This is the 9th of a series of reports on expats sharing their stories with the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Lin Lin

linlinasa@163.com

CAROL QUINN’S connections with China date back to 1963 when she was born in Hong Kong to a British father and a Chinese-Portuguese mother.

Over four decades later, she and her Norwegian husband Trond Eilertsen traveled all the way from Norway to Changsha in China’s Hunan Province for one of the best gifts in their life — a beautiful Chinese baby who has since become their second daughter.

In 2008, the family moved to Shenzhen and has been living here for 12 years. More than 6,000 kilometers away from their home in Norway, Quinn said she never felt isolated as an expat living in the city.

The couple came to Shenzhen to set up their own business. As working parents, they found Shekou in Nanshan District a great place to maintain a balance between work and family life, and decided to settle down there.

“We found Shekou could be the perfect place because we could have our office here. We could have the school here for the children. We could work here. We didn’t have any commuting. So we’ve been really fortunate,” she said.

Now they’re still running the business they set up 12 years ago — an engineering company called Sinodyne. According to Quinn, Sinodyne designs, develops and manufactures touch-screen displays computerized for the industrial sectors for overseas markets, and Shenzhen is a wonderful place for such high-tech businesses.

“Shenzhen is perfectly structured to handle technology businesses. It has all the infrastructure, all the components that you might need in manufacturing, and a huge manufacturing capacity. Also, the specialized kind of manufacturers that can make special solutions can be found very close by. The logistics is specialized to handle this sort of product,” Quinn explained.

When the family arrived in Shenzhen, their two daughters Caisa Quinn and Maylin Quinn were only 6 and 4 years old. Growing up in the city, 18-year-old Caisa, who is taking a year’s break before college, told Shenzhen Daily that she’s very attached to the culture here.

Caisa speaks English, Norwegian and Chinese. She said that speaking the language helps her to know the culture, and she hopes she could use her cultural background to “increase connections between Norway and China.”

“I feel that a lot of problems in the world today are caused because of a lack of understanding or a lack of communication across cultures. I really hope that my background can help me solve problems like that,” said Caisa.

In August this year, Caisa worked with Shenzhen Evening News on a video to promote Shenzhen as a city of fashion, and was later invited to a news program by China Central Television (CCTV), on which she expressed her love for Shenzhen.

Behind the screen, Caisa has directed quite a few videos, as filmmaking is a passion she developed while studying at the QSI International School of Shenzhen and a skill she is applying to more professional work.

At the China Marine Economy Expo 2020 from Thursday to Sunday, Caisa volunteered for the Norwegian Business Association (NBA) to film the event and produce a short documentary for the association.

With a multi-cultural background herself, Quinn is proud of her daughter’s creative skills and her cultural experiences in China. “I hope that everything you’ve learned you will put to good use, and that you’ll be a good ambassador for both Norway and China,” Quinn told Caisa.

Over the years she spent in Shenzhen, Quinn has observed that the city is “undergoing quite an intensive process to become more international.”

“Up through the years, we always appreciate having Shenzhen Daily because it’s an English newspaper. At the beginning, it was the only source of English news for us,” said Quinn, “now Shenzhen is a more bilingual city. We’ve seen more English signage, and a lot more public services available in Chinese and English, which makes it easier for companies doing business here to be able to access information in English,” said Quinn.

In the British woman’s eyes, the Shenzhen government has put in a lot of public services for expats, and she gave the three expat service centers in Nanshan as examples.

“They are offering a number of support services to foreigners that live here. You can get your work permits, apply for work permits there without going all the way to downtown Futian,” said Quinn.

Once a month, Quinn would go to a Chinese movie screening held by the Nanshan International Cultural Exchange and Service Center (NSIC), which is one of the events the center organizes to help expats become more integrated.

She said it’s a wonderful chance to practice her Chinese.

“The first part of my life, one-third of my life was spent in Asia. The second third was spent in Norway. Now the twilight years of my life will probably be spent in China, back in Asia. It really has become home again for us,” said Quinn.