Developments in China

News from Chengdu Waldorf school,  China in 2006

By Harry Wong

l         Achievement

This is the second year of our school in Chengdu, China. We had a very busy and fruitful year.

Kindergarten:

The number of children in the kindergarten increased from 6 to 32, which we can not manage in one class right now. We have two classes in the kindergarten. We are thinking of open another kindergarten room for there are more then ten children are in the waiting list this fall.

Grade school:

We finally registered the grade school. The number of children in the grade school is from 3 to 12 this year. We will be able to take children in this fall. We will have a full size of first grade and split the combined class one and two. Then, we will have grade school from 1 to 5 this fall. We will have about 5 to 10 children in each grade. The number of the children in the grade school will be about 30 in the fall.

Teacher training:

We had sent three teachers to Thailand for the Asia teacher training program twice. We also have number of teacher trained visited and gave courses. Our teachers have been gaining their confidence through those training and working with experience teachers. Two of them are ready to take a class. In the meantime, we are setting up a three years kindergarten teacher training program conducting by Thanh Cherry.

Biodynamic work

 We had Jayakran, an Indian experience biodynamic teacher and farmer came to our school twice giving biodynamic course. There are more then 80 people come to the one week course each time. We now need a bigger land to practice since we had made BD preparation 500, 501, and 502 to 507.

l         The Grade School

     The grade school is still very small for the classroom is tiny and we didn’t have a legal status to take children for the elementary education. There are few brave parents send their children to our grade school. The number of the children is just right to fit everyone in our mini van so that our teachers can take the whole class out and have the farming block, local history, local geography and some lessons outside the school, such as go the zoo and botanic garden. Beside main lesions, we teach English and German as foreign language in the grade school. We also have handwork, gardening, games and music classes. People may want to know how we approach Waldorf curriculum in Chinese culture setting. Here we have some good examples.

       In the local geography block, The forth grade teacher gave children lessons by the Dam where is one hour drive from the school, called Du Jiang Yuan. The dam was built to control the flood and irrigate the lands around Chengdu area in 300 BC. The dam till functions as the way it did two thousand ago. From there, we also taught agriculture that showing them how our people related to the nature. The dam is not a “ wall” that stops the water but is a form of a huge “fish” swimming upstream in the rushing water. There is a cannel was built next the tail of the “ fish” to diver the “extra” water from the river into the cannel. The position of the “fish” in the water automatically divided the “extra” water for irrigating fields where there wasn’t a liver. It was amazing project that I love to take our visitors to see it.

There are many literatures in form of poem, stories and legend written on the dam. Children looked for all the accent songs, poems and pictures that depict, descript and praise the dam. Our teacher told them stories and legends that related to the dam and had the children paint and modeling the dam with the clay. It was a great project that relate to the local agriculture. It also shows the accent Dao’s wisdom in the project.

       In the local history, they learned legends of the local kings named Wangdi and Congdi. They had a few lessons in the temple nearby called “Wan Cong Di temple”, a temple was built in memory mythological local kings Wangdi and Congdi. The legend of the king like this:

“Wangdi was people’s beloved king for he loved his people and taught his people farming and the organic way of living. But the floods kept taking people’s life in our area every year. He was sad and was not able to deal with the flood. So,he made a promise that he would pass his crown to anyone who can control the flood. After he made the announcement, there was someone called Bieling came to the palace and asked the king give him a try. So Bieling lead local people successfully took over control the flood. People were no longer suffered from the flood since then For this reason, Wangdi pasted his crown to Bieling and named the new king “ Congdi ”. But, Wangdi didn’t care about the farming and the people’s life. He only enjoyed his luxury life in the palace after he became the king. People were sad and missing Wangdi and asked Wangdi to take the crown back as their king. But, Wangdi told his people that he should keep his promised and choose to die for he didn’t want to see the situation. After he died, Wangdi became a cuckoo bird singing around the fields to remind people how to farm, such as when we should sew and harvest, By the way, we can hear cuckoo bird in our school, which is a miracle because we are very close to the big city. Chengdu people are farming according to the cuckoo birds’ singing since that time. And built a Temple in memory of Wangdi and Congdi. The class teacher also wrote a play on Wangdi and Congdi for the children to perform in the end of the term. The play also been translated into English by our American visiting teacher Denis Long. She also had her children perform in her school in California.

l         The Kindergarten

      The great achievement that we had made in a year is that we have some children are on the waiting list. Our work inspires many parents. There are some parents moved their home to Chengdu from other cities in order to have their children enroll in our school. Some immigrated parents even work or become volunteers for the school.

