Ayi Shortage

     Recently I discovered that the school library gets a local English language newspaper, the Shenzhen Daily.  I've been stopping in regularly during my lunch break to see what the Daily can tell me about this place where we live.  Among other things, Friday's edition reported on testing for heavy metals in locally-sold Chinese rice and a crackdown on another illegal milk additive to boost the protein content, not melamine this time but a toxic by-product from leather processing.  I read that Shenzhen's 5-year recycling plan calls for the upscale hotels to stop providing disposable bottles of toiletries after 2015.  And I read that there's a shortage of an estimated 150,000 ayis in the city!

     An ayi (pronounced "eye-ee") is a housekeeper, who can also be a child minder.  Many, if not most, expat households have an ayi.  I have friends here from India and Pakistan who are used to having domestic help, so it's only natural that they'd engage help similarly here.  Westerners who probably wouldn't have household help at home are delighted to find that it's very affordable here.   Leah's friends' families all have ayis.  A teacher who has a toddler told me that one of the reasons she and her husband like working here is that they'd never be able to afford their lifestyle if they lived and worked as a teacher couple in the U.S.  By "lifestyle" I think she mostly was referring to having an ayi to nanny their child and to also clean their apartment, do some cooking, take care of the laundry and run errands.  Another factor in hiring an ayi is that there's a little more of certain kinds of tedious work to maintaining a household here.  For one thing, there are a lot more particulates in the air and surfaces get dirty much faster than at home.  Floors, tables and chairs, the balconies, everything seems to collect a fine coat of dust, sometimes in a single afternoon.  So some extra time is needed just to keep ahead of the dust.

     The newspaper article reported that the average starting salary for full-time ayis is now up to 2000 yuan/month, which is about $300, and experienced ayis' average pay is 2300-2500/month.  Ayis who speak English and who have more demanding duties can earn up to 4500/month (close to $700).  Ayis usually work 10-hour days, Monday through Friday, though this can vary.

     Many ayis went home for Chinese New Year.  A number of those who went home chose not to return to Shenzhen after the holiday, which explains a good part of the shortage. These women have been able to find work in their home cities that pays nearly as well, and now they can be with their children.  When young parents migrate to cities like Shenzhen to find work, they usually leave behind their children to be cared for by grandparents or other relatives in their home city.

     A couple weeks ago I had afternoon tea with my Indian and Pakistani friends.  One of the topics of conversation was how stressed they felt having their ayis gone for a week or two over Chinese New Year and how eager they were for their ayis to return to work.  One of them said that since her family was gone to New Zealand for a couple weeks over the Christmas break and her ayi had most of that time off, she felt it was excessive for the ayi to take off another chunk of time.  But she didn't dare tell her ayi that she couldn't take 2 weeks off for Chinese New Year, because my friend knew that the ayi's husband would still insist on going home for the whole 15 days of the new year celebration.  He'd just tell his wife to quit her job and then find a new job after the holiday.
     After hearing these women talk about how inconvenienced they were without their ayis,  I confess to having felt a little smug about not having to deal with that dependence.  For a variety of reasons, Terry and I do not have an ayi. 

     

Friday After 5

I guess I must have had a good week at school.  Even at 5:00 on Friday afternoon, after 5 days full of kids, I wasn't so tired of them that I could ignore some cute ones playing on the sidewalk.   I couldn't resist stopping to watch this threesome.  Each had reached through a hole in this blue metal wall and picked two long stems of grass, one for each hand--they looked like peacock feathers from a distance.  They were chasing around trying to tickle each other, they were dipping the feathery end in a puddle and doing some very satisfying splattering, and the two boys were using them as weapons for a growling kung fu battle.  No translation necessary for their imaginative play!
     This was taken just a few minutes from our apartment complex, along a 2-block stretch that some might call rundown.        But the action here is way more interesting than in the spiffier areas.
    
