Shanghai International District and Our Tradition for Young Single Adult Events at District Conference
by Jeff Lindsay
For
those who work with Young Single Adults (YSAs), I thought I'd share
some of the experiences we've had in the Shanghai International
District. Some things that worked for us might be helpful to others
in the future, especially in places with scattered single adults over
a large geographical area.
Shortly
after my wife and I moved to China, my wife and I were asked to serve
as co-chairs of the District's Single Adult Committee, one my duties
in the District Council. (Best calling ever! Love these enthusiastic
young people, and a calling where husband and wife get to work and
travel together is a dream calling indeed — for those of us who
enjoy being married.)
Our
district has waves of YSAs come in twice a year, with roughly 100 or
so LDS YSAs at peak times. Most come here for just a few months to
teach English or to study for a semester.
The
biggest groups are in the Nanjing Branch (four-hour drive from
Shanghai, or 90-minute by train), where they are dispersed across
several cities over a large area, and in the Suzhou Branch, also
scattered over several cities like Suzhou and Changzhou.
Changzhou
is one of those tiny Chinese cities you probably never heard of since
it only has five million people, not quite twice the size of Chicago.
Shanghai and Hangzhou also have groups of YSAs.
Our
initial challenge when we were asked to work with the YSAs was to
look for some way to bring YSAs together for our district conference
held twice a year on a Saturday and Sunday.
Previously
the district YSA leaders had tried arranging Saturday service
projects, but meaningful group service projects pose unique
challenges in China and may require complex approvals that have
sometimes been withdrawn at the last minute. We took a slightly
different route.
Recognizing
that many of our YSAs were not making much money and didn't have much
time off, giving up a free weekend and a big chunk of change to come
attend church meetings was not all that big of a draw. We wanted to
make District Conference more appealing and valuable to them.
Since
many of the District's YSAs have not seen much of Shanghai, we
decided to offer group tours of Shanghai for YSAs. We would also
continue the tradition of providing free housing for YSAs coming to
town, with the help of LDS members (foreign members) in Shanghai.
We
quickly found that the idea of organized tours to see Shanghai was
quite appealing. We initially offered a variety of tours that people
could sign up for, and then we would offer the three or so most
popular ones.
Developing
the itineraries and getting support to run the tours was an
exhausting challenge, especially since we were also struggling just
to find, reach, and provide housing for the flood of new people who
had just come to China in time for the Conference. Way too much work.
As
things have evolved, we now have the Shanghai YSA liaisons kindly
running the housing end of things. They take the names of the YSAs as
we get their information and work with them and the Shanghai members
to arrange housing.
As
for the tours, we now offer just two. The first is a "Main
Attractions" tour of Shanghai that hits some of the most famous
and interesting sites (People's Square, nearby People's Park to see
the amazing matchmaking market, East Nanjing Road, Yu Garden and the
adjacent old city (we go into the Ming Dynasty era garden), the Bund,
the Huangpu River ferry, the skyscrapers of Pudong, and Lujiazui.
The
other tour is the Qibao Ancient Water City tour, where we go to see a
beautiful region with a crowded pedestrian street, lots of crazy
shops, unique little museums, and some beautiful views on a canal.
The
Qibao tour is popular with those who are already familiar with the
basics of Shanghai. It's one of my favorite places, but very few
foreigners ever go there. Both tours end by bringing people to our
LDS meeting place (Yongda Center at the corner of Longyang Road and
Fangdian Road in Pudong) in time for our 3:30 PM Saturday afternoon
session of District Conference, where we hope our YSAs will be fed
spiritually.
Speaking
of food, those on the tours buy their own lunch on Saturday. Good
meals are possible for around 30-40 RMB ($5). They can also buy their
own dinner above the Longyang Subway station near our LDS meeting
place for about the same amount.
Since
2011, when we started this, my wife and I with some other volunteers
ran the tours, and we ran ourselves rather weary in doing that. We
found that not a lot of other members knew the heart of the city the
way we do, and it was quite a chore trying to guide the groups and
manage all the logistics.
This
year we made a change to simplify the tours to make it easier to hand
over to someone else: we hired professional tour guides to take
groups of people on the Main Attractions tour.
