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ilEye-opener: :Students Lin Weide i(from lelt). Zhano :i

iiingyan,iiuang' iweiiiriiii-iin'zrrit i

reap a wealth of rknowledge about !thinese culture and :tradition lrom the ,iGOUrSe,

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LEqr rrrrtu or Ot UUI lrll[lliuli UUllU[EAFI'ER being the first Chinr:seschool to go indepenclenl lastyear, the Chinese High Sr:honlscores another ffust with itsintroduction of a sper:iatr cui-ture course for il.s stutleuts"

Called Chinese Culture Stud-ies, the only one of its kird inschonls here, it. is speciirllyprepared to acquaint. Ser_:onti-ary 3 and 4 students with thewide spectrurn of Chiuese cul-ture.

The optional, non-examina-tion 1r'r -yc':rr course whir:hstartetl earlier this year, isheld thrice a rveek in the af-ternoons.

The course covers alrnosteveryl"hing Chinese. Br:uri1fl|y,it includes tradition and fesl.i-vals, human relations, philosophy, literature and arrs"

The principal of ChineseHigh, Mr Tooh Fee Sau,, rle"clines to say whose braincl_,.iltlit is. He would only revellthat "it is our collective deci-sion".

Why has the school, one ofthe nine Special AssistirncePlan Schools under the IIdu-cation Ministr.y's preser.vationoI Chinese schools sr:herre,taken one step {trrthcl, to initi-ate the cour.se when lhe stu_i']ents are aiready tairing(-'hinese as rhe iir::t iang*ageY

According to Mr' '[,n,t-.h, iherationale behinrl the rxrurse islhat these studenls are thebright ones who are likely to

sur:ceed later in life. Many ofthem are iikely ;rssume lead-elship positi+ns in variotisfieltls such es poliLics, busi-ness tlr the army.

Th.ey .lre aiready well-ex-posed to Westerrr cultut.e.I'herefore, an exposrrre to Chinese r:ulture will do thein goodand make thern nrure bal-anced peo1.ri,e.

Mr llooh says: "Itight rr;w,the rnOst importarrt thing is toar{}use their inierest in Chi-nese r:ulture so that theywould gri or:l to learn more;i,bout. it-"

IVlr Chow Lin Me<lw, whowas ftir nirle riqi&rs a specialistlr.f iter wittr t.irc Curriculum

Now selected students of Chinese HighSchCIol Eet to learn about $hinese #ultllre in

a special course. Tam Ban Fluat report$.

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Develorment h:stitrite (CIXS)until eariier this year, wasseeonded to the srhool lu rtrr'e.rv

ugl the l:urticui.t.lm ;rnrl ctlrrttulttthe r.:oiu'se.

Ile says the challange is t$keep thr hoys irtteresteri in thecour$o hy ;x"esenting it in :rrraried anc{ inter'e.sting rva.5r.

Sixty students were pickedfrorn atrr"urt 1'70 secondar,y stu-denls who npplied fcrr theeorrt'$r at the eatl of last year.

Mr ilh*tut. 43, says: "We

pick thcse whrl sr,'*r+:d gonr.lgriides in all ritrttjet:ts vt'ityt dis-{:lur:l.iorui in hoih hlnglish and(ltiinese.

'-They musr dc well iu theirstildies "uefore they take on ihecxira load."

l\ow in Secondary 3, the stu-dents would cnrnpleitr thewhole t:otirse hy the mirtrtllc otnr:xt year'" The sr:hooi will takein another" batch of studentseilrly nrxt ;''ear'.

Mr Chuw says: "We want

our students to have a bettc.r.unilerstantling nf Chinese cul-iure in the hope that they willgrow up having a gra.sp of thee$sence of the culture. Or atleast not to be align to their.rlwn culture.

"t try to irnpress irpon Ihemthat the (:ollrso will rlo thenigorid. trt is thelir' owrr r:rrltulewhir:h they musl. know in ttrefirst place."