     That's the only photo for today, so now you'll have to use your imagination.  Right after school today, I met Leah at the shop where she bought her scooter only a couple weeks ago.  She's been plagued by battery charger problems for a few days, and this was her 3rd trip back to the shop in 3 days.  The first day she thought there was something wrong with the charger, so she took  it back and got a replacement.  That didn't work, so the next day she got yet another charger, which did seem to work.  Great, we thought the problem was solved.  But this morning she discovered that someone seemed to have stolen her new charger from the bike/scooter parking area under our building and had left a bum charger in its place.  So today we had get a new charger, this time paying for it because it wasn't the shop's problem.  That's why I showed up:  Leah didn't leave home this morning with enough cash for this.  Now tonight it appeared that this 3rd replacement charger wasn't working, either, but when she wheeled over to the parking area under the next building, it did work.  So we seem to have a power supply problem, as well as a security problem, and possibly a quality control problem, too.  I'm afraid that my enthusiasm for scooter transport is fading.  Give me my low tech bike any day.
     On my way into our apartment building tonight, I saw that the red garland-y Christmas/New Year's tree that's been up in the middle of the plaza since early December was in the last stages of being taken down and packed away.  Yesterday was the 15th day of Chinese New Year, the very last day.  The Lantern Festival is a traditional celebration on the last day.  Karen, the young Chinese teacher who shared a work area at school with me this week, said that the Lantern Festival isn't celebrated very much anymore.  But when she was a young girl growing up in a small city several hours away from here, families would go to a nearby park on the Lantern Festival night.  In the park hanging next to each lantern was a riddle, for example, asking the meaning of a written Chinese character.  If a child answered the riddle correctly, s/he was given the lantern to keep.  There would be food for sale in the park, such as round dumplings with a "smashed" bean filling, as she called it.  The Lantern Festival is always on the night of a full moon, and the roundness of the moon as well as the round shape of dumplings and other foods symbolizes family continuity and togetherness.  Karen also said that the weather in southern China changes around the time of the new year, as spring begins--that's why Chinese New Year is also called Spring Festival.  Sure enough, the weather did change about a week ago.  There's more humidity in the air,  it's been cloudy for a week straight, and we've had several days with light rain, after nearly 4 months of very little precipitation.  I'm remembering that last fall a Chinese person told me that February was her least favorite month because it's so gloomy.  Now I understand.
     I have one last Chinese New Year anecdote.  Tonight about 10 I was walking home by way of the waterfront here on the apartment complex grounds.  Suddenly fireworks began shooting up in the air, exploding away in colorful showers.  I hadn't ever been so close to the actual staging of all these fireworks that we've been watching from  our apartment window for the last few weeks and was curious to see how this all worked.  There were a few dozen ordinary people standing around and a handful who seemed to be managing the display.
     After a couple of minutes, a very agitated Anglo man appeared on the scene, waving his arms, and repeating a couple phrases in Chinese, which I took to mean something like "Chinese New Year is done!"   Then he proceeded to rant in English:  "You need to pack up and leave now!  GO!  Chinese New Year is over!  I'm sick of this noise--this has been going on for 2 weeks and my family can't sleep--I haven't said anything until now, but last night was the end, the LAST night of Chinese New Year, so now I'm telling you that this is it, you are DONE!   You don't live here, but I do!  Go home!  Take this stuff and leave now or I'm going to call the police!"  Then he hurled an obscenity or two.  But it didn't appear that any of the Chinese people standing around understood at all what he was saying.  Which made him even angrier.  He picked up one of the big boxes of unexploded fireworks, walked over to the fence at the water, and threw the whole thing in the bay.  Then he strode back.  "OK, what next?  Do you hear me?  You need to leave!  NOW!"  Everyone was still standing there, absolutely quiet.  They probably thought this guy was deranged:  it's Chinese New Year, after all--fireworks are how Chinese people celebrate--it's traditional--how can a normal person not understand that?
     At this point I walked away.  This was too ugly a scene for me.  If this guy had an apartment right there facing the water, I can see how he'd be tired of the noise, which really is awfully loud.  But this was a ridiculously ineffective way to get what he wanted, not to mention extremely patronizing.  This was not a group of hoodlums and they themselves weren't raucous.  I don't know how he could assume that none of them lived here in these apartments.
     I was glad that, judging from this man's accent, he was most likely not an American.  But still, this little scenario didn't do much to promote international relations between westerners and Chinese.

1.3 Billion in the U.S.

     James Fallows recently blogged about what the U.S. would be like with a population the size of China's.  First, about geographic size:  the U.S. has about the same land area as China, although China has less arable land.  Next, Fallows used strategic planner Thomas Barnett's image:  if you took the population of the entire American Hemisphere--that's Canada, down through the U.S., Mexico, Central America and South America--and also added in the people living in Japan and Nigeria, that would be about 1.3 billion, slightly fewer than China's current population.  Imagine all of these additional people coming to live with us in the U.S. and sharing our space with them.  That's over 4 times as many people as currently live in our country.  Growing enough food for everyone would be a significant challenge.  There would be many more challenges, trying to take care of 1.3 billion people:  providing clean water, decent housing, electricity, transportation and communication systems--not to mention education, jobs, healthcare, and services for the poor and vulnerable, and on and on.  And we think we're stretched now, taking care of a mere 300 million people in the U.S.!
     Barnett's point was that these imagined challenges for the U.S. are what China is currently dealing with.       Although China has come far in the last 30 years, many people here still live in poverty, without basics that we take for granted in the U.S.   Providing for all 1.3 billion Chinese people will be an incredible challenge.  On the other hand, China's huge workforce wields tremendous power and potential.
  

