Jiading Residents Are Bridging the City Gap

6 life Tuesday 29 May 2018 Metro Line 11, the first cross-provincial subway transit in Shanghai, connects Jiading District’s Anting Town and Huaqiao Town in neighboring Jiangsu Province. So residents living in the two places become closer to each other. Jiading residents are bridging the city gap Tang Ye and Li Xinran Chinese and ting is for kiosk. They held exchange activities regular- tale of Jiading and neighboring ly and started publishing the bimonthly cities is underway. In Anting, “West Bridge and East Kiosk” from last the membership of a choir is year. The magazine is about tales of the open not only to locals, but also A two towns. to people from Huaqiao Town in neigh- Supported by the government, in- boring Jiangsu Province. tellectuals from the two towns hold At the Poly Grand Theater, audiences ex h ibitions, seminars and courses to en- from Shanghai and Jiangsu sit together. rich the cultural life of local residents. Doctors from Jiading frequent towns in Comic book artist Wang Wanchun has neighboring Jiangsu. At the same time, residences in both Anting and Huaq- some patients from Jiangsu also visit iao. Sponsored by the government, an Jiading doctors after having heard of itinerant exhibition of Wang’s works their reputation. was initiated at Huaxi Park in Huaqiao It is show n on the map that Jiading and in March. It arrived at Jiading Cultural several Jiangsu cities, such as Kunshan, Center and Anting Cultural Center this Taicang and Wujiang, are connected month. through waterways. Regional integration The culture department of the two is going on in the area to the benefit of towns are also planning 12 other two- local residents. town exhibitions this year. A pair of couplets on the Yansi Bridge Cultural activities of such kind were at Anting Old Street says “two counties initiated many years ago and hence pro- intersect when people from all around mote communication between people gather in the town,” which depicts the Residents from Jiading’s Anting Town and Jiangsu’s Huaqiao Town display the folk exchange between Jiading and Kun- results of a group activity. — Li Zhuoxiang shan since ancient times. There’s an old Chinese saying “Each place has its own way of supporting its own inhabitants.” from the two towns. leads to a better life for Jiadingers and Jiading and the neighboring cities stay A lecturer from a Huaqiao vocational their neighbors. close and belong to the same culture. school, Li Shifeng took part in an Ant- When performances are held at Poly Liu Ronggen cycles from Huaqiao to ing talent show to perform storytelling Grand Theater in Jiading, half of the Anting almost every day to watch sto- or crosstalk for six consecutive years audience is from neighboring cities and rytelling at the Laojie Shuchang (Old which attracted the attention of Anting towns. Fans from Suzhou flocked to the Street Teahouse). In the audience there storytelling master Huang Zhenliang. theater for the premiere of “The Three are people from Anting as well as folk Li then joined Huang’s team at Huang’s Sisters•Waiting for Godot.” from Huaqiao like Liu. They speak the invitation. Apart from cultural exchanges, Jiading same Wu dialect. There is no geographi- More than half of the cultural activi- shares other resources with neighboring cal barrier between them. ties to be held in Huaqiao this year are by towns. Since the opening of the Eastern After the Laojie Shuchang earned its teams or individuals from Anting. Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in 2015, reputation, people from Anting helped Li Weihua and some 20 other middle- it has expanded the service to the en- their peers in Huaqiao to build their aged women from Huaqiao visit Anting tire Yangtze River Delta area and treated own shuchang (teahouses that avail story every week as they are all members of countless patients from out of Jiading, teling shows) and introduced them to the Anting Choir. People from Huaqiao particularly from northern Jiangsu. storytellers. Since then, Antingers also also play major roles in sports games A shopping mall beside the Metro Line went to Huaqiao to watch storytelling. held in Anting. 11 Anting Station attracts thousands of Meanwhile, the intellectuals of Anting Administrative divisions have visitors every day. Office workers from and Huaqiao jointly established the West The bimonthly magazine, “West Bridge boundaries but there is no boundary Huaqiao enjoy their lunch here while Bridge and East Kiosk Culture Promo- and East Kiosk,” tells tales of Huaqiao line for high quality social resources. shoppers from Jiangsu pick their be- tion Society since qiao means bridge in and Anting towns. — Li Zhuoxiang A pattern of sharing and reciprocity loved items..

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