BUILDING COMMUNITIES where neighbors care, sh
Confucius was once critical of a celebrity in “The Analects.” “Who says of Weisheng Gao that he is straightforward? One begged some vinegar of him, and he begged it of a neighbor and passed it on.”
The straightforward approach, as Confucius implies, is to say no.
Now, this Weisheng was a man of his word. He was having a tryst with his girlfriend at a rendezvous under a bridge. The girl failed to turn up on time, and he refused to leave the place, despite the rising tide, and was later found drowned, his arms still holding fast to a column. This gave rise to the idiom baozhuxin, or “column clasping faith.”
But that Weisheng could borrow vinegar from his neighbor does imply something about traditional social fabric: Neighbors could drop in, borrow things, exchange gossip, hence the traditional wisdom that neighbors are dearer than distant relatives.
Decades of radical urban relocations — and dislocations — have led to a new living paradigm centered on privacy and, in this process, we seem to be shifting from a dynamic neighborhood to a more insulating notion where a neighborhood means little more than physical adjacency.
While the development was at first perceived as progressive, more and more residents are looking back nostalgically, particularly during the months-long lockdown in Shanghai earlier this year, when neighborly solicitude went a long way toward tiding over the difficult times.
In some communities, different stakeholders are coming together, collaborating on issues of communal concerns, with a view to building a spirited neighborhood where residents interact spontaneously.
In this aspect, some grassroots neighborhood offices are playing an exemplary role in creating incentives to spark communal connection.
A case in point is the Dongming Road Subdistrict in Sanlin of the Pudong New Area, an extensive community relocated from downtown Puxi in the mid-1990s during the first wave of the “great development” of Shanghai.
Typifying the dislocations that have taken place during the city’s rapid transformation, the extensive community was chosen as a pilot area where all stakeholders joined hands to turn isolated, atomized households into an organic whole.
Liu Jing talked about the Dongming Experiment in a recent interview.
Liu is director of Clover Nature School, a social organization set up by professor Liu Yuelai from Tongji University and dedicated to building gardens in underutilized community spaces.
Liu Jing was from Hubei Province and graduated from Fudan University. She joined in the community work two years ago after a twoyear stint with Alibaba. She is also founder of MCamp, an educational facility for children.
“We came to Dongming Road communities at the beginning of this year and began to handle major projects in March,” Liu said. “We have already latched on to every department under the subdistrict office, winning numerous awards for our projects, and are enjoying rave reviews for the ongoing Dongming Road Community Garden Fair.”
The fair, held from November 1 to December 1, includes parent-children activities, art displays and performances, narrative programs on communal history, and flea markets — activities designed to rekindle residents’ interest in their own neighborhoods.
“The Clover from Tongji provides us with some theoretical guidance in general terms, which are not difficult to put into practice. The most difficult part is building mutual trust between people, particularly on how to entice them out of their dens and participate in the activities,” Liu said.
It can be tough for these activities that entail donation of time and some physical exertion.
And the key to overcoming the residents’ inertia is the exemplary role played by Liu’s team as organizers.
“Our strength lies in our readiness to participate, especially at the beginning, and once it gets going, we will switch to a hands-off approach,” she said.
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The interview was at this juncture joined by Zhu Yueyue, the appointed interviewee, who had been called out to another community where she had to take measurements of a parking lot for non-motor vehicles slated to be converted into a comfy civilian space where residents could sit down for a cup of tea and chat.
Also a Fudan graduate, Zhu is a resident of Sanlin Yuan in the Dongming Road Subdistrict.
Zhu is also chairman of the Jumingxin, a newly minted social organization spun off from the Clover project that will take roots in the 38 communities in the Dongming Road neighborhood. “It will operate independently, not necessarily be beholden to me,” Liu said.
Zhu said that while Sanlin is a more wellknown place name, Dongming is lesser-known, “sandwiched in the Sanlin Township like a yolk.” When residents were scheduled to relocate to Sanlin Township decades ago, given their metropolitan origins, many expressed their distaste for the rustic associations of the area being known as a zhen, or township. The Dongming Road Subdistrict was created and accepted, for jiedao (subdistrict) sounds distinctly urban.
Although Zhu was effusive about the fair she helped organize, her narrative of it has a personal touch.
When she took her family around the flea market at the weekend fair, her son’s eyes were glued to a pair of leather shoes which were larger than his size. The little boy keeping the stall kept asking them to buy the shoes, and after the fourth time, Zhu succumbed, paying 35 yuan (US$4.90) for the shoes, as well as a stool and some other items, to the glee of both kids.
“Such an activity, an attempt at recreating the former neighborhood ambience, seeks to reconnect residents through exchange of daily goods. It might also lead to reflections on the consumerist society where people buy everything, with some brands particularly prized,” Zhu said. The fair gives used items a new lease on life.
There are pay-offs in other aspects.
During the rehearsal of the performance for the fair, Zhu noticed that a little girl had been watching the performance with great concentration. After negotiating with the child director, an extra role was created especially for the girl, and she acquitted herself with great success.
Although the fair got rave reviews from all parties, Zhu confessed hosting an event like this could be a fraught experience.
If too few turn up, it would be embarrassing for visiting dignitaries.
If too many show, there would be challenges in maintaining control.
Occasionally some residents complained that such activities should not take place in the time of the pandemic, though most are jubilant, saying that this is something unseen for the past two years.
They are fortunate in enjoying staunch support from subdistrict officials.
When their experience is summarized theoretically by their Tongji partner, such practice promises to be emulated in the rest of the city or country, contributing further to building neighborhood vibrancy by leveraging all stakeholders.