Eyes up for the Expo ayi

• Source: Global Times
• [13:10 May 31 2010]
• Comments

Ayi Cai with one of her charges. Photos: Du Qiongfang

Ayi-profile

Younger ayis in their 30s, with college degrees, are favorites with household service agencies. Yang Ling, a 35-year-old ayi from Shanghai, is now working for a foreigner who is here on a professional assignment. As this is the first time that he and his family have visited Shanghai, the ayi has the responsibility of planning the weekends for the family. "I like jobs involving management very much. I hope I can be a supervisor for a household service company in future," said Yang.

"Many ayis in our company are Shanghainese. Shanghainese are more in demand," Kong said.

As well as management skills, the ayis have to be good guides as well. Many of these foreign families like shopping in Shanghai as well as visiting the Expo. So the ayis have to extend their roles here too. Shopping, entertainment, which also includes taking the families to popular restaurants, are all the job of the ayi.

Cities around Shanghai, such as Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Taicang and Kunshan, are often included in the travel plans for the foreign visitors. "The ayi working for an Expo-related visiting family is expected to be well-educated with knowledge about the stories and legends surrounding historical sites," Ji Weiping, the manager of Hey Services, another household service agency, told the Global Times.

Cai Xiang is one such ayi who has travelled to Hangzhou and Suzhou with the family she served. The American family she worked for stayed in Shanghai for two weeks for the Expo. When they finished the visit of the Expo Park, they took Cai to the cities near Shanghai with them as a tour guide. "Being an ayi as well as a guide was a good experience. I was lucky to get such a job," said Cai.

Baby-sitting

Agencies providing ayis to foreigners are taking special care with the unusual baby-sitting demands. For the children in these families, the searing heat of the summer months can be very difficult. "Our ayis are trained to pay attention to the amount of water they feed the baby as this can save them a lot of trouble when they visit Expo," said Ji.

Quite of few of the ayis that take care of children for the foreign families were once kindergarten teachers. Wang Liu, a 27-year-old ayi, is now working for an Italian family visiting Shanghai for Expo-related work. As there are two children in this family, taking care of the children while the parents are working or travelling is not an easy task. "I sing songs and tell stories, which I never thought would be needed from an ayi, but here it is a big help in comforting the children," said Wang.

Besides taking care of the children, some ayis have to also look after the elderly and handicapped members of the foreign families.

Income

The big salary is the major incentive for these ayis. Assisting an Expo family is far more rewarding than working in factories, supermarkets or kindergartens. According to Ji Weiping, the average income of the ayi can work out to be about 7,000 yuan per month. Some ayis who can speak fluent English can even earn up to 10,000 yuan ($1,464) per month. "I earn 5,000 yuan now working for this foreign family while I could only earn 1,500 yuan at the supermarket before," Cai told the Global Times.

Some ayis with higher academic degrees earn even more. Zhang Qian who has a college degree and used to work at a kindergarten told the Global Times that she could only earn 3,000 yuan ($439) as a kindergarten teacher.

However, now she earns 7,000 yuan while working with a family that is here for the Expo. "I have decided to develop my career in this field from now on. It is really promising," said Zhang.

Apart from their own swelling salaries, these ayis also get more freedom while managing the daily spending budget of their hosts. According to Lou Peizhen of Yash Professional Family Care, since the ayis need money to manage the whole household, the foreign clients usually give them money every day to buy food, book tickets and purchase household items.

However, not all ayis have the same opinion of foreign families about money issues. Some think the foreigners are quite miserly. "They haven't given me red envelopes on festivals, although that's a tradition in China," said Yang Huiling, who has been working for a Spanish family for the last six months.