Xu Cairong, known as Grace by her employers, both vice consuls with the Consulate-General of New Zealand in Shanghai, is joined by them and their baby at Xu’s graduation ceremony at Shanghai Open University yesterday. — Ti Gong
A pioneer program in which home economics is offered as a college major has produced its first batch of graduates.
Shanghai Open University in autumn 2014 enrolled 509 domestic helpers and industry executives to study home economics, or domestic science.
On Saturday, 330 of them had accumulated enough credit hours and they graduated yesterday.
The program was launched by the Shanghai Women’s Federation and Shanghai Open University. Courses include psychology, nutriology and housekeeping.
At yesterday’s graduation ceremony, some of the graduates showcased what they had learnt. Their displays included pastry, steaks and flower arrangements.
Xu Cairong, known as Grace by her employers, is one of 30 students awarded outstanding graduate status.
The 41-year-old, from Jiangsu Province, came to Shanghai in 2005 and has been serving foreign families since 2010. Now she works for Tom Firth and his wife Katie, both vice consuls with the Consulate-General of New Zealand in Shanghai.
“Grace has worked for us since we came to Shanghai June last year, with our daughter Anna, now 15 months old. One of our friends introduced her to us, and she has done a really good job,” said Tom Firth.
“She often brings Anna some Mandarin books and sometimes she speaks Mandarin with Anna. That’s a way of teaching,” he added.
Xu said she used her time on Metro trains to learn English, and she is happy to play the role of cultural ambassador.
“The Firth family love jiaozi, Chinese dumplings. And the first Chinese word they learnt from me was also jiaozi,” she said.
Katie Firth said Xu had helped to make their lives in Shanghai much easier. After learning flower arrangement from the courses, she applied her knowledge to provide flower arrangements at the family’s parties.
Shanghai Open university said that so far, more than 1,550 students had joined the program.
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