Happy Chinese New Year

Or in Mandarin that's "xin nian kuai le", approximately pronounced "shin knee-an coo-eye luh" with some up and down tones that I'm skipping right over.  I used an online audio tool to practice this greeting, and then went for a walk this afternoon to practice on real Chinese people, which was way more fun!  The first person I met was Chen Lijuan, the concierge in our apartment building, pictured at left.  I am quite fond of her--she's warm, gracious and earnestly helpful.   "Xin nian kuai le," I said, and she rewarded me with a big smile, the same greeting returned, and a little additional help with my pronunciation.  Lijuan told me a few weeks ago that she wasn't going home for the holiday, but would instead stay here and work (earning overtime pay) and celebrate with friends.  She lives in a northern province where it's cold, and it's a long, expensive trip to get there.  Yesterday when Leah and I were walking through the lobby, Lijuan presented  us with a heart-shaped box of gold foil-wrapped chocolates.  We were surprised and touched by her gesture.  I think she wanted to reciprocate because a few days ago I'd given her a red envelope with some money for a New Year's present.  Later, I wondered if I'd forgotten my manners and rudely accepted her gift with only one hand.  It's considered polite to hand something to someone, especially a gift, with both hands, and to receive it with both hands, as well.

The weather was very pleasant today, sunny and in the high 60's this afternoon.  Lijuan told me that good weather on New Year's Day is an auspicious beginning for the year!  I took this photo about 5 p.m. on the grounds of our apartment complex.  Families were strolling on the promenade on Shenzhen Bay; the Hong Kong New Territory mountains are just barely visible across the water.  The family on the lower left was picnicking and playing cards.  The older man in this group who's kneeling is peeling a pomelo, which is like a huge delicious grapefruit, but less juicy and less tangy.

Orange trees are a special New Year's decoration, seen all over in front of business places and found in homes, too.  The trees come in all sizes.  The one in the center of this display is the largest I've seen.  The small clementine-type oranges are edible, as I understand it.  We've wondered why people don't help themselves to the oranges on these trees.  In this case there's a security guard by the gate, seen to the immediate right of the tree, who would doubtless discourage picking these oranges.  This display is in front of the Coastal Rose apartment complex, popular with expats in our neighborhood and similar to The Peninsula where we live.

Many people wear red, a least a touch of it, on New Year's Day since this color is associated with good fortune.  You maybe noticed the red sprinkled around  in the crowd picture above, and these 3 are all wearing at least a bit of red, too. This couple saw me with my camera while I was out walking this afternoon and seemed to assume that I most certainly would want to take a picture of their precious grandchild.  That happens often here when people are out with their young children.  The Chinese people I've observed seem to adore their children.

After I took their picture, I thanked them, "xie xie", and of course said, "xin nian kuai le."  They smiled and wished me the same.

Even the shrubs have dropped red petals along the sidewalk to dress it up for New Year's!  Well, no, actually the red stuff sprinkled on the ground is all fresh debris from fireworks that most likely were set off last night.

Fireworks are a very important part of Chinese New Year.  They're supposed to drive away evil spirits.  I took this photo out on our balcony earlier tonight.   There have been spurts of fireworks going off just a block away down by the lighthouse on the bay from around 7 p.m. until after midnight, both last night on New Year's Eve and tonight.  I generally don't get too excited about fireworks at home, mostly because I guess I find it a little boring to just sit on a blanket, swat mosquitoes and watch the sky for a half-hour show on the 4th of July.  But here we have a fantastic view of the fireworks out our apartment windows.  So I can sit at my desk, which is right in front of a huge window, and enjoy them while I'm working at my computer.  They last for 10-20 seconds, there's a pause for a few minutes, then there's another burst...the evil spirits should be well-dispersed by the end of the night.

