In Luzhou District, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, ethnic unity work has a specific physical location: rooms open to residents.
These houses have a common name - "Pomegranate" service station. Some are located in community complexes, with 90% of the space open to residents free of charge; some extend into courtyards and alleys, with umbrellas and maintenance tools placed at the door; some simply go next to the melon and fruit market to set up communication channels for mobile merchants...
A reception room: 90% of the space is open for free
The Southwest City community is a multi-ethnic community. Walking into the "Red Pomegranate" service station, the resident chorus is rehearsing in the hall, and the smell of lunch comes from the love canteen. "We come here every week, and the station helps us print music scores, and it's convenient to drink water. If we don't have time to go home, we can still eat affordable meals here. Everyone gets together, has something to rely on and enjoys, just like being in a big family." said resident Zhang Ouhua.
The service station is built based on the Liufu Neighborhood Service Complex and integrates elderly care, community meal assistance, housekeeping convenience, culture and leisure and other functions. 90% of the space is open to the public free of charge. The "Red Pomegranate Parlor", which is the focus of the station, has established a multi-faceted mediation team, implemented a five-step mediation work method, regularly organized residents to discuss community affairs, and resolved neighborhood conflicts. The calligraphy and painting space organized intangible cultural heritage experiences and cultural exchanges, and the national culture display section promoted policies and regulations online and offline.
"Building a service station is to provide a place for everyone's activities, to respond to their demands, and to help people with difficulties. People of all ethnic groups come and go frequently, and they truly transform from simply living together to becoming one." said Ding Xiaoxia, deputy director of the Southwest City Community Neighborhood Committee.
The community has also set up a "five-party consultation" platform with the participation of the community, property management, property owners committees, resident representatives, and functional departments. Matters such as the installation of street lights and drainage improvements in bungalow areas were implemented during the consultations.
Every Wednesday, retired lawyer Cheng Sanfan is on duty in the mediation room on a voluntary basis. Residents call him "Uncle Sanfan," and he explains the laws clearly in terms of real estate disputes and water leaks in buildings that ordinary people can understand. Under his leadership, more and more residents have joined the volunteer service team.
Relying on the red pomegranate service position of Southwest City Community, the community carried out the "Bookworm Battle·National Reading Movement" reading activity.
Convenient services: from courtyards and streets to merchants
Wayaogou Community has a relatively high proportion of ethnic minority people and limited exchanges in the past. This year, the community takes Jianhua North Community as the key demonstration area. Relying on the courtyard party branch, the community extends its position to courtyard streets and alleys. It is equipped with emergency supplies, convenient umbrellas, maintenance tools and charging equipment. Free drinking water, mobile phone charging, and tool borrowing are all open to residents. Inside the house, residents were making origami and paper-cutting together, and it was a lively scene. “It used to be inconvenient to find a place to gather, but now we can come here at any time, and the relationship between neighbors is getting closer and closer,” said resident Ma Xiaomen.
The melon and fruit market in the jurisdiction has a large concentration of merchants and a large floating population. The community has taken policy publicity and visits to the front line of the market to establish communication channels for merchants. Liu Peng, deputy director of the Wayaogou Community Neighborhood Committee, said that the next step is to build a "Red Pomegranate Conference Hall" to resolve ethnic-related affairs as far down the grid as possible, find out the information of ethnic minority residents and merchants in the jurisdiction, establish a dynamic ledger, and implement migrant population service management.
Harmonica Team: Neighborhood in the Rehearsal Room
Space and services solve the problem of "getting in" and "retaining", while cultural interaction points to "deep integration". The Southwest City community has deeply explored local resources such as Liufu Pagoda and Tianwan Market, and made intangible cultural heritage experiences, neighborhood markets, and ethnic friendships the norm. Harmonica enthusiasts among the residents formed a harmonica team and rehearsed together every week. "My Motherland and Me" and "Good News from Beijing to the Border Village" were frequently performed. They performed on the stage during festivals and festivals, and those sitting in the audience were neighbors who usually ate in the cafeteria and discussed in the mediation room. Literature and art here are not embellishments, they allow people from different backgrounds to sit together first, and the interaction itself is happening.
These routines rely on a long-term mechanism. Southwest City Community innovatively implements the four-dimensional working model of "gathering neighbors with hearts, integrating knowledge with neighbors, integrating culture to educate neighbors, and integrating with neighbors to benefit neighbors", integrating ethnic unity into every aspect of grassroots governance, and has successively won honors such as "Shanxi Provincial Model Group for Ethnic Unity and Progress" and "Provincial Complete Community Construction Pilot".
Luzhou District is based on the actual situation of multi-ethnic groups living in scattered areas, and in accordance with the requirements of "one site, one feature, one district, multiple demonstrations", it has created a "Lushui Chang·Pomegranate Red" service position in the entire district. Up to now, many service stations have been built in Southwest City Community, Wayaogou Community and scattered residential areas in North China, to carry out publicity, cultural integration, convenient services and conflict mediation on a regular basis.
From "Five-Party Consultation" to "Love Canteen", from "Voluntary Legal Consultation" to "Harmonica Team Rehearsal", Southwest City Community uses practical things and services time and time again to allow the people to enhance understanding while living and studying together, and to deepen their feelings while working together and having fun together.
Recently, the United Front Work Department of the Changzhi Municipal Party Committee has implemented the "Four Major Actions for Long-term Governance with One Heart" to implement the awareness of the Chinese nation's community at the end of grassroots governance. Southwest City Community is a vivid example of this. As Li Suming, director of the community committee, said: "National unity is not a slogan hanging on the wall, but is integrated into every day's firewood, rice, oil and salt, and into every help between neighbors."
