Maltese honed his work and life skills with Chinese colleagues
1972年，我国与素有“地中海心脏”之称的马耳他正式建立外交关系。也就在那年，由我国援建的马耳他干船坞及修船码头工程成为当时对外经济援助的首个大型水工项目，为修船业成为马耳他的支柱产业奠定了基础。
从1975年到1980年，先后有800多名中国工程技术人员参与建设了坐落在马耳他首都瓦莱塔大港的30万吨级6号干船坞。
6号干船坞在马耳他被誉为“红色中国坞(Red China Dock)”，内部足以装下“辽宁号”航母。虽建成已近40年，却仍是全地中海最大的船坞。
The 300,000-ton dry dock built with Chinese knowhow and assistance in Valletta, the capital of Malta.
It is nearly impossible to imagine a world without "Made in China" today, but not in the 1970s, when most Westerners hardly knew anything about the country, leave alone working with its people.
Maltese Raymond Cutajar, now a car maintenance shop owner, was among the few. Straight out of technical college, he was assigned to the construction site of the No. 6 Dry Dock, one of the projects that China helped build in Malta.
Construction began in January 1975. When the adventurous fresh graduate walked into the huge construction site that July, he was shocked, at first, by the sheer size of the site and the machines. Fascinated by the machinery and the Chinese working there, he soon grew into the job.
"I was 20 years old and it was my first job. That first job helped me a lot. My experience working along with the Chinese on the whole was a very positive learning experience," Cutajar told Shanghai Daily by video.
"I was highly impressed by the whole Chinese organization. I was impressed by the discipline and the way they worked."
So impressive was the first job that the Maltese car specialist has still kept his work certificate from decades ago. The certificate states that he worked at "Red China Dock Project (Dock No. 6) as a mechanical plant fitter and diesel engine mechanic from 10 July 1975 to 27 October 1976."
当今社会，人们应该已经很难想象一个没有“中国制造”的世界，但在20世纪70年代，大多数西方人对中国几乎一无所知，更别提与中国人一起工作了。
但马耳他人雷蒙德·库塔亚尔（Raymond Cutajar）是少数颇早就了解中国的人之一。
库塔亚尔现在是一名汽车维修店老板。从技术学院毕业后，他被分配到6号干船坞成为一名施工人员。
Raymond Cutajar
“我当时20岁，那是我的第一份工作。与中国人一起工作的日子，对我来说是个非常积极的学习经历，”库塔亚尔通过视频告诉上海日报记者。
“中国团队给我留下了深刻的印象。我对他们的纪律性和工作方式印象都非常深刻。”
Cutajar's work certificate
The first meeting with his Chinese boss is clear as yesterday, he said, as are so many other memories with the then-48-year-old Sun Wenren "who considered me like a son."
Sun gave him a nickname, which meant "Raymond, you are like a desert fox." And young Cutajar called Sun Ninu in return.
"It is a typical Maltese name, very simple to remember and assimilate to oneself," he explained.
The machinery-loving rookie kept observing the techniques employed by the Chinese to tackle the challenges of building the dock inside a cliff, and learned a lot of trade skills from the Chinese mindset.
He was also offered opportunities to try his hand when his locally-oriented improvizations convinced Sun on two occasions.
"He (Sun) talked to other Chinese to let me have a go, and I gathered about 20 Maltese and it worked," Cutajar recalled. "It really worked!"
The Red China Dock
He was not only excited about the opportunity to try, but also impressed by the humility of the Chinese.
"I realized very early that whatever your position, it's a good idea to always stay humble," he said.
"There was no rank among the Chinese. There were five of them who I worked with closely, and a big boss. But the big boss was working as hard as anybody. Simple as this, they had a job and it had to be done."
It was not an easy job, but essential to Malta's economic transformation.
Oil tankers were getting bigger throughout the 1960s and 1970s, partially due to the interrupted traffic through the Suez Canal and the continuing oil crisis. Larger tankers can reduce transportation costs and better meet growing oil demand.
It was in the 1970s that some of the biggest oil tankers in the world were built, one "Seawise Giant" built in 1974-1979 had a length of 458.45 meters, and remained the longest in the world until 2013.
The Mediterranean lacked huge docks to host the new supertankers, and Malta wanted to seize the opportunity. China's help came at the right time.
The Red China Dock under construction
Professor Edward Scicluna, governor of the Central Bank of Malta, recalled the journey to diversify the country's economy away from a military base toward becoming an economically independent developed country. He said the Red China Dock "allowed Malta to remain on the map as a strategic ship repair destination," according to the website of the country's Ministry of Finance.
Scicluna was minister of finance between 2013 to 2020, and made the comments in 2014, when paying tribute to two Chinese who lost their lives during the construction.
Cutajar, who left the construction sector in October 1976 to join the army, kept returning to the site over the years, the most recent being two years ago. He also remembers the tragic incidents and appreciates the Chinese efforts.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the opening of the dock
Such work mentality that Cutajar personally experienced convinced him early on that the project would pan out successfully.
"There were doubts whether the dock would ever be finished," he said. "But personally I could see the fast pace of progress, especially when they started preparing for the floor base. When that started to materialize, the project had the look of a completed picture."
According to China Communications Construction Company, the dock's builder, Chinese engineers and technicians worked day and night to tackle the challenges.
"When we faced the biggest challenges, many Western officials and technicians 'visited' and expressed their 'concern.' Then they returned home to say the Chinese would 'definitely fail'," the company said on its WeChat account.
These people would have been appalled in October 1981, when the opening ceremony was held and became big news.
For Cutajar, the project was not only where his professional career started, but also where he made friends with Sun and four other Chinese colleagues he worked with frequently.
One was a master in making things in metal, and taught him how to make keys, which proved useful to the Maltese when he forgot his keys years later. Another "very good looking young man" taught him some tactics in self-defense, "luckily I never had to use them."
"But more so especially I learned to appreciate the simple things in life," he concluded.
"It's a pity that I have never visited China, but I hope to have the opportunity one day. It's always on my travel list, with several other countries that have an amazing history. I'm sure whoever visits these ancient cultures would learn a lot and it's a huge pity that the West is not open to learning from such great cultures."
Chinese translated by Zhou Anna