Our kindergarten day is from 8:30AM to 5:00PM, but the school bus will start at 7:15 AM, end by 6:15PM, it is a long day for our teachers. We have one trained teacher Li Zhang and two assistants in training teachers name Yuanbing and Xiao Gao in the kindergarten. There are three helpers in the kindergarten to study Waldorf Education. One of the helper is a three-year old girl’s mother who left her job as a college teacher to become a kindergarten teacher. It was a really unusual thing in China.

The challenges that we had been facing were great. There some children had changed a couple of kindergartens before they came to our kindergarten; in fact, they were unwelcome children in other kindergartens. The parents wanted to give a try by sending those children to our kindergarten. However, “We receive them with reverence, and educate them with love, set them forth to freedom.” Those children are doing very well in our kindergarten. They are very creative. We become famous by taking difficult children.

You may not know many Chinese children are not the children of the parents, but children of grand parents. One child policy in China ends up two parents and four grand parents has only one offspring. The way that grand parents take care of their grand children just as the way that people served the emperor in our history. So our children are known as “little emperor” On one hand those children get a lot of attention all the times, on the other hand, these children have a very little freedom in their lives. Some children have great difficulties with lacking of boundary.

Our mentor teachers who come from the West may not know how to deal with this situation. Rudolf Steiner didn’t have indication either (Joking). Lucky enough, one of our mentors, Thanh Cherry, who has Vietnam origin can understand our situation without much difficulty and was able to give us a good insight.

I believe that you will be interested in knowing how we bring Waldorf education in Chinese culture setting beside our communist political system. There are some people are suspicious of western thought though we are kind of open right now. We have on going parenting works such as organize study groups and give workshop to parents and grandparents every two weeks. It really helps. But, we have to work much harder to find suitable materials in our culture such as songs, games, arts and Chinese festivals. There are some parents are very happy to see that we are working out of our culture instead of importing Waldorf education from Germany.

l         Biodynamic work

       A Swedish businessman, Eric Solh, came to visit our school on the March really pushed the Biodynamic course happening in our school. He worked with his old friend Peter Procter from New Zealand trying to bring Biodynamic work to China by making Chinese farmers produce organic cotton in 1990. But, it didn't work out for the time is not ready. So, Peter went to India to teach Biodynamic farming there. Jayake is one of his students in India. Eric supported Jayake coming to Chengdu and gave the first Biodynamic course to the public in May 2005. There were about 60 people attended the course from all over China. Then, he gave another one in Beijing organized by the Organic Farming Society in Beijing. The course brought a great interest from all over the country, one of the people was the chairman of Hong Kong Green Field Foundation. So, Hong Kong Green Field Foundation sponsored Jayake’s return to Chengdu in November. There were over 70 people who came to the one-week course in Chengdu and visited the Biodynamic mulberry bush farm in near Chengdu. People came from all kind of interesting backgrounds. Jayake also gave a three day course in Beijing and a two day course in Guangdong after the course in Chengdu. There were more than a hundred people who joined in these courses. We also have been working on translating and publishing books or learning materials on Waldorf education and  Biodynamic Agriculture in Chinese.

       There is a young man, name Weihe Hu, who devotes his life in the work of practicing Biodynamic farming and gardening in our school land. He helps the workshop and supply learning materials to the people all over China. He is cultivating every corner where it is possible to plan in our school as a gardener. We get some fresh vegetable from time to time in our kitchen. He also organized farmers who live around our school practicing Biodynamic farming. In return, we purchase their vegetables with a better price. There are some parents want to purchase those vegetables too. We are trying to form a CSA (community support agriculture). But, we need a experience farmer to work it out in practical level. Our children enjoy the work in the garden and in the farmers’ field around our school. We also keep close contact with those who wish to learn more Biodynamic farming. There is a Biodynamic silk company and Mulberry bush farm in Chengdu. But it seem they aren’t interested in promoting the BD work to the public.

l         Adult learning and training

       Chengdu Waldorf School is not only a kindergarten and a grade school, but also, an adult learning center and the center of Waldorf movement in China. We have about 15 young and energetic people are learning to be Waldorf school teacher and take up some subjects teaching, practice Biodynamic farming, study Anthroposophy, writing, translating, host training courses and workshops promoting Waldorf movement national wide. They are striving to be a well being and better future for our society. We have been cultivating a good energy, love and spirit around this place. Many people who come to the course, workshops or just a short visit were moved by their experience in our school. Our school has been a very attractive to many people. We always have friends, parents, educators, even Educational Department officers came from all over China to visiting our school and help promote the Anthroposophical works. 

