Teach the children well

When it comes to education, Wenchang city of Hainan province is known to be in a class of its own. This is not least reflected in its very name: When the city was established in AD 627 - the characters "Wenchang" literally mean "cultural prosperity" - or in its fostering of 205 generals in the first part of the 20th century, second only to Huang'an in Hubei province, throughout China.

"We have such a deep feeling for education in Wenchang," Wenchang Mayor Yan Zheng says, adding that 80 percent of the city's high school students attend university upon graduation.

"It doesn't matter what the parents go through; they could lose everything, but if their child gets a good education, the family wins," Yan says.

Vice-Mayor Lin Shiying attributes the reverence for scholastics to a tradition that has remained steadfast since the area was first settled.

"It was a blend of culture and Confucianism that makes up the underlying spirit of Hainan people," he says. "The minute the first immigrants landed in Hainan, they brought with them the thought of the Central Plains people and Confucian values."

He explains Wenchang people's attitude toward education by giving the hypothetical example of an older man from Wenchang who meets another from a different city. The outsider might be wealthy, maybe even an official, and the man from Wenchang might not be. But the man from Wenchang would consider the education of their children as the barometer of their relative successfulness.

Wenchang Middle School student Ling Yaqing says her hopes for Wenchang's tourism-based development are mostly pedagogical.

"If Wenchang becomes a more beautiful and richer place because of the new satellite launching site, students in the city could receive a better education," she says. "I hope that's what happens."

Her 19-year-old classmate Fang Renjie says he would visit his middle school during the first year after graduation, according to local tradition. He would donate any extra money he made later in life to the school, which was established in 1804 and is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a "modern middle school".

Erik Nilsson

(China Daily 04/10/2008 page19)