| K.L. Rothey, 71, from the United States, a retired lawyer, a local school teacher and self-appointed rubbish collector
Rothey has given himself the Chinese name of Luqi, or "roadside beggar".
In his eyes, beggars are doing honorable work collecting rubbish. What they do is not dirty, he says. Littering the street is, he adds.
Rothey first visited China in 1984 and soon became interested in Chinese culture. Married to a Chinese calligrapher, he settled down in Huangshi, Hubei province.
A well-recognized face, he often shows up in the streets collecting rubbish.
"Huangshi is my home so I hope it becomes cleaner and more beautiful," Rothey says.
His community work has touched and encouraged many local people. In Huangshi, hundreds of volunteers now work alongside him collecting rubbish and promoting awareness of a clean environment.
He has also organized volunteers to collect rubbish in other cities, including the provincial capital Wuhan.
"Too many people feel environmental protection is none of their business," he says, "Some Chinese houses are very clean, but it could be very dirty a few steps away."
Rothey says he will continue collecting rubbish, as long as he is able to.
"What I collect is not rubbish in the streets; it is the rubbish in people's minds."
Khalid Malik, former United Nations (UN) resident coordinator and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) resident representative in China, and his family: wife Carter Malik, and daughters Sahra and Alia
Born in Pakistan and educated as an economist at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Essex and Punjab, Malik has held a variety of key managerial, technical and policy positions in UN/UNDP both in the field and at headquarters.
During his time in China, he has been to nearly all of the provinces, and made a significant contribution to the nation's sustainable development.
In 2009, Malik was a winner - the only foreign one - of the Awards for 10 Green People of China at the Second China International Forum on Green Development.
Although he is no longer in China, his family has set up home in Shangri-La, Yunnan province, to help local people.
Carter Malik has founded a non-profit, community based organization, the Yunnan Mountain Handicraft Center, to promote projects that support the cultural heritage, handicrafts and eco-tourism of Diqing Tibet autonomous prefecture, Yunnan.
Their daughters Sahra and Alia have established what are known as Shangri-La Farms, a model of socially responsible business, selling honey and coffee.
"Every little thing (action) makes a difference," Khalid Malik says.
Bill Porter, 67, from the United States, a Sinologist, writer and translator
Porter's life has revolved around centers of Buddhist teaching and practice since the early 1970s. He has authored books and articles that give readers in the West as well as in the East, insights into Chinese culture, especially Zen, a special sect of Buddhism that emerged in China in the 7th century, and is based on the ideas of experiential wisdom and meditation.
His China story began in 1972 when he was a graduate student of anthropology at Columbia University. Following a meditation session with a Chinese Buddhist monk he quit school, and was inducted into the Fo Guang Shan monastery in Taipei.
Since then, he has lived with Zen monks and studied their practices.
As he pored over the works of 14th-century hermit poet Ch'ing-hung (Stonehouse), Porter realized he had found his feet as a translator.
He then translated what is probably the largest collection of ancient Chinese and Sanskrit texts on Buddhism into English.
He has also translated and edited highly obscure ancient texts, such as the teachings of Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism in the 6th century BC, and the Diamond Sutra, the oldest known printed book in the world, based on the Mahayana school of Buddhist teaching.
Hua Xinmin, 56, from France, a protector of ancient hutong and siheyuan
Hua Xinmin, a "blue-eyed Beijinger" as she calls herself, is trying hard to protect historical neighborhoods in Beijing - known as hutong (traditional alleys) and siheyuan (courtyard houses) - from being turned into rubble in city-wide demolition projects.
Her grandfather, Hua Nangui, was a famous architect and one of the first-generation Chinese students to study in France.
Her father, who also studied architecture in France, married a French woman. On his return, he became one of the chief architects of Beijing's urban planning after 1949.
Hua was born in Hongxing hutong in Dongcheng district in 1954 and grew up there before her family moved to France in the 1970s. She says the hutong is the only place she has felt comfortable in and cherishes all the memories associated with it.
She is passionate about protecting hutong, once famously standing in front of bulldozers to block their way. Hua rides her bicycle and knocks on the doors of hutong residents to collect their stories and document a disappearing way of life.
Despite losing her own hutong home in 2005, she has not given up. |
