many
activities are held in the communities to help foreigners better blend in the
local life of Shanghai, such as “foreigners speaking Shanghai dialect’,” Chinese
acquirements competition among foreigners”, etc..
(Contributed by Chinanews)