She's Got Wheels

Here's Leah with the electric scooter she got a couple days ago.  She took along a couple of experienced friends to help make the purchase, and now she's joined the multitudes of scooter-riders in our city, both Chinese and expats.  Drivers here seem much more used to sharing the road with two-wheeled riders than back home.
     Top speed for this scooter is...well, I'm not sure at the moment, but it's modest.  Leah says it's quite unsatisfactory for some young males, who'd rather have a gas-powered version that can go lots faster.  You don't see many of those around, though, because they're illegal in our city.  That keeps the air a little cleaner.
     Of course a bike would be an even greener choice than an electric scooter.  I find a bike is more than sufficient to get around, although people say when it turns hot and humid again in a few months, I may not think so.  I was all set to buy a bike for Leah this week.  But she wasn't interested.  I suppose the biggest problem with a bike right now is that it's a Mom thing.  And like many 17 year olds, Leah is trying hard to be Not Mom.  How nice that she's normal!
     One advantage of scooters over bikes is that they're more social--lots of opportunity for ride-sharing--so that aspect is a big draw for teenagers.  Last night a bunch of Leah's friends got together for Taco Tuesday at a local restaurant.  (Even here, Uncle Tom!)  3 kids fit on that scooter seat when it was time to go home.
     Scooters are relatively inexpensive here.  We won't be paying any more taxi fare to go to and from school this year, and that savings alone just about covers the cost of the new wheels.
     The school taxi situation had gotten a bit aggravating.  Finding one to come home after school has gotten more and more challenging, but at least in the mornings Leah was supposed to have a regular taxi driver to get to school.  However, the regular driver has changed a number of times, sometimes there were substitute drivers who showed up without warning, a few times no one has shown up, and it was a pain to get them to issue a receipt.  All of this is complicated when they don't speak English and Leah speaks very little Chinese.  Last week I was quite irritated to discover that the substitute driver during the first week in January had kept the fee Leah had prepaid for the entire month.  Our expat liaison had no idea who this mystery driver was, and she was unwilling to make an effort to find out.  So I paid a second time.  It will be a relief that Leah won't have to rely anymore on taxis to go back and forth to school.
  

Health Check

     Last week I had a health check, which is needed for the temporary residence permit we hope to get soon.  Terry has already had this exam (twice--see my last blog), and Leah doesn't have to get one because she's under 18.  Both Terry and I were accompanied to a local hospital for our exams by Amy, a young Chinese woman with excellent English, who is employed by the local company that's managing Terry's current Environmental Defense Fund employment contract.  Amy's sole job is to accompany foreigners for required Public Security Bureau interviews and health checks to get a residence permit.   

     The first step at  Kou An Hospital was to sit in a large waiting room with about 40 other people getting the health check, and fill out a data sheet and a health history.  I waited my turn to present this paperwork with my passport and 3 visa photos, to have yet another photo taken and finally to have a digital fingerprint taken.  After that, we stepped up to the pay window and I handed over 680 RMB (just over $100), which was the slightly higher VIP rate.  This enabled me to step to the front of the lines at the various stations and get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.  Normally VIP-anything kind of bothers me, but I wanted to get out of there ASAP.  Not only have clinics never been my favorite place to hang out, but moving fast was also respectful of Amy's time.  She said she was extremely busy because everybody seemed to want to get things done before the New Year holiday this week.

     For the next 45 minutes Amy shepherded me to various rooms along the hallway off from the waiting room. A nurse in a crisp pink cap and uniform appeared now and again to look at my paperwork and direct us to another room.  I had 4 vials of blood drawn, an ecg, an ultrasound, a chest x-ray, a blood pressure check and even a vision test.  The last stop was at the restroom for a urine sample.   In all, I think I dropped into 6 rooms.  There were a few people in line outside each room.  No doors were closed except for the x-ray and in the restroom, although there was a curtain  drawn halfway across the room for the ecg and ultrasound.  All the hospital personnel seemed skilled and fairly pleasant, and most spoke some English.  The efficient assembly line approach made a lot of sense for this health check process and helped make the cost reasonable.  To have all of these services done at a U.S. clinic would have cost much more.  Only a couple things made me slightly uneasy.  X-ray machines always do.  Also, at home I'm used to having the covering on exam tables and pillows changed and the surfaces disinfected, after each patient leaves the exam room; this didn't happen, although nothing seemed especially unsanitary.  And then there was the squat toilet in the restroom:  familiar, but with unpleasant associations from past travel experiences.  

     To my understanding, the health check is mainly to screen for TB, HIV and mental instability, all of which would make a person's presence in China undesirable.  I'm not sure exactly how they check for mental instability, although maybe the process itself is the test:  waiting around in a rather narrow hallway with dozens of other people for your turn to get poked, prodded and zapped would tend to reveal problematic behaviors.

     I was the only non-Asian person going through the health check that afternoon.  When I asked Amy why all the other people, most of whom looked Chinese, had to go through the check, she said that many of them were probably from Hong Kong and had jobs that required them to sometimes cross the border and work in China--drivers, for example.  That would help explain the vision test.