Why are Chinese youth so quick to grasp a concept and put it into action on a scale a European could only dream of? How do they nurture so much synergy that even a two-day exchange can take root and become a successful practice from Day 1? Would a generation that finds paper books obsolete and reading slow favor the idea of giving libraries a new perspective by borrowing humans instead of books to learn their life stories?
These questions have filled my mind since I volunteered at an exchange activity on the Living Library methodology, which was hosted by the Guangdong Association for STD and AIDS Prevention and Control and led by a close friend and colleague, together with students from the Not Awkward Youth Club, an outstanding student volunteer group.
Fifty students from various majors and universities, backed by an excellent team of facilitators, worked like a well-balanced organism, bursting with energy and positive spirit, learning and implementing on the spot.
Ten years ago, we came up with the idea of using Forum Theatre for HIV and sexual abuse prevention. After three consecutive exchange activities under the China-Europe NGO Twinning Programme, Forum Theatre is now performed in front of more than 50,000 people a year at more than 700 events, with thousands of videos on social media and youth platforms. Many young people are familiar with the concept of replaying a performance together with the audience in order to find a solution. And they actively apply it. It is amazing!
This year, the idea was to show young people how to host a "living library" event in their local communities, where the "books" are real people from all walks of life and the "readers" are encouraged to ask open-minded questions in order to learn more about their experiences and build empathy and social understanding. The goal is to step out of our small circle of friends and colleagues and talk with people we would not normally meet, and to combat the alienation of social media and screen time and replace it with kind and curious human-to-human dialogue, especially given the challenges AI will bring.
Did they achieve it? Absolutely! At the end of the activity, six young people volunteered as librarians and hosted an event with eight "books" and many readers. I, a Bulgarian teacher and youth worker, without understanding a single word of Chinese, stood there in awe, convinced that from now on the "living library" will be one of the many successful and inspiring methods of promoting social dialogue in China.
The author is a Bulgarian ESL teacher working in Guangzhou.
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