Meet my writing students.

I’m teaching a large number of writing students.  One of the fun things about teaching writing is you really get to know your students well.  When I taught writing to American students, I learned about football and video games, anxiety about growing up and homesickness.  Here I’m learning about issues facing Chinese students on the cusp of adulthood, as well.

Over the next few months, I’ll offer some insight through the various papers that I assign.  Each paper is beautiful in its own way, and I’m frequently struck by my students’ strength and motivation.

My first paper was called:  Myself: Inside and Out.  To prevent students from telling the traditional tale – name, hometown, high school -- I asked them to first make a list of 25 random things about themselves.  By asking for 25 different things, I was encouraging them to reach deep, beyond their expectations of what I might want.  I then asked them to turn their list into an organized essay through a number of little exercises and steps

I got a number of interesting responses.

Sophia is one of my better writers.  She writes about a contemplative life:

….Almost everyone enjoys watching films, and I am no exception. However, when others wait anxiously in line for the latest release, I am sitting quietly in front of the computer with a classic film as my beloved companion. Not a fan of movies filled with exciting special effects and stirring background music, I would rather enjoy a literary film with a cup of tea at home than crowd into a cinema. That’s why, while friends around me were all talking about the new Spiderman this summer vacation, I still immersed myself in the conversation with 1900, the protagonist in The Legend of 1900.

Music is something that nobody can get rid of, and this is true of me. However, simply listening to the song can never satisfy me; singing to it can, especially when I am in the back seat of my dad’s car. For a lot of people, shower time will be the best occasion to sing to their hearts’ content, but for me, only when I am in the car, singing as if there were nobody around, will I feel myself super star on the biggest stage. My dad always says it seems that you carry a tune only when you are in my car.

French ideologist Voltaire stated the truth applied to all the people that life lies in healthy exercise. Not liking intensive sports like running and swimming, I am more interested in taking a walk in the evening which helps me wind down after the solid ten-hour study. Dinner finished, I always go for a stroll with my dad, sharing feelings and reviews about the film we have watched recently. It is not just about the repetition of stepping one of your feet in front of another, but more about the refreshment and revitalization, especially when Forrest Gump or John Keating are along with us.

Taking a different tact, my student Daisy introduced herself with an extended metaphor:

   Growing in some harsh and damp conditions, daisy, negligible, was originally regarded as weed. Later, people found out that this kind of flower springs up everywhere and endeavors to sprout and burst into bloom. Daisy, with small and exquisite white petals surrounding yellowish orange pistil, always smiles towards all the people passing by. It is a flower which is very cute and kind. Coincidentally, I am Daisy, and, exactly just like the flower daisy which impressed me most, I am a cute and kind girl.

She continued with this somewhat saccharine image for a few more paragraphs.

One of the more heart-breaking essays came from Sky, who writes about a fairly brutal education system that separated her family, although she admits to still being close to and depending upon them.  She wrote that she initially thought that she would write about the components to her personality:  family, study and entertainment:

 “However, when my eyes lingered over those three words, I thought it would be boring if I simply covered those three aspects. I instead decided to focus on the bond between my past experiences and personality, and figured out what lies behind. Unconsciously, my experience of studying in a residential school at a very young age indeed affects my life and shapes who I am.”

She then continues to talk about what it was like to be sent away from her family at the age of 7, to study at a competitive boarding school:

When I was 7, I was sent to the residential school to pursue a high-quality education without mutual consent. I knew that the act did good to me, but the fact that I could only see my parents once a month was really frustrating. And the sense of separation and loneliness drove me into tears frequently. I was forced to grow up quickly and became more independent than peers. Such independence contributes to the form of my personality. I tend to prefer the time when I am alone, which reflects on the fondness of the atmosphere, that everyone focuses on their own work, which can promote my efficiency.

Because of the lack of the family affection in childhood, I was taught to value my family and always put my family in the first place when I grow up. I’m accustomed to jogging along the river banks with my parents, cherishing the time we are together. I love sharing transient everydayness with my parents to release burden and strengthen the bond of affection. We sometimes run into a debate, but we will soon make peace in mutual compromise.

Maybe, on account of such affection loss in childhood, I find out that I don’t know how to externalize my affection even though I’m deeply moved by the certain scene or warm words. I’m afraid to hug and say “I love you” to people I love. Strangely unlike other girls who like rambling hand in hand, I feel uncomfortable and embarrassed having skin ship.

I love her words,  like “everydayness” and “skin ship.”   Frankly, I read these essays, and my heart sometimes breaks.

All of my students talked about their close relationship to their parents, even though many of them were sent away to schools at fairly young ages.  Most of them accept the competitive nature of the education system – whether it is being sent away as a child or taking walks with parents after 10 hours of studying.   As I look, on Facebook, at my friends and grown-up American students interacting with their kids, I’m struck by the comparisons.  I ‘ve learned  that there are real benefits to coming out on top in the Chinese educational systems.  But I’ve also seen some of the costs as well.