The language of cooperation
Linguistics students in Xiamen come together to present cultural works as their school holds its annual festival, Li Yingxue reports.
In April, Zhuo Yue performed his original musical drama, Goodbye Zoo, for the second time at his alma mater, Xiamen Foreign Language School, in Xiamen, Fujian province. Thirteen years ago, Zhuo, then a student at the school, first played in the musical, for which he wrote five songs.
This time, though, the 28-yearold, who is now studying composition at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, was conducting the orchestra for the play. It was one of the dramas at a gala performance featuring the highlights of the Foreign Language Festival that had been held at the school from March 29 through April.
This year’s festival was held under the theme — “language connects the world, wisdom lights future” — with a series of activities, including drama performances, speaking competitions and culturally themed mood board design.
Goodbye Zoo tells a story about animals in a zoo wanting freedom and their relationship with the zookeeper. The debut in 2008 was met with such acclaim that Zhuo and his schoolmates performed the musical at the city’s television station. That experience also planted a musical seed in Zhuo’s mind.
After he finished his bachelor’s degree in economics in the UK, he decided to pursue a master’s in composition.
Zhuo returned to Xiamen due to the pandemic last year. At an alumni event, he was invited to help restage
Goodbye Zoo at this year’s foreign language festival. He helped students adapt the original story and collaborated with them to write two new songs for the musical.
Zhuo says the school’s orchestra has continued to develop over the past decade, so the orchestra for the musical this time around was much stronger with the piano, violin, cello as well as a student playing percussion instruments.
“I want to bring this kind of inspiration to future students,” says Chen Jinying, head of English language instruction at the school and organizer of the festival, when referring to Zhuo.
When Goodbye Zoo was staged, Chen walked to the back row of the theater to better immerse herself into the music and drama. She says she was moved by the performance.
Chen has been teaching at the school since 1998 and has witnessed the development of the festival, which started in 2006. Around 2,000 students took part in this year’s festival.
As well as Zhuo’s Goodbye Zoo, the gala performance also featured a dozen original or adapted three-act English dramas, such as Forever Young, Mr Donkey and Friends, as well as the German-language Thunderstorm, all lasting from 10 to 12 minutes each.
Chen helped the students with their lines. All other work, from costumes and props to light and sound, was done by the students. Chen says that by doing research on the figures and stories of their respective dramas, students learned more about different cultures.
Chen also asked the students to design posters of their plays so that the audience would get an idea of what to expect ahead of the show.
Opportunity to learn
As the pandemic has slowed down globalization, this year’s theme was a “connected world” for which “language is an important tool”.
Huang Jinliang, vice-president of the school, says the school has held an art performance event in English each year since it was founded in 1981, and the event gradually became the Foreign Language Festival. The school used to host a flea market where students sold spare items, and “deals” had to be done in foreign languages.
“We wanted our students to practice foreign languages,” Huang says.
“Most of the work for the Foreign Language Festival is done by our students, which cultivates teamwork
along with their ability to plan and communicate.”
She says themes for the speaking competition were proposed by third-year students and were mostly related to hot topics that inspired competitors to think deeply.
“The speaking competition is also a platform for senior students to show off their skills, which can inspire and encourage language learning in junior students,” Huang says.
The school asked students to adapt the literary works they learned in class.
Ye Mingrui, a second-year student,
was director of the drama O Captain! My Captain! The drama was adapted from the 1989 Hollywood film, Dead Poets Society, the plot of which is deeply intertwined with Walt Whitman’s poem O Captain! My Captain! On the first day of his high school, Ye’s teacher had asked the class to watch the film as their weekend homework.
“We chose this drama because we think the school has influenced and inspired us a lot, which is like the story in the film,” Ye says.
More than 30 students from three classes formed the drama’s cast and crew. Ye assigned them across six groups — script, directing, acting, props, technology and makeup — and set a timetable and to-do list. The film is set in the 1950s, so the students had to prepare props to reflect that time.
“We made the flags used in the drama and also the school yearbook,” Ye says. “I did plenty of communicating during the preparation for the drama, such as negotiating the schedule to use our school’s theater and confirm the position of our props and the lights.”
Global exploration
Culturally themed mood board design was one highlight of the festival. Chen says two classes worked together on each board, which represented the culture of a specific country. These included some countries from Asia and Europe, and some were involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“We asked the students to use recycled materials, such as milk cartons, to make their collages,” she says, adding that the students also had to give a two-minute introduction in English about their assigned country and take questions on the presentation day.
A dozen students produced a multi-language video, Hi Xiamen, which introduces the city in French, German, Spanish and Japanese. The video, which showcases tourist sites and local snacks, was presented at the festival.
The video’s production team was led by Duan Yanjing. She studied French for six years at the Xiamen school and is set to continue her studies at Nanjing University in Jiangsu province.
Growing up in Xiamen, Duan says she learned more about the city when making the video. The students filmed a traditional tea house in an alley that is next to the bustling Zhongshan Road pedestrian zone.
“I found out that in this modern city, there are still people living in such a simple way,” she says, adding that the tea culture is an indispensable part of Xiamen life.
After a month of intensive work, Duan and her teammates were satisfied with their video.
