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Volunteer group’s activities keep bored bazaar kids out of mischief
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THE shopping malls and street bazaars around the popular Yuyuan Garden offer a trove of merchandise for tourists, but on weekends, shoppers aren’t the only ones jamming the aisles. There are also hordes of unsupervised children running around, riding escalators and skateboarding.
They are the offspring of merchants, often from out of town, who have to bring their youngsters to work with them on days when there is no school. Busy vendors often don’t keep a close eye on the children, who become bored and get up to mischief.
Shen Qi, a local businessman who sells Japanese groceries at the Yuyuan Garden market, has heard too many complaints from his fellow merchants about tearaway children. So his volunteer youth organization, Wings of Dreams, has stepped in to offer kids diversions while their parents work. Since early November, Saturday activities have been held.
“We’re trying to engage the children with colorful activities and relieve the stress of parents who worry about what they might get up to,” Shen said.
On a recent Saturday, a group of the children was taken to visit the Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum in an area of the Yuyuan Garden few had visited before, and they also got to view a display of traditional Han Chinese clothing. Wang Jianmei, a third-grader whose parents sell jade in the market, said she enjoyed the outing.
“I have something new to write about for my weekly diary for school,” she said. “I spend most weekends in the shopping area, and it’s boring.”
Wings of Dreams mostly deals with primary school-age children, providing activities such as succulent planting, knitting, storytelling and field trips.
Wang Wenjun, a Shanghai Normal University student in primary school education, is a Wings of Dreams volunteer. “The children most of all love learning to make things with their hands,” she said.
Merchants are grateful for the diversions.
“My daughter used to run around and ride escalators with other kids,” said Xie Jianqing, a merchant with a third-grade child. “But now she has somewhere else to go. She even spends more time by my side, knitting stuff that she says is for me.”
Ongoing problem
Wang Juncai, a merchant from Zhejiang Province who has been selling goods in the Yuyuan Garden market for 18 years, said unruly children have long been a problem in the bazaar area.
“Most of us come to Shanghai to seek our fortunes,” he said. “We start from scratch and are often deeply indebted to begin with. The rents here are very high. We have to focus on selling.”
Wang still remembers the day his daughter hurt her jaw while playing in the shopping mall and required stitches. More recently, the little girl was nowhere to be seen when he was preparing to close up for the day. She was later found crying on a nearby street, a corncob in her hand.
Vendors endlessly complain that kids sometimes break things or disrupt merchandise displays.
Wings of Dreams, which started in November, currently handles children from only two of the area’s shopping malls and only on Saturday mornings. Shen said the group hopes to expand in the future, but that will require the recruitment of more volunteers.
“We also need to organize different tiers of activities because different age groups have different interests,” he said.
Each activity costs the local government an average 200 yuan to 300 yuan (US$30-US$45), which covers handicraft materials and other purchased items related to an activity, according to Shen.
Shen’s partners in Wings of Dreams are the Yuyuan Garden Community government and the Huangpu District Youth League Committee.
Fan Haiyun, an official working with the league, said more community and business help will be sought to address problems of children running around in busy market areas.
In the meantime, Wei Ji, a property manager at Fumin Shopping Mall, said notices will be posted reminding merchants that they need to keep an eye on their children. He said the number of store security guards has been increased to make sure that unattended children don’t cause damage or get injured.
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