China News Service, Tianjin, September 26. Title: From "living together" to "hearts together" - Practical Observation of Tianjin's Ethnic Unity and Progress
China News Service reporter Yang Ziyang
In Jiayuan Beili Community, Beichen District, Tianjin, there are five multi-ethnic households living on the first floor of Gate 23. A Hui elder sister lost confidence in life after her husband suddenly passed away. Aunt Wang, who lives on the same floor, insists on coming to her home every day to guide her, chat with her to relax, go out for a walk to buy groceries, and help her get out of her slump day after day. “The small corridors show the true feelings of neighbors, living together and integrating together,” said a community resident.
This is a microcosm of Tianjin’s “Five Integration” project. In recent years, Tianjin has taken the five major projects of "integration of residence, integration of emotions, integration of prosperity, integration of governance, and integration of hearts" as the starting point to systematically promote all-round inter-embedding of all ethnic groups, so that people of all ethnic groups can move from "spatial inter-embedding" to "psychological inter-embedding".
Harmony: When you go out, you are a neighbor, when you go downstairs, you are a friend
Lisheng Community in Dongli District is a multi-ethnic embedded management community created during the relocation in 2020. It currently has more than 400 residents of Hui, Manchu, Zhuang, Korean, Mongolian and other ethnic minorities. According to the secretary of the community party committee, when the community was first established, random lottery and self-selection methods were used to promote people of all ethnic groups to live next to each other. "Everyone is a neighbor when going out, and they are friends when going downstairs. Children grow up in the same community, and the elderly chat in the same yard. This naturally creates conditions for living together, learning together, building together and sharing."
In the Jiayuan Beili Community, the “Unity Pomegranate Garden” and “Good Neighbor Pavilion” have become places for residents’ daily leisure and exchanges. The community has been carrying out National Unity and Progress Publicity Month activities for 16 years, and has carried out more than 40 themed activities throughout the year such as joint exhibitions of intangible cultural heritage, "Red Pomegranate" Games, and "Neighborhood" public welfare markets.
Rongqing: I taught them how to draw a pomegranate. They said the pomegranate is called "Anar"
Jiang Zhiyao, a teacher from the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts’ Xinjiang Education Support Team, went to the No. 3 Primary School in Cele County, Xinjiang in the spring of 2026 to undertake art and calligraphy teaching tasks for 11 classes, covering more than 500 primary school students. The local aesthetic education teachers are weak, and many children are unfamiliar with writing and are afraid to write. She incorporated the evolution of Chinese characters and the story of Uncle Kurban's love for the party and country into the classroom, and led the children to draw blackboard posters with the theme of national unity.
"I taught them how to draw pomegranates, and they told me that pomegranates are called 'Anar' in Xinjiang. At that moment, I felt that we were painting the same pomegranate," Jiang Zhiyao said. After the volunteer teaching, her class representative Reziya came to Tianjin to study, and she was moved to tears when they reunited across 4,000 kilometers. Today, children still send her new paintings and calligraphy works. On Teachers' Day, a classmate specially wrote blessings with a brush and sent them to her.
Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts uses the Social Aesthetic Education Workstation as the hub. Since 2021, a total of 127 teachers and students have gone to Cele County to carry out teaching support in Xinjiang. During the teaching period, a total of more than 11,000 lessons have been taught. The cloud calligraphy education project "Conveying Emotions with Calligraphy and Enriching Culture with Culture" was awarded the 2025 National Pilot Demonstration Project for Youth Exchange Plan of All Ethnicities.
The "Tianjin Mom" marriage and education assistance activity has been carried out for 19 consecutive years. Mother Wang, who visited Chonghua Middle School for the first time in 2006 to visit the Xinjiang class children, recalled that she was deeply touched by the children's reluctance to say goodbye. Her Xinjiang daughter Nadire received a scholarship after entering college and bought her a cervical massager. "Sounding like mom is a responsibility and a lifelong relationship," said Mrs. Wang. Over the past 19 years, this activity has attracted more than 2,600 caring people and invested more than 83 million yuan in assistance.
