Ben Qi — Civic Engagement

Pants Hemming: Saturdays by the Ironing Board

A weekly neighborhood service — measuring community not by scale, but by the people I came to know

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Short Film: A Few Centimeters Shorter (Pants-Hemming Documentary)

Directed and Edited by Ben Qi

After my grandparents moved from Beijing to Shenzhen, my father wanted my grandmother to meet people in our apartment compound. So every Saturday at four, he set up an ironing board in the property office and hemmed neighbors’ trousers for free.

At first, I helped reluctantly. I thought the whole thing was too small to matter. I could speak to hundreds of students at youth events; my father might spend an afternoon hemming only two or three pairs of trousers. I talked about democracy and social responsibility; he chatted with neighbors about groceries, children, and everyday life.

But after enough Saturdays, the “trivia” stopped feeling trivial. I met a grandmother who had sold her textile factory to accompany her daughter through school, and a live-in housekeeper who spoke candidly about education, work, and marriage back home. I began to understand that my father never let scale determine the value of helping someone.

Gradually, I learned to mark hems, cut fabric, press fusible strips, and keep track of residents’ requests. When my father was called away one weekend, I ran the table myself. A resident picked up his trousers, inspected the hem, and simply said, “Nicely done.”

The ironing board I once dismissed became my entrance into the community. I used to understand “groups” through surveys and political concepts. Now I am also learning to understand a community by remembering concrete people, one by one.

Trousers hemmed through the neighborhood service

Ben helping a resident with pants hemming

Delivery Rider Research - Neighborhood Access Map & Rider Restart Initiative

What began as research into delivery riders’ working conditions gradually became two attempts to respond: a map for immediate needs, and a longer-term initiative for what might come next.

🏆 High Distinction & Global Finalist (Top 8%)

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During my fieldwork with Shenzhen’s delivery riders, I discovered a recurring frustration: reaching a residential complex was often easy, but finding the right building and navigating its maze of internal paths was another story.

To address this, I visited 24 residential complexes across Shenzhen, walking their paths and communicating with property managers to document building locations, entrances, and delivery routes often missing from existing navigation apps. I turned these findings into the Shenzhen Rider Neighborhood Access Map, helping riders navigate unfamiliar complexes and complete deliveries more efficiently. I hope to expand the map to more neighborhoods across the city.

But a map could only answer one question: how can a rider navigate the next delivery? It could not answer a harder one: what comes after delivery work?

Neighborhood Access Map for Delivery Riders, 24 Complexes

Shenzhen Rider Care Map showing 242 rest stations

What began with a navigation challenge became a map, and then a longer-term support project. It taught me that civic engagement does not end when a problem is identified. Sometimes, that is where the harder work begins.

Rider Care project team at the CTB Youth Research and Innovation Forum

China Thinks Big · Most Popular Project (Top 10%)

Rider Restart Project

Online micro-lesson library for rider training — Online micro-lesson library

Rider-station learning corner with books and equipment — Rider-station learning corner

That led to the Riders Restart Project. In December 2025, my classmates and I worked with the Shenzhen Social Welfare Foundation to launch a designated-donation initiative supporting riders’ longer-term career development. The project has three stages: Set Sail, offering micro-courses and learning resources; Voyage Plan, supporting skills training and professional certification; and Friendly Employer, connecting riders with career-transition opportunities. Before designing the first stage, we surveyed 142 riders about their career plans and learning needs. Their top interests—e-bike maintenance, short-video production, and restaurant operations—became the basis of our course design.

The first stage has now completed its initial rollout. We launched 21 free micro-lessons—12 on e-bike maintenance and safety, five on short-video production, and four on restaurant operations—alongside a 15-book learning corner at a rider rest station and an online peer-learning group. Together, these resources have reached more than 100 riders.

One Broken Escalator, One Step Toward Policy Change

A five-year struggle for accessibility taught me how collective action can stall at the boundaries of regulation—and why good intentions alone cannot always produce change.

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Door-to-door resident outreach — Door-to-door outreach

Meeting with community stakeholders — Stakeholder meeting

The escalator that remains unrepaired — On-site investigation

At the main entrance of my uncle’s residential complex, an escalator has stood broken for five years, weeds growing between its metal steps. For younger residents, it was an inconvenience; for elderly residents like my grandparents, it meant climbing 60 stairs or a steep slope just to get home.

Together with my aunt, I drafted a repair petition and knocked on doors, hoping to collect signatures from at least 20% of homeowners to place the issue on the homeowners’ assembly agenda.

At first, younger homeowners who rarely used the escalator refused to share the costs. I began to understand their concerns: why should they pay for something they hardly used? So I reframed our petition around shared property values and the complex’s public image. This helped us reach the 20% threshold and bring the repair before the assembly.

Yet getting an issue onto the agenda was far from getting it resolved. Even strong support among those most dependent on the escalator could not secure its repair. Examining Shenzhen’s property maintenance regulations, I discovered a crucial gap: partially shared facilities could be managed by relevant homeowners alone, but no clear standards defined who those homeowners were. Without practical guidance, the committee could not apply this provision.

I therefore drafted two policy proposals: one to clarify how beneficiaries of shared facilities should be identified, and another to establish administrative mediation for long-unresolved repairs. A district People’s Congress representative discussed my proposals with me, suggested revisions, and plans to submit them for municipal consideration.

The escalator remains broken. But this experience fundamentally changed how I understand public service. I learned that goodwill, persuasion, and collective support are not always enough. Sometimes, meaningful change requires confronting the gaps between how regulations are written and how they work in practice.

The Light on the Podium, and the Questions Beyond It

Speaking to students taught me the power of public expression—and the danger of offering answers before fully understanding the lives behind the questions.

🏆 Most Compassionate Award · 4th Public Welfare Forum for Secondary School Students

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In July 2025, I traveled to Ankang, Shaanxi, with iNeon Youth Talks, a student-led civic education initiative. Across six schools, I spoke to more than 1,200 students about practicing democratic principles on campus and using legitimate channels to speak up for their rights.

The response felt exhilarating. Students handed me postcards after the talks, and local media covered our visit. For a while, I believed we were bringing a kind of “enlightenment” from the city to somewhere farther away. On the ride home, my father listened to my excited retelling and asked one question:

“Don’t you think you may be taking yourselves too seriously?”

His question stayed with me. I began examining the limitations of short-term volunteer work, drawing on my research into left-behind children’s mental health and local governance. I came to see how family separation, unequal access to support, and local institutional conditions could shape children's lives in ways that a few inspirational speeches could hardly address.

I also realized that our visits were often one-directional: we spoke, while local students listened. Even with the best intentions, were we truly engaging in equal dialogue, or simply enjoying the satisfaction of being helpful?

Rather than abandoning these efforts, I began rethinking how we engaged with students. In smaller group discussions, I encouraged them to lead conversations and share their own experiences. Instead of arriving with ready-made answers, I wanted to listen first.

I shared these reflections at the 4th Public Welfare Forum for Secondary School Students, where I received the Most Compassionate Award.

iNeon taught me the power of sharing ideas, but also one of the easiest mistakes in civic work: mistaking good intentions and immediate enthusiasm for lasting impact. Meaningful service begins not with the answers we bring, but with understanding the people and institutions we hope to serve.

iNeon Youth Talks group photo — With students

Ben speaking at an iNeon Youth Talk — On the podium

Student feedback postcards — Feedback postcards

Civic engagement begins with paying attention.