       Ben and Thanh Cherry have been our school four times since September 1994. We had successfully host many courses and workshops on Waldorf education introduction course to the public. Most of the workshops and course were taken place in our school. But we also arranged two courses in Zhuhai, one in Shenzhen, two modern cities in the south coast, one Eurythmy course, one Biodynamic course and some lectures in Beijing.

       There were more than sixty people came to the courses whenever and whatever courses we gave in China. It is right number of the people we can handle in our small school. We try to bring Anthroposophical style of the workshops in our land by engaging people with a lot of artistic works and singing. It works beautifully. Many people had fresh feeling and felt touch in the heart. For many people are educated head only. Of course, there were always many tears and weeping when we said goodbye at the end of the courses. There was some people wrote back to us said that the course has changed his or her life. Some of them were preparing to start a Waldorf kindergarten in the future, some of them went to study Waldorf education or Anthroposophical relate works abroad. There was a wonderful lady donated a van to our school for transporting children after the course in June 2005. With the impact that we have made, there is a day care center in Zhuhai is transforming into a Waldorf kindergarten, a mothers’ group has set up a Waldorf playgroup in Shanghai. A Waldorf trained teacher named, Wu Bei, has set up a Waldorf kindergarten in Beijing with a group of parents.

        In the meantime, we also sent our teachers to Bangkok for the Asia Teacher Training course. We appreciated that the IHF in Holland and the Freunde Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e.V. in Germany had supported our teachers to attend these courses. The Tridhaksas Waldorf School in Thailand has been very supportive and helpful to our teachers during the courses. We are building up a good relationship with our neighbors. They will send their children to Chengdu to learn Chinese this year. The ATT course has been great to our teachers. Some of our teachers were the first time travel to abroad to see a really Waldorf School in action. It inspired our teachers and gives them the confidence to become a Waldorf teacher.

l         Foreign exchange and visiting

       The Waldorf communities worldwide are very interested in the first Waldorf School in China. Many people want to come to visit and support us. We just host the first student group visitors in November, 35 tenth grade children and 4 teachers came from Shear Water Steiner School in Australia. Some of them wore T-shirt and short in our cold and damp Chengdu weather. We could feel the “ warmth” even the “ heat” from them. Our teachers and coworkers worked very hard to make sure that they would have a fruitful visiting. We showed them the college museum and had lunch in the college canteen with students, visited public high school and had lunch with same age students. They visited the art gallery and listened to the old Chinese painters talk about Chinese art. They went to the French Supper market Carrifford and local traditional bazaar to experience the real life of Chengdu. They also visit a national museum that was built on the excavated site where displays much early and advance civilization than those in Yellow river cradles, yet, there is no connection to the evolution of the Chinese civilization in the recorded history. It left a myth to the archeologists and historians. There is a golden seal of the Sunbird is found in the site. The Seal has become the new logo of civilization in Chengdu. There is locally produced Broadway style show reviewing a heart broken love story according to the legend of the Sunbird in the local history. The Sunbird had human spirit and a bird physical body. Our Australian guests couldn’t believe their eyes that they saw the Broadway style show in Chengdu instead of in New York. The show has been a glimpse of the modern China. The Australian teachers shared their experiences of founding their school to our teachers, and did artistic work with our teachers and parents. The exchange between two schools has been taking the first step. I hope there will be more.

l         Summer Programs

 We had the first summer camp with 38 children from the public and other private school last summer. We were blessing to have a Waldorf Charter school class teacher Denise Long from USA came to help our program. She speaks Chinese and knows Chinese culture well. She worked with our teachers on two classes and two themes. One theme was “Man and Animal”; another was “ a play in English”.

