There are more Chinese students at Dalhousie than students from any country other than Canada: more than 1,200 of them, in fact.
Moyang Zou, a second-year master’s student in Mechanical Engineering, is one of them. And she’s helping other Chinese students and adults in Halifax as one of the two individuals running chinesehalifax.com.
The website is a portal for Chinese people living in Halifax that seeks to connect them with each other and the broader Halifax community.
“For Chinese community, the website is like a bridge between local people and Chinese students and immigrants,” says Moyang.
Founded in 2012 by Moyang’s boyfriend and two friends, the website had stagnated after a year when the two friends moved away. Taking over the site, Moyang began recruiting volunteers for everything from editorials to event organization.
“I recruited volunteers for the editorial department and a department to organize activities, like the information session and other events to benefit students and new immigrants," she says. "And now we’re also planning to put together Chinese radio.”
The website is staffed entirely by volunteers and co-op students. Some of the news articles are translations from local news sources, while others are written separately, but they all seek to deliver local news to the Chinese population of Halifax. There are also approximately 2,000 users of its comprehensive mobile app launched last August.
The website also features guidance for newcomers to Halifax with information about insurance, Nova Scotia IDs and language schools. There is a section that functions like Kijiji with housing and subletting listings, yellow pages and classified ads. These features allow for an easier transition into the Halifax community and a sense of community with other Chinese people in the city.
As the primary Chinese language website in Halifax, chinesehalifax.com has caught the eye of a few corporations looking to learn more about the city’s Chinese population. Last year, for example, Toronto-based Meritigroup — a financial services group — contacted Moyang when it was exploring setting up a Halifax branch. Now, having opened offices in Halifax, the company employs Moyang’s partner.
Among the site’s other community contributions: connecting Nova Scotian seafood companies with Chinese vendors, setting up workshops for Chinese language speakers in Halifax looking to start businesses, and launching a shuttle bus from Acadia to Halifax once a week for students there who are in need of newcomer services in the city.
Moyang is excited about what the future might hold for the site.
“My purpose is to serve the Chinese community here and all the newcomers that will land in Halifax,” she says.