Four
excellent, English-speaking tour guides took groups of about 15
people each on the route we selected, managing the time well and
providing lots of interesting information about this incredible city
to help participants really enjoy it. We had the guides take groups
as they showed up so we didn't have to wait around for stragglers, as
in the past.
The
last group had the last ones to show up. And since we weren't chasing
everyone down and worrying about where everyone was and where they
were going, we could just relax and really enjoy the tours and our
time with these terrific young people. Much better. More expensive,
but well worth it.
This
was my wife's inspired idea that really made life so much better this
time around.
In
our first couple of years, we had also offered an evening tour that
involved lots of walking and seeing some of the cool evening sites.
But the past several conferences we have instead provided an evening
dance, which has proven to be a lot of fun.
Using
the facilities at the Yongda Center, we've managed to tap iPhones or
computers into the sound system and play dance music. Part of the fun
is that our YSA liaison in Shanghai is a dance enthusiast who is
excellent in teaching some popular dances, and this year one of the
YSA men is a skilled dance instructor who led the group in some fun
line dancing and taught some fun swing moves.
The
dance ends at 9 PM, giving people time to get home and perhaps see a
little of the town on the way. They come back in the morning for the
general session of district conference at 10:00 AM (plus there is
typically but not always a priesthood session at 8:30 AM).
At
noon after the main session ends, we once again rely on the
generosity of our Shanghai area members in 3 branches (Shanghai
Branch, Hongqiao Branch, and the Jinqiao Branch) to provide a warm
meal for the YSAs. My wife organizes the food and works with the
branches to make sure we have a good mix of foods (especially things
that go well on rice, plus desserts, salads, and so on).
We
have some wonderful cooks in this area with a great mix of
international cuisines. Good food, including homemade cookies and
lemon bars that my wife and others prepare for the dance, is part of
the recipe for success.
After
the meal, there is a devotional for the single adults at 1:00 PM. It
last for just an hour, leaving plenty of time for travelers to catch
their train and get home.
We
think the combination of fun tours, a dance, good food, free housing,
and chance to get together with other YSAs adds incentives for people
to make the sacrifice and come to district conference. Some would
come anyway, just knowing that it's district conference, but since
it's so easy to drift into obscurity in this big, complex country far
from familiar friends and support networks, we think the added
incentives are important.
We've
heard from quite a few people that they weren't planning to come
until they learned about the events, the fun, and the free housing.
We've also seen our numbers grow rapidly once we got the system
established.
The
numbers of YSAs in the District are down slightly right now compared
to last year, but the turnout was surprisingly high. We had 83 YSAs
join us for the tours, and 81 YSAs still with us at the devotional on
Sunday. We think nearly 100 came to Shanghai for district conference
(not all went on the tours and not all made it to Sunday meetings).
The
devotionals and the other district conference meetings have generally
been highly uplifting, spiritual, interesting sessions. Our District
President, Stephen R. Dyer, does a great job as a speaker and in
selecting other speakers. These are outstanding meetings.
We
are now looking at working with other districts in China to
coordinate our future events and invite their YSAs to join us and
vice-versa, but our emphasis will definitely be on those in our
district.
In
preparing for district conference, my wife and I go out to Suzhou and
Nanjing right after the arrival of the new wave of YSAs and, with the
support of the branch presidents, start preparing the YSAs with info
about district conference and our YSA events. We collect contact info
to keep them informed, and the branch leaders also send us contact
info and work to invite them all to come participate at district
conference.
We
also sign up those with musical talents for special musical numbers
or to serve as the pianist or chorister in the devotional, and we get
help on the music for the dance. We feel that going out and visiting
the biggest population groups of YSA is important. There is not
enough time to visit every branch between the wave of incoming YSAs
and conference, but we see quite a few and help get the word out.
YSAs
in foreign lands are a unique group of bold, adventuresome, and fun
people. But there are also many who are lonely, frustrated, and
drifting. The support and spiritual feeding that occurs through
attending district conference is important, in my opinion. Now we
need to look at some additional events to better meet their needs.
We
hope some of these ideas might be helpful to others dealing with YSAs
under unusual circumstances, though I'm not quite sure how it might
help. Let me know if you have any questions.
Here
are some photos from our latest event in March:
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.