In the Man and Animal class, children had a lovely way rather than cold intellective to study the nature so that have a very rich experience of nature in the humanity. The high light of the camp for the children was to build a beehive with clay on the table and build a shelter in the campus with any materials that they could find around the school in groups. The English play was great. They made all the props together. They performed the play in English to their parents and friends in the end of the camp. Their parents could not believe their eyes that their children could perform a play in English with nine days work only.     When we displayed all the children’s art works on the last day of the camp. The parents were amazed on what their children have done in those nine days summer program. For some children, it was the first time to wash their own cloth by hands and take care of themselves without parents. Children and parents asked to register for next years’ program before they left.

Through the summer program, we trained our teachers and demonstrated the Waldorf approach to the public. It was a good way to communicate with the public at this stage of the Waldorf movement in China. One of our assistant teachers gave a demonstration how we do environmental education (It was a Man and Animal block) in a NGOs Forum that promote environmental education. The presentation was very improvised and brought out a great attention. Many people are in the Forum came to visit our school to witness our work.

l         Problems and Challenges

 The land and property

       The biggest problem is the land and property. We have put a lot of energy and all available funds to renovate the place for barely enough space and conditions to operate our school. In fact, we still need to do a lot more to meet the basic law requirements, such as replacing the leaking roof and building a toilet in the kindergarten classroom. But, the government is selling the piece of land to the real estate company. We can not effort to buy it. We many have to move next year. In the meantime, we are looking fore a permanent site for our school. The place we found is the government property. It cost 260000 US dollars to purchase the building. Then, we will pay for the lease of the land in amount of 6000 US dollars each year. The property is about 4.5 acres. It will be our home if we find enough funds for it.

Working with the parents

The ideal of Waldorf education has been appreciated. But, there are few who really trust us and share the vision that we are carrying with us. They show tremendous courage by sending their children to us. The extremely examination oriented education system in China makes our parents really worry about their children getting enough academic study in our kindergarten or school. This is the most common and difficult issue for us. On one hand, we have to hold our vision and believe strongly the basic principles of Waldorf education. On the other hand, we need to find out how to help our parents out. Yet, we can’t compromise and go too far away from Waldorf ideals. We worked as the way that we are playing Taiji with Yingyan principle, which is keeping both in balance. It needs a great deal of time to practice.

Anthroposophical work is working out of trust worldwide. So do we, but it is a big challenge for us in China. You may know that trust has been broken down totally during the political mess during the cultural revolution thirty years ago, plus the country is heading to a crazy commercialization recently, making it worse. We must bring back trust to the people before we start our work.  We are gradually building trust between the parent and us and trust between children and parents. It is still a long way to go. You can’t imagine that a few parents call our teachers everyday. They wanted to check out how their children doing everyday in the kindergarten in detail. They want to know what we are feeding their children and how their children were eating and napping? Did they wash their hands before eating? They even designed a questionnaire for our teachers to fill every day. The demands that come from these parents and grandparents are really incredible.

l         Administration work

    As the founders of school, Li zhang, Zewu and Harry are taking the major responsibility of the school. We are working out of our experiences in Anthroposophy communities and Waldorf school. We are trying to practice three folding in our school administration work. We are running the school as a not-for-profit organization trying to work on consensus decision making with the colleges of teachers. We are keeping our financial report clear and open to the teachers, friends, parents and those who support our school. This is quite new for Chinese for there are very few schools are running in this way in China. We are working very hard to get people understanding why and how. Most of people in our school have grown tremendous spiritually. They gradually develop confidence to teach and work. We are working in the light of anthroposophy and we can feel the radiation of the light shine though each individual. They are happy and enjoy in their works and lives in our school.

      l         Human relations

 However, there is still a culture gap and misunderstanding in our work for we do not have experience of democracy in our culture before. Many people are perusing democracy one way of the other. At the first stage of our school development, the school was opening to whoever were interested building the school together. When we were trying to exercise some kind of democracy such as trying to reach a consensus agreement, it would not be possible. It was a misunderstanding that democracy means sharing the decision making power instead of responsibility taking out of one’ s own will. It is easy to exercise the power on making decision together, but it is not easy to take responsibilities for some people. So, there are some people felt that they are left out from our works. They broke down the trust between us then cultivated some negative forces by spreading rumors around.