Past Masters -- China Daily report about my fieldsite in China

Sources: http://www.chinadailyusa.com/news/NewsInfo.asp?range=&lv2=6&id=20393

Life Past masters Wang Wudong listens to a student reciting Dizigui (The Standard Rules for Young Students). Joy Lam / For China Daily By Zhang Yue Published:7/14/2010 On a Sunday afternoon last month, some 20 primary school students are reading The Analects of Confucius aloud in a private class in Auhui’s capital city Hefei. Dressed in a white Tang suit, Wang Wudong, the teacher, stands at the front of the classroom, following with the rhythm of the students reading with his fingers tapping on a table and his eyes half-closed. Wang and his wife, Lu Yi, have committed themselves to the voluntary full time teaching of Chinese traditional literature since 2004. Over the past six years, they have taught, for free, more than 2,000 children aged from 3 to 13 to read Chinese classics, such as The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Analects of Confucius, and The Works of Mencius — the four must-read classics for Chinese ancient intellectuals. The couple established Xiao Shaizi, a non-profit Chinese teaching class whose Chinese name literally means “The Little Griddle” in English, guiding primary school students to learn about China’s ancient civilization as an extra-curriculum activity. “I named the school The Little Griddle because I hope the children here will pick up the best part of our country’s ancient civilization, just like a griddle,” says Wang. A small lobby outside the classroom allows the students’ parents to take a rest and chat while waiting for their kids. At the back of the lobby is a big bookshelf, where Wang puts his own collection of over 100 books of Chinese classic literature. Spreading the knowledge of the past has been a 37-year-old dream since he was a teenager. Wang’s passion for ancient Chinese civilization started when he began to learn taichi — a type of traditional Chinese martial arts — at 17 and read a lot of Chinese ancient literature works to understand the essence of the martial art. “Words from ancient times, once read by my heart, helped me to take a positive attitude towards life and the difficulties I encounter,” Wang says. In 2004, Wang and his wife listened to a lecture online by Wang Caigui, the first to promote classical reading among children in Taiwan. “I felt that this was something I wanted to do,” Wang says. At that time, Wang was working in the computer center at Anhui University with a monthly income of 1,200 yuan. Though respected as a teacher, he didn’t feel much sense of accomplishment, as his daily job was mainly recording cassettes for university students. After discussing matters with his wife, who has always been supportive, the couple quit their jobs and used their savings of 40,000 yuan to found the school and rented a classroom of 50 square meters. “We spent a week introducing ourselves to kindergartens and primary schools nearby,” Lu recalls. “Only 15 students showed up for the first class. Most of them came because their parents did not have time to care for them after school and they did not have high expectations.” The first class was a mess, Lu says. “Children under 6-years-old can only focus on reading for a short time. The students started to run and play 10 minutes after I started teaching.” Learning from that experience, Wang and Lu now play a piece of Chinese folk music during the 2-hour class to help the students calm down and focus on class. The first class of 30 students soon enjoyed great improvement, not only in knowledge but also in their daily behavior. “Children develop their views on life and the world between the ages of three and six,” Wang says. “I believe the legacy of our ancestors is extremely valuable, and will assert a positive influence on this process.” Wang mainly guides them to read and explain Dizigui (The Standard Rules for Young Students) and some other classics in class and talks to them about appropriate behavior in life. The students are required to recite 500 words of Dizigui every week. If one fails to finish reciting or does not behave well in class, Wang will lightly hit the student’s palm with a ruler, a traditional way of punishing students in China’s old-style private schools. “My son was very naughty and was punished almost every class during the first two months,” says Cheng Peng, father of 8-year-old Cheng Bo. “He is now quite a disciplined boy. I think the traditional way of punishing students still applies to kids nowadays.” Wang says that he is also strict with his own son, who is now 2-years-old. He sits in the back row of the class when his mother is teaching. Li Wenqing, a 12-year-old girl at Hefei Nanmen Primary School, has been with The Little Griddle for four years. Now, her quotes from the ancient classics sometimes surprise her parents. “Once, I was talking about a dress that was too expensive for us to afford,” says her mother. “And she interrupted by saying, ‘Dresses should be tidy and appropriate instead of being costly,’ which is a quote from Dizigui.” At the moment, the school has over 700 students and has moved into an office building with better facilities such as an air-conditioner and water dispenser. Paying the 3,500-yuan monthly rent and teaching so many children is not an easy task for Wang and Lu. But they are not alone. Many students’ parents offer help. Wang and Lu now receive donations of around 20,000 yuan each month. The couple takes 1,600 yuan for their living expenses, while the rest goes to the class. “Reading ancient classics with Wang for two years helped my son to be a well-behaved boy,” says a grateful parent who has made donations to the school and prefers not to be named. “I believe helping them keep running The Little Griddle is a way to help many kids with early childhood education just like my son.” Some others, like Li’s mother Xu Yuan, have become volunteer teachers. Xu, once a full-time housewife, has been working for The Little Griddle three evenings a week for three years. While The Little Griddle has benefited an increasing number of children and their parents, it’s also drawing attention from overseas. Joy Lam, a sociology PhD candidate from University of Southern California, is doing research at The Little Griddle for her doctoral dissertation focusing on the social implications of the revival of Confucianism in contemporary China. “By providing free classes, The Little Griddle provides a public space where people interested in traditional culture can gather, and where discussions about the compatibility of Chinese traditional culture with modern society is possible not only among academics but people in general,” Lam says. Wang says he is particularly impressed by the gratitude shown by students’ parents and their willingness to help. “Donations for The Little Griddle continue to pour in even though I tell them that we’ve enough to keep the class running,” Wang says. “So I suggest we use the surplus of donations to develop a project similar to the ‘Project Hope’, providing financial help for the poor in the remote areas. They love the idea.”