Navigating the bureaucracy in New York City can be a daunting task for Chinese and a couple of million of other immigrants, for they are not familiar with the way the administrations works.

It is more difficult for Zhang Weiyi, staying there to care for his daughter, because he does not know the city's lingua franca, English, either.

'The inability to converse in English has made me feel deaf and dumb. My life here is inconvenient and dull," says Zhang.