Mid-Autumn Festival belatedly celebrated in Gubei international community

Yang Yang
The celebration at the Gubei international community in Changning District on Sunday had previously been postponed because of Typhoon Bebinca.
Yang Yang

A grassland celebration to promote community inclusion, belatedly celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, and express wishes for a productive harvest was held at the Gubei international community in Changning District on Sunday. The event had been postponed because of Typhoon Bebinca.

With its first rows of residential buildings constructed in 1986, the Gubei international community is the earliest and longest extant international community in Shanghai to cater especially to the accommodation needs of expats; overseas Chinese; and compatriots from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan who work in such places as the Hongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone in the region.

Sunday's event drew visitors to about 16 booths featuring sci-tech games and gadgets, and Chinese intangible cultural heritage items, such as magnetic fluid boxes, Tesla coils, traditional Chinese fans with fragrance, and sachets with embroidered rabbit patterns.

Dance and instrument performances by senior dancers and artists followed.

During the ceremony, cooperations were signed to honor achievements that a public-welfare dance space in the Gubei Better Life Service Station made in the past five years, where free lectures and dance classes were provided for both Chinese and international residents.

"Gubei is a very calm, peaceful and beautiful neighborhood," said Cameron Carson from Canada, who is in the Fudan MIT MBA program in Shanghai. "Certain areas in Shanghai can be very residential and not much other than apartment buildings, and on the opposite end of that you have very busy city streets. But Gubei is a blend of both. I actually would like to live here myself."

"I've been in Shanghai for only a month and never experienced this kind of cultural activity before," said Minjin Borgil, from Mongolia, who graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing with a bachelor's degree and is studying now at East China Normal University's Asia Europe Business School. "I like it that here they have many booths and China's art and culture are so diverse.

"I want both Chinese people and international people to have a space in which they can do activities and make friends together," Borgil added.

Also during the ceremony, a community art corner was unveiled to invite schools, cultural venues, and fine arts associations to decorate windows of Gubei Better Life Service Station.

Mid-Autumn Festival belatedly celebrated in Gubei international community
Ti Gong

Dancers have a final rehearsal.

As its opening show, Hongqiao International School in the neighborhood launched a publication of students' artworks; a review of practices including creating green spaces, saving water, separating waste, and Earth Day education; as well as goals for promoting sustainable community.

Twelth-grader Linda Qin likes fine arts and her brother, 7th-grader Holdy Qin does photography as a hobby, and both were among the student artists who submitted their works.

"The components of my creation include gingko leaves, a symbolic element of both HQIS and Gubei, the rainbow colors and our school," Linda Qin said. "We frequently hold activities on people and nature, and people and pets."

"Our preparation for the art window started in mid-August and lasted for about a month," said Alex Hu, a marketing manager and chief of the Parent Teachers Association from HQIS.

"It's a challenge for students and teachers to present a window display for the entire community. The students' works are mainly about cozy community life. We also include the annual Earth Day activity and the UN sustainable development goals."

The school moved its campus into the Gubei international community in 2015 and both sides mutually support each other.

Mid-Autumn Festival belatedly celebrated in Gubei international community
Ti Gong

Performers at the event


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