Combining community participation with hometown culture "Returning Cafe" encourages new immigrants to join the community

[New Residents Global News Network] cooperates with the National Educational Broadcasting Station [Happy United Nations] to report the stories of new residents in Taiwan. In this episode "It's Not So Difficult for New Residents to Participate in Social Construction" (broadcast on National Education Radio on June 27) is co-hosted by Qian-Yu Liu and Qiu-Liu Chen, and specially invited Ren-jie Liu, the founder of “Returning Cafe" , introducing the studio that has been established for five years. In addition to long-term attention to community development and mentoring new residents to promote the stories of hometown culture, it also hopes to use this to create a "new" force in the community that is transnational, cross-border, and cross-cultural.

[New Residents Global News Network] also translated and written this episode into 5 languages including Chinese, English, Vietnamese, Thai and Indonesian, so that more readers and listeners can better understand the life of the new immigrants in a foreign land.

Ren-Jie Liu encourages new immigrants to join the social system. Picture/reproduced from Educational Broadcasting Station

Liu Renjie introduced that most of the members of "Back to the Foot Cafe Studio" have stepped into different fields such as industrial design and urban and rural planning since they were students. Although they have different jobs now, they are all from Xizhi. The desire to do things for their hometown has contributed to the In recent years, new residents have joined this community organization to promote their hometown culture and integrate with Taiwanese society.

"New residents have become an ethnic group that cannot be ignored in Taiwan's society." Renjie- Liu, who has long-term counseled new residents to participate in community building, said that more and more new residents marry and come to Taiwan. They not only integrate into Taiwanese society, but also integrate their own mother country culture. Bringing them into the community; for the land of Taiwan, they have gradually established their identity with their new home from being unfamiliar, and now they have stepped out of the family, showing their self-confidence, and becoming a big promoter of multiculturalism.

The topics of "place creation" and "community planning" are rising in Taiwan. Photo /Reposted from the Facebook page of “Returning Cafe”

In recent years, issues of "local creation" and "community planning" have emerged in various parts of Taiwan. The participants are all professionals from one side, including: social planners, art professionals, and designers. "As long as you live here, you can be a promoter of social construction projects." Therefore, new residents are also encouraged to join the ranks. The host, Qian-Liu Chen, once participated in the power-building project promoted by New Taipei City to promote the traditional music culture of southern Vietnam "talented music”.

Qian-Liu Chen also asked Ren-Jie Liu for advice on how to realize the ideals in the hearts of the new residents, and how to cooperate with the counselors? Ren-Jie Liu said that the pre-work of the social construction project is like telling a story. As long as the new residents adhere to "tell their own stories", the most important thing is to know what to do. This is not just a simple introduction of the hometown, but also a They are exchanging ideas with others; whether it is the promotion of arts and culture or the promotion of social construction, new residents or the new second generation born in "international families" can become the main body of social construction.

The social construction project is a process of connecting people and rediscovering a warm way of life. Photo / Reposted from the Facebook page of “Returning Cafe”

"The social construction project is a process of connecting people and rediscovering a warm way of life." In addition to encouraging new residents to join the social construction, Liu Renjie also hopes that Taiwanese can see these sisters and understand their hometown culture. There are many Many of the new residents have lived in Taiwan for ten or twenty years and are no longer "outsiders". Liu Renjie said: "Institutional building is the work of 'creating people'. People's participation is very important. New residents are part of the community. Of course, they also need to cultivate the ability to participate in public affairs."

Many people may think that the social construction plan is a very small and small-scale urban transformation action, but these changes are most directly reflected in daily life, changing the space and social foundation of common life step by step. Therefore, when new immigrants invest in social construction projects, it will more effectively arouse the attention of community residents. Through this physical platform of space planning, the “two-way" way of communication and feedback will allow more local residents to communicate with this community. A "new" energy works hand in hand.

"It's not that difficult for new immigrants to participate in social construction," said Ren-Jie Liu. Projects starting from the community require a close network of people, gathering people from different backgrounds to participate, and implementing and realizing them. Whether it is "the distance from the new residents' hometown to Taiwan, from the locality to the city, from the community to the society is not far away, only long-term and in-depth investment is needed to find nutrients." This process is a small but powerful life revolution.