TRADING CUSTOMS
Chinese children visit Palmerston North
Children from one of China’s top primary schools are trading customs, and guitar licks, with pupils and teachers in Palmerston North.
On a 12-day cultural exchange, the party of 30 pupils from the city of Chengdu’s Number Seven Middle and Primary School, accompanied by staff and parents, spent Wednesday morning at Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School.
Greeted by a band of school staff dressed up as ‘‘rockers’’ to the music of Bon Jovi, the visiting pupils were integrated into school classes where they were involved in lessons, weaving harakeke (flax) and kemu Ma¯ ori (games) before presenting their own costumed cultural skills.
Their performance was prefaced with a short promotional film on Chengdu, a city of 16 million people in the landlocked Sichuan province, famous as China’s ‘‘panda capital’’.
The Chinese children, aged between 7 and 13, performed a poem written 2000 years ago about the dos and don’ts of behaviour, the butterfly dance, a traditional peacock dance and an excerpt from a Sichuan opera.
They also introduced pupils to Chinese calligraphy, a tea ceremony and paper folding.
The visiting school’s principal Liu Liang said there was a big difference in scale between education in China and in New Zealand.
With 2000 pupils and 100 staff, her school had one teacher for each class of 50 or so pupils, she said.
Visit co-ordinator Kevin Palmer of Palmerston North company KP Educational Consultants, said the exchange came about following a delegation to China headed by Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith last year.
‘‘The idea is to develop the potential for international student opportunities and placements. It’s about relationships. Students from Chengdu might be able to come here as part of their schooling.’’
Palmer said the trip was to give the pupils and their teachers a taste of a Kiwi education.
‘‘We’re playing to Palmerston North’s strengths ...
‘‘We have a strong educational infrastructure from primary through to tertiary, we’re a transportation hub, an aviation hub with pilot training schools, and we are accessible.’’
The tour incorporated visits to Rongotea and Cloverlea Schools, as well as to Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools.
The travelling party also met up with two Chengdu ex-pats, Palmerston North GP Dr Huansi Zhong, and Xi Gong, a food technology student at Lincoln University.
The visitors would get a helicopter flight over the city before they moved north to Taupo¯ , and to Hobbiton, before returning to Chengdu in time to celebrate the Spring Festival New Year.
Zhong said the resulting film documentary from this ‘‘pioneering programme’’ would be released on social media and ‘‘viewed by millions of people’’.
‘‘It’s free marketing. In China they might know Auckland or Queenstown but not Palmerston North.’’
So far the children had visited Wellington Zoo and Te Papa, spent time at Oriental Bay beach, before stopping in at Foxton Beach Primary School on Monday.
On Waitangi Day they attended the morning powhiri in The Square and visited Ashhurst Domain where they were introduced to the flying fox.
They also rode the Esplanade train and ran across the wide green expanse of Manawaroa Park.
Palmer said the Chengdu school playgrounds were small, with green space in short supply, while the coast was about 2000kms away, further than the full length of New Zealand.