Wucheng: How to Serve Int’l Community
发布日期:2021-04-14 浏览次数:

“Hi, my friend is coming tomorrow to visit and may stay over. Do we need to register?”

“Hi, my phone was broken by that guy, but he doesn’t want to pay. Could you help?”

Now, international residents of Qinjian Community in the subdistrict of Xinshi, Wucheng District, can go to the International Community Service office to seek assistance when situations such as these arise. This service platform has solved many issues for international students.

The service provides a convenient one-stop location for learning the local customs, adapting to new life in China, and resolving any questions regarding observation of rules and laws. This is one of the creative measures the local government has applied to improve community management.

The community is just one street east to the Zhejiang Normal University campus. At present, some hundreds of international students live here. Due to the pandemic, students living off campus are restricted from access to campus. They take their classes online from their rented spaces. The large proportion of international students who speak different languages and lead different lifestyles presents many new challenges to traditional community management.

To solve the unique problems and conflicts, joint efforts and good communication have been required from the local police, the district, the community, ZNU, the landlords, and volunteers. They are working hard to normalize and digitalize the management of the international community.

In October 2020, they cut the community into four sections, or grids, and designated four international students to be leaders of each. The grid leader provides individual assistance for international students living in their grid.

“I speak English, French, Chinese and two other languages. So I could communicate with many fellows using their mother tongues. That makes things a lot easier. I post notices and rules in our WeChat group, and fellows learn through them. Now, we internationals and locals get along well. People love it here.” One of the grid leaders, from Congo Republic, shares his experience. He has been learning Chinese in China since 2019. Now he is a freshman at ZNU. Meanwhile, he is also a volunteer for assistance with translation, housing, and tackling other issues faced by international students. Although the course work is not very easy, he finds helping others very meaningful and loves his various roles.

So far in 2021, no major issues have escalated in the community. This innovative measure for community management is so effective that it may get implemented in the whole city. (Text and photo by Hu Ruizhe, translated by Lin Yuqin, edited by Mariam Ayad)

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