Shanghai expat essays published

A collection of essays written by foreigners living in Shanghai was published on Sunday. The essays were the best entries in this year's Shanghai Get-Together Writing Contest. ICS reporter Wu Yina spoke to one of the writers about his connection to the city.

30-year-old Serbian Marko Ljubicic has been living in Shanghai for five years. He says he enjoys talking to the elderly women in his neighborhood.

Ljubicic said, "In comparison with our countries, western countries, they are much more active. I don't think that they are lonely, I don't really feel that, especially those that I communicate with, they are always very cheerful, they always like to exchange their jokes with me. I'm trying myself to make their lives a little bit more interesting."

Shanghai resident Xu Aili said, "He feels close to me. He speaks very fluent Chinese."

Ljubicic now teaches business management at Donghua University. He says he tries to impress more Chinese youngsters to work with him together.

Ljubicic said, "One of those good aspects of Chinese culture is care for the elderly, one of the Confucian values. I can see sometimes some of them forget those, and I'm trying to tell them they should try to be as much Chinese as they are."

Ljubicic is one of about 60 writers whose work appears in the book. Many of them speak Chinese and study Chinese philosophy, including one Egyptian who is a big fan of the works of one ancient concept.

Egyptian writer Yara Mohamed Sayed Ismaiel said, "Tianxiaweigong means the world belongs to all, it's quite like western democracy. That's why Chinese culture attracts me a lot."

Israeli writer Roy Barnea said, "I think it's an interesting language, it has a lot of history. There is a lot of different material to read, a lot of different subjects."

About 230 foreigners from 50 countries took part in the contest, which is a part of the "Window of Shanghai" campaign.

Wu Jianzhong, director of Shanghai Library, said, "We printed all the awarded essays into a book, and then we will send those books to all branches of "Window of Shanghai". I think many people would like to see those essays and they can feel how these authors feel about Shanghai, about China."

Wu says these books will be sent to about 100 libraries around the world, but there are no plans to sell the book at the moment.