Since its establishment at the end of 2022, the "Pomegranate Seed Literary Cavalry" organized by the Tianjin Ethnic Culture Palace has gone to Hotan in Xinjiang, Gannan in Gansu, Huangnan in Qinghai and other ethnic areas to carry out stage performances 4 times, cultural tourism flash mobs in scenic spots, offline art teaching, special discussions, and technology introduction to campuses more than a dozen times. "Thousands of miles away is a two-way cultural integration, which not only brings Tianjin's culture and technology over, but also brings back the rich and colorful local ethnic culture." said a cadre of the Tianjin Ethnic Culture Palace.
Rongxing: From “Tushan Village” to “Cultural Village”
Villagers of Longfusi Village, Sungezhuang Manchu Township, Jizhou District said that the village has changed from a "Tushan Village" to a "Cultural Village". After the folk custom exhibition hall was built in 2023, tourists came, the research team came, and the village suddenly came to life. The villagers clean up their houses and open farmyards, sell local specialties, and make eight Manchu bowls, earning about 100,000 yuan a year. “In the past, we were worried that our children would not come back if they went out, but now young people go back to the village to start live broadcasts, stay in B&Bs, and sell mountain products.”
Yiken (Tianjin) Group Co., Ltd. initially invested more than 17 million yuan in establishing an agricultural science and technology demonstration park in Sungezhuang Manchu Township to help local walnuts and other high-quality agricultural products obtain international certification, and later invested an additional 50 million yuan to build ecological cultural tourism projects. Chen Zhonghong, chairman of the company, said: "If you treat people of all ethnic groups as relatives, they will also treat you as one of their own." The company was awarded the "National National Unity and Progress Demonstration Unit."
Integrated governance: escort of the rule of law, more refined governance
The legislative work of Tianjin Municipal Ethnic Unity and Progress Regulations is in progress. The person in charge of the Policy and Regulations Department of the Municipal Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission introduced that the draft regulations focus on benchmarking, combining reality, and being problem-oriented, and incorporate into legislation the policies and measures that are suitable to be solidified in the form of law in practice, such as strengthening the awareness of the Chinese nation community from aspects such as school education, cadre education, social education, and family education.
Lushuiyuan Community in Jinnan District has incorporated ethnic work into the key tasks of the community party branch and established a working mechanism for party members to involve people of all ethnic groups. A community cadre said: "In the past, ethnic work was mostly staged publicity and special tasks, but now it has become normalized, refined, and deeply integrated with community governance."
Rongxin: The community is my home
Sister Ma from Guanyun Zhongli Community in Hedong District has joined the "Pomegranate Seed Volunteer Service Team" since 2023. When I first moved in, the faucet at home broke down, and the community's quick repair team came to repair it for free. "I feel like the community treats me like family." Now she is responsible for caring for the elderly in the community and chatting with the elderly living alone. The community "Tongxin Station" provides free hot water, microwave ovens, umbrellas, charging equipment, etc. to takeaway riders, couriers, and sanitation workers.
The Tianjin Ethnic Minority Student Education Management Service Studio has been established for more than ten years. It has explored and formed the "Five Focuses and Five Inclusions" working mechanism and the "12345" working method. It has carried out summer home visits to ethnic minority areas for 10 consecutive years, and has hosted the Tianjin University College Students' Ethnic Cultural and Creative Design Works Competition for 6 consecutive years. In 2026, more than 10,000 teachers and students participated, and more than 5,000 works were received. The studio was twice awarded the title of "National Model Group for National Unity and Progress".
From community corridors to campus classrooms, from Jizhou villages to Xinjiang Cele, Tianjin's "Five Integration" project is bringing people of all ethnic groups closer together to live together, learn together, build together, share together, and work together to enjoy together. (over)
