Expats make New Year gifts for social workers in Ningbo

Ryan Godlewski, principal of Access International Academy Ningbo, displays his papercut on Jan 21, which will be sent to social workers in Ningbo as a New Year gift. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Ryan Godlewski from the US made papercut works and cards with his colleagues as New Year gifts for social workers in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Jan 21 to thank them for their contributions during the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the city's Beilun district.

Godlewski, principal of Access International Academy Ningbo, has been living in China for four years and will spend the upcoming Spring Festival holiday in Ningbo.

"Chinese people are always friendly and considerate," said Godlewski, "Every Spring Festival, workers in the residential area where we live send us gifts to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.”

But this year, the expat and his colleagues decided to do something for the social workers in the Yulan Residential Area in Beilun district. He said, "they worked day and night for more than 10 days during the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Beilun. That's why we want to send New Year gifts to them, to show our respect.”

Godlewski invited Zhang Qipei, a papercutting artist, to teach them how to make papercuts, a popular Spring Festival decoration in China.

In addition, they made New Year cards for the social workers as well, on which they wrote blessings in both English and Chinese. For Godlewski, writing the Chinese characters was much more challenging than making the papercut itself, but he managed nonetheless.