Reviving residentscommitteesTO urbanites on Chinas mainland, residents committees are the closest basic social unit to families and their danwei, or work unit ? traditionally a tightly knit community.The first residents committee in the PRC was established in Hangzhous Shangcheng District, Zhejiang Province, on October 23, 1949. Residents committees have since played a vital role in providing grassroots social services and management guidance in Chinese cities.The Organizational Regulations for Urban Subdistrict Offices and The Organizational Regulations for Urban ResidentsCommittees, promulgated in 1954, established the framework for the urban grassroots management system. The systems organizational structure is centered on subdistrict offices and residents committees. Subdistrict offices function as representative offices of district governments while residents commit- tees operate as residents self-governing organizations. Today, 85,000 residence communities all around the country are guided by committed residents committees, which boast an active membership base of 431,000 people.China has witnessed rapid social development since the adoption of its reform and opening-up policy. At the same time, people have experienced dramatic changes in their living environment. They have moved from crowded quadrangles to multi-storied towers, and from government allocated housing to private apartments. Some have even moved into mansions.These changes have made residents committees less influential in peoples daily lives. Todays younger generations are perhaps more familiar with property owners committees. Those born in the 1980s and 1990s are not used to the idea that residents committees can play a prominent role in locals lives and help in solving all kinds of community problems.How does the current state of residents committees appear, and what is the nature of their relationship with community residents nowadays? To find answers to these questions, China Today visited the residents committee in the Xinfengjie No. 1 Residence Community in Beijings Xicheng District.Committee Workers Are MultitaskersThe signboard above the Xinfengjie No.1 Community Work Station lists the names of the community committees 17 suborganizations. Employment services and social security, cultural and sporting activities and services for senior citizens are all represented. The work station is actually a three-bedroom apartment, in which its dozen staff members are extremely busy: their desks are overflowing with paperwork, cabinets are chock-a-block and an uninterrupted flow of visitors stream in throughout the day.The day China Today visited was a particularly busy one for the station ? community committee reelections were to be held the following day. Cao Mingjun, the committee chief, says that like community committees the nation over, the one in Xinfengjie No. 1 is composed of elected members and contracted social workers. Her lieutenant is Li Ying, a diminutive bespectacled lady with slight Northeastern accent, who applied for the position in 2007 and was taken on after sitting an examination and passing an interview.The Xinfengjie No.1 Residence Community was created in the later half of 2002. Three years later its first community committee was elected. As more people moved into the area, a reelection was held in 2009. Now more than 5,600 residents from over 2,400 households live in the area, more than half of whom are aged between 25 and 50.As most of Xinfengjie No. 1 residents are of working age and like to enjoy their leisure time, the committee focuses its work on cultural and sporting programs and services for the elderly and children. It has established a culture and arts association, a choir, a dance troupe, a poetry club and a fitness team. In summer and Spring Festival it encourages residents to put on various performances. It also provides a daycare service for schoolchildren during winter and summer breaks. Over the past eight years, the committee has won 20 awards at the municipal and district level for its outstanding services.Broad InvolvementMany elected members of the Xinfengjie No. 1 committee are retired inhabitants who have the time and connections to best serve their fellow residents. Liang Zizhen, 72, is one of them. She lives in the residence communitys No. 8 building. The spotless white walls of the buildings stair well are lavishly adorned with calligraphy, paintings and papercuts ? wall art donated or created exclusively by tenants. At Mrs. Liangs behest, apartment owners in her building have on a number of occasions raised funds to refurbish the walls, with beautiful results. Liangs activism in the community embodies the good that committees can do. She has used her experience and wisdom to weigh in on discussions of local issues and has also made generous donations to support local events ? she once gave RMB 2,000 to the community troupe to keep it