This past summer, a group of 11 DukeEngage students, along with their leader Hsiao-Mei Ku, professor of the practice of music, started a creative revolution in No. 9 Middle School in Zhuhai, China.
Ku, originally from China and a member of the renowned Ciompi Quartet, was uniquely positioned to direct the program given both her grasp of the country’s educational system and her deep involvement in Duke’s vibrant arts community.
“I’ve been a visiting professor at the Guangzhou Conservatory for 10 years, and I really developed a sense of what they lack in education [in China],” Ku said. She added that the Chinese students lacked neither talent nor determination, but rather “imagination, a sense of speaking their own voice.”
Ku saw a major disconnect in the country’s economic development and the changes in how Chinese students are taught.
“You walk down the street in Shanghai, and there are many tall buildings—it feels like New York. When you look at the education system though, people are so behind,” Ku said, adding how “many Chinese students can recite material in unison yet can’t answer a question by themselves.”
No. 9 Middle School in Zhuhai exemplified this gap between China’s economic and social development, Ku said.
“Zhuhai used to be a one-street fishing village,” Ku said. “Under Deng Xiaoping’s new policy, it became a Special Economic Zone, and many industries came there.” As a result of the economic growth, Zhuhai’s population swelled with rural migrants ready to work in the new factories and led to huge schools like No. 9 Middle School, home to nearly 2,500 students.
“Many classes have around 60 students, so it is not a good environment for encouraging individual talent,” Ku said.
She also criticized the system’s tendency to let grades dictate a student’s abilities.
“They are so constrained by the box of grades, but grades are not your destiny,” Ku said. In this environment, Ku saw an opportunity to bring the vitality of Duke’s creative community to the Chinese students.
Her proposal drew attention from many Duke undergraduates, including senior Will Passo and junior Lisa Zhang. Passo, an art history major, decided to apply based on an earlier internship with the Nasher Museum of Art involving arts education in local schools.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Passo said. “I had never been to China, but I knew it was going to be an adventure no matter what.”
Zhang, a music minor and member of the Duke Chamber Players, was born in China and moved to the United States at the age of six. In spite of these origins and two subsequent trips to China, Zhang found herself in uncharted waters.
“My family is from much further north than [Zhuhai], so a major difference was the language barrier,” Zhang said. “Many people there spoke Cantonese and no Mandarin, including my host parents.” The family that accomodated her was one of many that opened their homes to Duke students.
Ku designed the homestay as an additional opportunity to foster cultural knowledge and connections.
“It provided a tremendous angle to look into Chinese people’s lives,” she said.
For a previous outsider to China like Passo, the homestay definitely added a new dimension to his visit to the country.
“I was with a family that spoke pretty good English. I was able to have high-level discussions with the father,” Passo said. “I formed a close bond with them, and I did have a lot of trouble coming home.”
During the days at No. 9 Middle School, the Duke students taught classes in English, break dancing, photography, public speaking and Japanese, among many others. The class was met with an enthusiastic response from the Chinese students.
“The whole campus became lively, but we unfortunately had to turn many students away [due to demand],” Ku said.
As a conclusion to their program, the Duke students helped put on a show for the entire school, incorporating many of the pursuits that they spent the program teaching.
“They had living role models in the Duke students,” Ku said. “We still wanted to encourage them to pursue their talents after we left.”
As part of the cultural exchange, the Duke students also saw themselves re-evaluating their relationship with China.
“I previously used to see China as a place to visit family or maybe vacation,” Zhang said. “I never seriously considered living and working in China. This experience really changed that for me.”
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