May Day Chinese style
To the editor:
The May First holiday is interesting here in China. First, students get most of the week off since the holiday falls on a Wednesday. Second, it marks the beginning of the summer travel season. Trains are full. Stations are crowded on the weekend before the holiday as people try to make the most of it.
A question came in about school life for kids here in China. The short answer is that it is like school life anywhere, hard. From the viewpoint of the kids they should have more time to play. From the teachers, they need more time to prepare and recover. Classes are often forty plus students.
One middle school is across the street from my apartment. This is a two building, six story facility. Beginning at about 7:30 in the morning students start to arrive. Uniforms of green and white, and blue and white come together into foamy sea of youngsters. Parents and grandparents are adept at bringing their kids to the school and this is not a time to try to navigate the sidewalks and streets. Cars are everywhere; as are bicycles, tricycles, vending carts, and workers getting on to their work. It might be described as a maelstrom.
For students the day has just begun. They will be in school until about four in the afternoon. Then a parent, or more likely a grandparent will pick them up and take them to a tutoring program for extra work in their subjects. Most of the teaching is directed to preparing students for their exams. Students must pass all their tests to advance and the higher score that they get can allow them to take more elite courses.
Students do play basketball and badminton. Both of these are ideal because of the limited spaces available. There are no inter school basketball teams or games. You play against your classmates, all two thousand of them. They also run track and field events for the kids. So school life is pretty much the same here as it is in The County, long days marked by a bit of fun. Mr. Hall, hope this helps your seventh-graders. And a shout out to T.W. Morrison: Yes, the Chinese do celebrate the Worker’s Holiday, May 1st.
Orpheus Allison
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mac.com