“We also organized the speaking competition in French, Japanese, Spanish and German this year. The competition was only held in English in previous years. We wanted to see if we could encourage more students to join in,” she says.
In a backdrop of rolling mountains, students in uniform are playing basketball on the playground, and several others are learning how to skate at the Nagchu No 2 Senior High School in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region.
Covering an area of 14.92 hectares, the boarding school was built in 2014 and only recruits students from Nagchu city. There are 58 classes with over 3,100 students and 285 teachers.
A vast territory with a sparse population, Nagchu has an average altitude of more than 4,500 meters. In comparison, Lhasa has a lower altitude of 3,650 meters, which is advantageous in many aspects.
“Due to Nagchu’s high altitude, the weather is cold and oxygen is lacking. It’s not good for one’s health if one works there for a long time, so it makes it hard to retain teachers,” says Penpa, the school’s principal.
“In Lhasa, it’s easier to strengthen academic communication with other schools to boost the development of our school. Students can also develop in an all-around way and broaden their horizons.”
He says Nagchu has built three such senior high schools in Lhasa and a new one is currently under construction. Tibet’s Ngari prefecture, a high-altitude area, has also built two senior high schools in Lhasa, learning from Nagchu’s success.
Students of Nagchu No 2 Senior High School are all Tibetan, with more than 95 percent of them children of farmers and herders. They are benefiting from the country’s Three Guarantees policy for education in Tibet.
Under the policy, food, accommodation and school expenses are provided for preschool to senior high school students from farming and herding households and impoverished urban families. The annual subsidy has also risen to an average of 4,200 yuan ($656) per student.
During summer and winter vacations, their round-trip train tickets to Nagchu are also covered.
In May, the State Council Information Office released a white paper on Tibet, marking the 70th anniversary of its peaceful liberation.
The paper states that “there was not a single proper school” in old Tibet. The illiteracy rate exceeded 95 percent. From 1951 to 2020, the central government invested 224 billion yuan in Tibet’s education system. At present, Tibet has 3,195 schools of various types and at various levels, serving more than 790,000 students.
Basic and balanced development of compulsory education has been realized in all counties. The completion rate for compulsory education has also reached 95 percent.
Fan Chunwen, an official from Tibet’s education department, says many people have changed their destinies and live happy lives, benefiting from the education system in Tibet.
“Multimedia education covers all primary and middle schools in Tibet. Even in a remote school, students can have access to such interactive classes,” Fan says.
Penpa says the school offers dual education courses, with at least 14 classes a week in Tibetan language and Mandarin respectively. Students can read bilingual books of various themes at the school’s library.
“Both languages are important for students. Languages have their own dynamic development when they’re often used, so does culture,” he says. “For example, Chinese has many loanwords from English. In Chinese, hada is a borrowed word from Tibetan.” Hada is a piece of white silk used as a greeting gift among Tibetan people.
Namse Gonpo, a 17-year-old senior second grade student, says the circumstances in Lhasa are better due to its relatively lower altitude, and he has soon adjusted to life here. His parents are supportive of him furthering his studies in the school.
“Compared with my parents’ generation, our generation has much better opportunities to receive education and enjoy higher living standards, thanks to the motherland’s prosperity,” he says.
The school has about a dozen recreational clubs ranging from basketball to ping-pong and jazz dance, enriching school life. Namse Gonpo has joined the broadcast club and speaks fluent Mandarin.
Like his schoolmates, he is bilingual. He uses Tibetan language to communicate with his parents, who feel more comfortable speaking in their native tongue.
“At school, if I discuss content about Tibetan class with classmates, we use the Tibetan language. If we talk about hot issues like news, we prefer to speak in Mandarin,” he says.
He wants to go to university in other regions of China and come back to work in his hometown Nagchu to contribute to its development.
Namse Gonpo is not afraid that Tibetan culture may be on the decline.
“The Tibetan culture is always developing, and we can better learn about our culture,” he says.
Liu Shuai is among the school’s 20 teachers who have come from other parts of China to support the development of Tibet’s education system as part of a nationwide campaign to help the border region achieve change step by step.
“A teacher’s duty is to impart knowledge and educate people. That’s why I applied for the position here,” says the 31-year-old Liu from Dalian, Liaoning province.
He says compared with their peers from other places in China, students in Tibet have a relatively weaker grasp of fundamental knowledge, so he has to combine his previous teaching experience with the needs of the students to help them achieve academic progress. He also trains local teachers to improve their professional skills.
“My three-year tenure in Tibet will be the greatest wealth of my life. I can never have such teaching experience in other regions of China, and it’s beneficial to both my personal development and teaching career,” he says.
People may feel uncomfortable when they first come to a high-altitude region, and may have altitude sickness, for instance. Liu, who has lived in Lhasa for two years, was recently diagnosed with gout. He was a bit depressed and started to doubt himself, but he eventually made adjustments for his well-being.
“It’s just one of the difficulties that I have encountered on the plateau,” he says. “It’s essential to stick to a teacher’s original intention — to train talent.”
Compared with my parents’ generation, our generation has much better opportunities to receive education and enjoy higher living standards ...”
Namse Gonpo, second grade high school student, Nagchu No 2 Senior High School, Lhasa