STORY: South African expat's immersive celebrations of Spring Festival in China's Shenzhen
SHOOTING TIME: Recent footage
DATELINE: Feb. 7, 2025
LENGTH: 00:02:01
LOCATION: SHENZHEN, China
CATEGORY: CULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the South African expat and his family
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SIMON SAYED, South African expat living in Shenzhen
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SIMON SAYED, South African expat living in Shenzhen

STORYLINE:

The Chinese New Year has increasingly become an opportunity for foreigners to experience and admire Chinese culture and tradition.

Simon Sayed, a South African expat living in Shenzhen, China has immersed himself in the festivity of the Chinese New Year with his family.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): SIMON SAYED, South African expat living in Shenzhen
"Hello, everyone. My name is Simon. I'm from South Africa.
This is my family, Mikail, Sofia, Hussein and my wonderful wife Fay.
It's Chinese New Year and this is what we do in our home. We use these decorations and we put it all over the house, on the doors and on the windows. We put it upside down during the Chinese New Year. Why? 'Fu dao le' means the blessings will arrive at our home. So it means we might be very prosperous in the New Year. It's Chinese New Year. What we also do is we take our kids out to experience the local traditional lifestyle, fireworks, light shows, all of those things so that they know what it feels like to enjoy Chinese New Year."

Simon has also praised Shenzhen's welcoming atmosphere and abundant opportunities for foreigners.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SIMON SAYED, South African expat living in Shenzhen
"Well, I've been a teacher for 15 years and I've been teaching in China for 10 years right now. Apart from the lovely weather throughout the year, there's also so many opportunities and I think that's my biggest motivation for still being here. The whole city is created to support families. It encourages families. It's just so easy for us as a family to do things. People are warm, people are welcoming and you know at the end of the day Shenzhen is a migrant city. So we are foreigners here and they are also new to the city. And I think this type of understanding and mutual respect between people is what makes Shenzhen such a wonderful place to be."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Shenzhen, China.
(XHTV)