Another thing which MrChow tries to instill iu the stu-dents is: "Don't criticise Chi.nese r:ulture, echqr whal. otherssay, or worse, clisrniss tho cul-ture as bar:kwards l:eill'e youhave a gooil undet'$tarrding r:fit. "

IHE boys did nr:t hesitate to say thal,the.y enjoyed lhe Chinese Culture Studiesconl'se very much"

Yau get the impression that what isbeing taught is what they need badly andthe appruach to teaching is just rifht.

The students have taken to the courselike duck to water if the response of for-rrt5.ye.ar-old boys is any indication.

Lin Weide sairj: "It is like raking up ahobby. At ihe same time, you learrsomur:h aboiit Chiuese culture.,'

Why dirt i-he students takc" up thi.,rcc,urse in a.ddil.ion to 10 other suhjects?

What Iluang Weide said is r';,prrtsent.a-tive ot the group:

"As Ctrinese, it is a shatne not to know

our own cu]turc. We should strive tohar",e an understanding of it""

The course seenm to have arswer"erltheir many nagging doubts about theculture and traditir:n. They discoveredquite a bit along the wa.y.

Zhang lVlingy{.ln $aid: "Now I knowwhy we ha.ve tn obset.,t,tl {.0}in5; Nliug Festi-v;ll and why we cbstx'r'e [he Mid.auturunFestival."

Fluang adtriitted; "l did nor knowabout the legentl ot the Crwher.d Ancl TheWeaving Maid. I have discovr,-red ttratfhere is such a rornen{ic story in Chi-nese: "

IIe also discovererJ l.hat tea-dt.iril<ingcan be an arl in itself. ]tre said: "I didn'i

reallse that there was a r:omplicated rit-ual before one sipped tea frr:m a tinycup, And I dicln't know that tea leavesci.l.r'r. cost up to 92,000 a kg. I used to buy asmall packet of tea for 25 cents!,'

Yan Zhili said: "I came to know abouta krt of things which are not available intexl.i:ooks. Perhaps becarrse of tirne t:on-straints, the Chinese ieacher could nottell us more about things like i.he evolu-tirun of Chinese characters and the rootsof cur sur':rames."

$aid Lin. half in jest; "In future. I canquote some poems to ticlp oxpress myteelings when I am in l:vcl AL least Ikuuw which are the most suitable linesto quote."

The course prepares the st4rdents for the future. Mr ChoWsays: "The coul.se wilt equlpstudents with thc languaiOabiliLy to (:onverse wilh peqpl6in lVlandarin-speaking coun.tries and hlrndle business deahings in (llrinesc with them l[futtll't " "

'1"h0 c:tasrs is kept smal (flto a r:tass) tor better dialogul:rnrl tlisr:ussion hetween thfIr,;ti'hel antl students. lt is nOtjrrsl a onc-way flow of infoFm:rlion as Mr. Chow also el}('ollr il,.J{,s rlir;cussions. ,(

Sludcnts work on projec[lil<e "wall newspaper" whlofcarries at'l icles on Chinese feitivals as well as press cll$pings.

Mr' (lhow also invites spea$t,ls likr: ;r lcahousc owner aflta weiqi or Co player to giff,talks to llle c.lass. Topics lfithe pipeline include how to al}preciate Chinese opera.

F'ield trips trave also beedorganised for the studenhiThese include conducted tott!,f1o I'tre Ernpress Place muts;um where the Qing dynastt(treasu,'es a!'e on disptay anfithe Clhinese Gardr,n where thlstuderlts learn about the archhtect,rre of Chinese buiidings, i

Mr Chrtw says: "I try dmakc lt as interesring as po6lsiblc so [hat students can tnffter absorb the knowledge in ll

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More than ilrsta trmveloEue

Eight Thousand fuliles, apopular television series

in Taiwan now, hasreceived much media

coverage for being tlrefirst Taiwan TV

prograrnme to be $h0tin China.

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