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Migrant mom, daughter give thanks
By Katey Foley |
November 10, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
EXPATS volunteer in a charity to help children of migrants workers in the You Dao Foundation's Beiyaowan Project. One expat is reminded of the first Thanksgiving story in which Pilgrims and Native Americans helped each other. Katey Foley reports.
The concrete-colored sky mirrors the long, uneven road we walk down to reach a small courtyard about half an hour out of central Shanghai.
We meet a migrant worker surnamed Shi and ask if she will tell us her story. She knits while her young daughter stays close by.
She is originally from Chongqing Municipality and has been in Shanghai for five or six years.
Life was okay in their village, she says, but they wanted more opportunities for their children.
Many of the young and middle-aged people from her village have come to Shanghai. The people in their 50s and 60s stay back.
Her family was separated to facilitate the move to Shanghai - her son is currently in middle school back in Chongqing, where he lives with the grandparents.
The hope is that her son will go to university and eventually come to Shanghai.
Her daughter has recently been granted Shanghai hukou or permanent urban residence status, for which she is thankful since it provides educational, medical and social security benefits.
Her family has a lot to be thankful for - a chance for a better life in Shanghai.
On November 25, Shanghai's American expats will celebrate a quintessentially American holiday: Thanksgiving.
Ask most Americans what Thanksgiving is, you will probably get an answer involving three "fs" - food, football and family.
A huge meal is an absolute prerequisite; many family members take some kind of special dish.
Turkey with stuffing ham are staples, along with vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin pie, mince pie, apple pie and other assorted deserts.
Then there is American football - three big games lined up this year.
The original Thanksgiving story is often lost in amid the excess, but at the heart of it is a tale of new people and new lands, a celebration of good fortune, hard work and the kindness of strangers.
As history tells it, a three-day feast was held between the English Pilgrims, seeking a better life in the New World, and the Native Americans in 1621. The Pilgrims found a beautiful and bountiful land, but one that was unforgiving. The newcomers would not have made it through their first winter without the help of the Native Americans.
They lost nearly half of their people during the first winter, which is why the generous harvest of 1621 was celebrated.
Thanksgiving is celebrated by Americans on the fourth Thursday of November and by Canadians on the second Monday in October.
For Shanghai's American expats, Thanksgiving is a special affair, a foreign celebration missed almost entirely by the local population.
But one such expat, Stephen Schoenberger, says he can see a parallel with China.
Schoenberger, 23, from North Hampton, New Hampshire, has been working in China for eight months in the executive search, or headhunting industry.
For the last seven months he has also volunteered at a charity for migrant workers, the You Dao Foundation's Beiyaowan Project, which is where we met both Schoenberger and Shi who told us her story (at the beginning of this article).
Schoenberger sees similarities between the Thanksgiving story and the stories of Shanghai's migrant workers.
"I think migrant workers are coming in from the outside to a new environment and it is going to be tough," says the young American. "So I think that it does parallel the Thanksgiving story with its idea of accepting and welcoming outsiders and life easier for them."
Schoenberger says he focuses on the children of migrant workers because they are often silent parties.
"They don't have a choice in the matter and their parents are so busy that they are marginalized because they can't go to the regular public schools here.
"They are outsiders and helping them in any way possible is obviously a good thing," he adds.
So while many expats will soon celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many lives and stories unfolding in Shanghai that hark back to the original Thanksgiving story.
Schoenberger says having perspective is important.
"One thing my parents always tried to impress upon us as children at Thanksgiving was that we were really lucky.
"As I child I didn't understand it as much, but as I grew older, as I came to China, as I met other people, I thought 'I am really lucky to sit down and have a great meal for Thanksgiving'," Schoenberger concludes.
The concrete-colored sky mirrors the long, uneven road we walk down to reach a small courtyard about half an hour out of central Shanghai.
We meet a migrant worker surnamed Shi and ask if she will tell us her story. She knits while her young daughter stays close by.
She is originally from Chongqing Municipality and has been in Shanghai for five or six years.
Life was okay in their village, she says, but they wanted more opportunities for their children.
Many of the young and middle-aged people from her village have come to Shanghai. The people in their 50s and 60s stay back.
Her family was separated to facilitate the move to Shanghai - her son is currently in middle school back in Chongqing, where he lives with the grandparents.
The hope is that her son will go to university and eventually come to Shanghai.
Her daughter has recently been granted Shanghai hukou or permanent urban residence status, for which she is thankful since it provides educational, medical and social security benefits.
Her family has a lot to be thankful for - a chance for a better life in Shanghai.
On November 25, Shanghai's American expats will celebrate a quintessentially American holiday: Thanksgiving.
Ask most Americans what Thanksgiving is, you will probably get an answer involving three "fs" - food, football and family.
A huge meal is an absolute prerequisite; many family members take some kind of special dish.
Turkey with stuffing ham are staples, along with vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin pie, mince pie, apple pie and other assorted deserts.
Then there is American football - three big games lined up this year.
The original Thanksgiving story is often lost in amid the excess, but at the heart of it is a tale of new people and new lands, a celebration of good fortune, hard work and the kindness of strangers.
As history tells it, a three-day feast was held between the English Pilgrims, seeking a better life in the New World, and the Native Americans in 1621. The Pilgrims found a beautiful and bountiful land, but one that was unforgiving. The newcomers would not have made it through their first winter without the help of the Native Americans.
They lost nearly half of their people during the first winter, which is why the generous harvest of 1621 was celebrated.
Thanksgiving is celebrated by Americans on the fourth Thursday of November and by Canadians on the second Monday in October.
For Shanghai's American expats, Thanksgiving is a special affair, a foreign celebration missed almost entirely by the local population.
But one such expat, Stephen Schoenberger, says he can see a parallel with China.
Schoenberger, 23, from North Hampton, New Hampshire, has been working in China for eight months in the executive search, or headhunting industry.
For the last seven months he has also volunteered at a charity for migrant workers, the You Dao Foundation's Beiyaowan Project, which is where we met both Schoenberger and Shi who told us her story (at the beginning of this article).
Schoenberger sees similarities between the Thanksgiving story and the stories of Shanghai's migrant workers.
"I think migrant workers are coming in from the outside to a new environment and it is going to be tough," says the young American. "So I think that it does parallel the Thanksgiving story with its idea of accepting and welcoming outsiders and life easier for them."
Schoenberger says he focuses on the children of migrant workers because they are often silent parties.
"They don't have a choice in the matter and their parents are so busy that they are marginalized because they can't go to the regular public schools here.
"They are outsiders and helping them in any way possible is obviously a good thing," he adds.
So while many expats will soon celebrate Thanksgiving, there are many lives and stories unfolding in Shanghai that hark back to the original Thanksgiving story.
Schoenberger says having perspective is important.
"One thing my parents always tried to impress upon us as children at Thanksgiving was that we were really lucky.
"As I child I didn't understand it as much, but as I grew older, as I came to China, as I met other people, I thought 'I am really lucky to sit down and have a great meal for Thanksgiving'," Schoenberger concludes.
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