Frenchman finds strong sense of community in Shanghai
Soufiane Khellaf walks on one of his favorite roads in Shanghai: Wukang Road.
After nearly eight years in China, Frenchman Soufiane Khellaf is still pleasantly surprised by one thing -- that the Chinese people are so welcoming to the French.
For Khellaf, it began during his first visit to China in 2012 as an overseas student.
"When I arrived in China, I was really surprised to see how welcoming the Chinese people were when they knew I was French. I hadn't expected that," he told Shanghai Daily. "I can't figure it out but I think our two countries are very connected for a long time."
His intuition is accurate.
France was the first major Western country to officially establish diplomatic relations with New China, and also the first major Western country to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership and conduct strategic dialogue with New China.
"I feel that every French person living in Shanghai and China is an ambassador of their country, and of its culture. I think the world will be better when we try to understand each other," Khellaf said. "I expect to be here to celebrate the 70 years anniversary, 80 years, and even 100 years."
Soufiane Khellaf, the business development director at Luneurs, enjoys a cup of coffee outside the store on Huashan Road.
Khellaf's reasons for coming to China basically boiled down to wanting a new life experience.
Born and raised in Paris, he naturally thought of China as a country where everything was completely different to that in Europe. When he was offered an opportunity to take part in an overseas exchange program while in business school, he picked Renmin University's branch campus in Suzhou, an adjoining city of Shanghai.
"I really wanted to discover something super different from Europe. As I arrived in China, I fell in love with the country, or to say, the feeling of getting lost," he said.
During the one-semester exchange program, he took the time to travel around China on backpack trips, including Shanghai, Beijing, Guilin, Xi'an, and Inner Mongolia. "Everything is different, the languages, the food, the social codes. I can say it was one of the best experiences of my life."
It was only one semester but for him it was a life-changing experience. After he returned to France, he couldn't help but miss China. When he was offered a work opportunity in China in 2016, he didn't hesitate to fly over. A year later, he moved to Shanghai, and has remained in the city since then.
He said he is obsessed with Shanghai's vibe, a mixture of tradition and modernism, East and West.
"For me, its downtown area is unique in the world. I have traveled a bit, mostly in Asia. But finding this area with its European architecture 10,000 kilometers away from Europe is crazy."
He said the charm lies in its authenticity. People living in the area are locals. Some have lived there for generations.
"It's not something just for tourists. It's real. And there is this kind of natural marriage between these European-style buildings and the local people," he said.
The old downtown communities remind him of France, with both filled with street shops and very pedestrian-friendly.
Soufiane Khellaf and members of the Luneurs Community run at night in the city's streets while picking up trash.
Now he works as the business development director at Luneurs, a popular Parisian-style bakery chain. Seeing the role of a bakery or a café as being to inject vitality to local community, he's been working to get Luneurs more deeply integrated with local communities.
"This is what we have in France. These shops just get the local life active and dynamic," he said of the start of the "Luneurs Community," in which staff, customers, friends, and neighbors get together to take part in a variety of activities, such as outdoor running and food workshops.
"The community has grown organically. People living around here are really involved," he added.
Starting in Shanghai in 2018, the bakery chain has now expanded to Chengdu, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Nanjing.
Shanghai is a good entry point for new businesses, especially for expats, Khellaf said.
"We want to create a bridge between France and China. I think that Shanghai is probably the most appropriate, most relevant entry," he said.
"Even if you speak only English, I think you can be able to start a business in Shanghai. You can easily understand the environment and have tools to help you to build up a business," he explained. "Also, I think people in Shanghai can quickly accept new ideas. They are very curious. Their taste is very good, very mature. So, it's a stimulating market for foreigners."
Though he still speaks little Chinese, he said he has moved to a building where he's the only expat tenant so as to become better integrated to the authentic local life.
"When I go to shops downstairs, I always point out my finger at the shelves and say zhe ge 这个 (this one), na ge 那个 (that one), and duo shao qian 多少钱 (how much)," he said.
"I found that like me, more French people are not limited to downtown areas. Some of my friends have also moved to Pudong and other areas to discover more faces of Shanghai."
