久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文

Help at home is maid to order

( China Daily ) Updated: 2013-06-04 07:47:58

Better skills give ayi an edge with expat families, Xie Yu reports in Shanghai.

Xue Qianchun, 35, carefully used a chef's knife to chop bell peppers and onions. After that, she put some ginger into a food processor and reduced the spice to powder.

"Indian cuisine places great emphasis on the use of a lot of seasoning. For example, I use lemon juice instead of vinegar to impart a sour taste to cooked rice," said Xue, as she added oil to a pan and sauteed cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and bay leaves.

Help at home is maid to order

Xue Qianchun, 35, an Anhui native, has worked for many Shanghai-based expats during the past 10 years. [Photo by Bao Erqiang/China Daily]

If this image makes you think that Xue is an Indian chef, you would be wrong. She is actually an ayi, the Chinese word for maid, with long experience working for foreign families in Shanghai.

Xue's colorful story is one of determination, the type that could prove inspirational to anyone from a poor family and lacking a college education.

After 10 years in the service industry, Xue has worked for people from countries such as France, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Italy, Belgium and the United States. Her two part-time jobs bring in a combined income of 7,000 yuan ($1,140) a month, higher than that of many junior office workers in Shanghai.

In 1999, Xue and her husband moved to Shanghai from Anhui province in East China and she became a street cleaner. Her working day began at 6 am and ended 12 hours later. She worked six days a week for a mere 600 yuan per month.

She remembers clearly how things started to change.

"My first foreign client was from the Philippines. At that time I had no idea how to use an electric vacuum cleaner and I only knew a few words of English," she said.

Her most nerve-wracking moment was when she realized she couldn't understand the instructions her boss had given her, so Xue used all her spare time to study English. She took notes and ran through them in her mind when she was riding her bike or at the food market, sometimes even in her dreams.

"Every one laughed at me. They asked me if I was crazy, and if I was going to take the college entrance exam," she said. Working for expats, known in Chinese as laowai, is actually more demanding than working for regular Chinese families, according to Xue.

The basic requirements include cleaning the bathroom and scrubbing floors every day. At least once a week, the ayi does the family laundry and irons bed sheets. Work in the kitchen is challenging, too; maids have to learn about Western seasonings, which often make no sense to them at the beginning. However, since she began working as an ayi, Xue has learned to prepare a variety of Western dishes, including basil pesto, avocado dip, bell-pepper rice, and red-chilli beef.

Huge market

"Twenty-four million people work in China's household service industry and I would say that people like Xue are the rarest of the rare. They belong to a very small premier circle that accounts for just 1 to 2 percent of the total," said Amanda Sheng, 30.

In 2010, Sheng set up an agency, MD Maid Service, to provide domestic service for Shanghai-based expats. In the first year of business, she won 15 contracts, but now, the number has soared to 200.

The most-recent census, conducted by the Shanghai authorities in 2010, showed that there were more than 200,000 expats living in the municipality. Today, the number is expected to have risen greatly.

"The number of expat families in Shanghai is huge, and growing every year. Since we opened in 2005, our company has seen client numbers grow by 20 to 30 percent annually," said Cindy Xu, marketing manager of CC Shanghai, an agency that provides maid services.

The agency also cooperates with the human resources departments of a number of foreign-invested companies to find ayi, the word can be both singular and plural, for newly relocated workers in Shanghai.

Previous Page 1 2 3 Next Page

Most Popular

16 cultural differences between China and the US

2Virginity issue reflected in TV drama

3Female�celebrities featured in�Chinese-style fashion photos

4Top 10 most popular online shopping sites in China

5Top 10 classic kiss scenes in films

6Top 10 Chinese internet companies in 2017

710 savory specialties of Xiamen

8Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy spotted in Paris

Special
...
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 国产区更新 | 一区二区三区在线 | 欧 | a毛片在线看片免费 | 亚洲精品色综合色在线观看 | 国产高清一 | 久久精品国产欧美 | 精品午夜一区二区三区在线观看 | 高清不卡毛片免费观看 | 波多野结衣免费视频观看 | 国产亚洲精品成人一区看片 | 精品久久成人免费第三区 | 中国三级毛片 | 成人国产午夜在线视频 | 久久精品久久精品国产大片 | 特黄女一级毛片 | 美女一级免费毛片 | 成人ab片 | 国产精品久久一区二区三区 | a毛片在线观看 | 久久综合给合久久狠狠狠97色69 | 久久机热综合久久国产 | 日本久久精品视频 | 99re思思| 久久老司机波多野结衣 | 国产精品久久大陆 | 一级做a爱片特黄在线观看 一级做a爱片特黄在线观看免费看 | 国产精品久久久久久久 | 在线精品一区二区三区 | 欧美色xx| 国产乱色在线观看 | 亚洲一区免费在线观看 | 午夜爽爽性刺激一区二区视频 | 精品国产一级毛片 | 亚洲成人在线播放 | 香蕉亚洲精品一区二区 | 色一欲一性一乱一区二区三区 | 一级无毛片 | 中文国产成人精品久久一 | 又黄又免费 | 美女又黄又免费视频 | 午夜三级网站 |