China News Service, Mianyang, September 11 (Reporter Wang Peng (Wang Peng) passed a needle and thread through the cloth, staring at it with his immature eyes; a ball of colored clay slowly formed on his fingertips, and was pinched into round "pomegranate seeds"; looking at the photos of national costumes, he used colored clay to "reproduce" the colors and patterns on the clothes bit by bit. Like... Recently, reporters saw in Anchang Kindergarten in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County, Sichuan Province that the education to build a sense of Chinese nation community does not appear as an abstract concept, but is hidden in the children's stitches, kneadings and common games.
The picture shows children in Anchang Kindergarten in Beichuan County making traditional sachets under the guidance of their teachers. Photo by reporter Liu Zhongjun
"The children are young, and they may not be able to understand if we directly talk about national unity." Liang Juan, the director of Anchang Kindergarten, said that the kindergarten hopes that through activities that children can see, touch, and personally participate in, the awareness of the Chinese nation's community will take root in their hearts from an early age.
Anchang Kindergarten, which was awarded the "Model Group for Ethnic Unity and Progress in Sichuan Province", currently has more than 500 children, including 279 children from Qiang, Tibetan, Uyghur and other ethnic groups, accounting for 42.5%.
Here, "the Chinese nation is one family" is a daily and perceptible campus life. The kindergarten integrates elements of national unity into the campus environment, setting up cultural spaces such as "Red Memory" and "Chinese Nation Family" to display national costumes and intangible cultural heritage works and tell red stories, so that children can be exposed to the excellent traditional Chinese culture every day when they enter the kindergarten, play games and activities.
What’s even more interesting is that education on the awareness of the Chinese nation’s community has also been “moved” into children’s games and craft activities. When learning about the territory of the motherland, the teacher told the children that Xinjiang is rich in cotton, so the children took the cotton and pasted it on the Xinjiang area on the map. After learning that Sichuan is the hometown of giant pandas, they pasted giant panda elements on the location of Sichuan.
The picture shows Anchang Kindergarten in Beichuan County. Children of various ethnic groups are watching a small shadow puppet theater. Photo by reporter Liu Zhongjun
"We always adhere to a core educational concept: education is never a rigid infusion of knowledge, but a quiet sowing of children's emotional edification and cultural identity." Liang Juan said that around this concept, the kindergarten has created a "Colorful Chinese Love" curriculum to integrate national unity education into learning, games, life and practice. The children did handicrafts, sang together, and played games together, and learned to share, help, and tolerate while getting along day and night.
This common growth that began in childhood also continues at the "Qiyi" Vocational High School in Beichuan Qiang Autonomous County. In this "National Model School for Ethnic Unity and Progress", students from 14 ethnic groups, including Han, Qiang, Tibetan, Yi, and Hui, study and live together. Ethnic minority teachers and students account for 43% of the total number of students in the school.
Nirmalam, a 17-year-old Tibetan student from Yajiang County, Garze Prefecture, is currently studying digital media. After leaving home to study, she discovered that national unity was not an “extra course” on campus but something that happened every day.
"Our dormitories are all mixed-housing, and each dormitory is filled with students of different nationalities." She told reporters that one day she suddenly felt unwell in the dormitory, feeling uncomfortable all over and unable to stand. A Qiang classmate took the initiative to help her to the hospital. After returning to the dormitory, the classmates poured water and medicine for her and took good care of her. "I was particularly touched by this incident, and I truly felt the warmth of students from all ethnic groups helping each other and being as close as family," Nirmalam said.
In the "July 1" Vocational Middle School, such a "family" was not formed by accident. Principal Fu Hongmei said that since 2016, the school has systematically promoted education on the awareness of the Chinese nation community and established an ethnic association to build a communication platform for students of all ethnic groups. If students have confusion or appeals, they can communicate with the school through the sorority; the school’s activities and educational arrangements are also passed on to the students through the sorority. "No matter where they come from or what nationality they are, children can have someone to rely on in school," Fu Hongmei said.
The picture shows Beichuan County "Qiyi" Vocational Middle School, students are in class. Photo by reporter Liu Zhongjun
From kindergarten to vocational middle school, building a solid sense of the Chinese nation's community into the campus also contains the deeper meaning of the "four commonalities". In kindergartens, children start playing and learning together, knowing how to help each other and share happiness; in vocational schools, students support each other in living and training together, and they also achieve each other's achievements in competitions and growth. This is a sharing of weal and woe, a sharing of honor and disgrace, a sharing of life and death that protects each other at critical moments, and a sharing of destiny that links personal growth with the development of the hometown.
When it comes to the future, Nirmaram has already made plans. She plans to return to Yajiang County, Ganzi Prefecture and engage in media-related work after completing her studies. Her hometown is rich in matsutake and other specialty agricultural products. She hopes to use the digital media skills she learned in school to produce promotional videos and advertisements for her hometown to help specialty products go further. (over)
