5 Things: St. Patrick's Day in Shanghai

By Steven Hu, March 10, 2017

A That's series where we ask a Shanghai-based somebody to tell us 5 Things specific to his or her life.

Did you know there's a growing Irish community in Shanghai? We caught up with Una McGrath, president of Le Chéile, the association of Irish community in Shanghai, to talk about the connection between Ireland and China, Irish culture, and of course, St. Patrick's Day.

She is also the organizer of the St. Patrick’s Féile Family Day, which is a celebration of Irish culture in Shanghai. Féile Family Day will be held at the Kerry Center (Jing'an) on Saturday, March 11 beginning at 12pm. St. Patrick himself will be present to banish snakes from Jing'an.

1. I arrived to Shanghai about two and a half years ago from Kilkenny, a town of 24,000 people southeast of Ireland.

It was a bit of a change for us to move to a city of 24 million people! My initial impression [of living in China] was that Mandarin was impossible! I spent the first few months in a daze of not being able to communicate even the most basic information.

2. The Irish community in Shanghai is about 600-700 people.

In essence the numbers are relatively small. However, I think Irish people like to get involved both in their own community and in what’s going on around them. So, I think many people think that there are far more Irish people living here than there actually are! One of my most memorable moments was last year's Bloomsday. I read a passage from Joyce’s Ulysses for the first time to a group of Chinese literature students and academics who were dressed in full Bloomsday regalia.

3. On the connection between Shanghai and Ireland...

The links between Ireland and Shanghai are many and varied. They span culture, commerce, education and community. In Le Chéile, we have members who have come here for work, study, or simply just the adventure of moving to Shanghai and China. Likewise, we are seeing every increasing numbers of Chinese people building strong links to Ireland. There are also special regional links with the city of Cork in the south of Ireland, twinned with Shanghai.

4. St. Patrick's Day is special to our community because

it is a day which celebrates our roots in Ireland to ancient times. It is a day that brings folklore, music, dance, food and the full spectrum of the color green to the fore no matter where you are in the world. We like to do it justice here in Shanghai too with an amazing line up of entertainment for Féile Shanghai which will kick off the festivities.