Special Classes in Chenghe Middle School

By Xue Jiazhu, Bian Yin

“Love in Long River” has been screened recently. This is a feature film produced by the Huaguang Film and Television Center under Zhejiang CPPCC. Many people are surprised to learn that there is such a special project at the Changhe (which literally means Long River) Senior High School in Hangzhou. All the students in the project are from poverty-stricken families. They work harder than their peers in other classes. Since the inception in 2001, the project has enrolled new students every year and all the graduates have come out excellently in the annual national higher education entrance examination and proceeded to universities.

Reform and opening up to the outside world have transformed Hangzhou and its suburban counties and cities, but there are some families afflicted with poverty. Some families in mountain areas cannot afford to send their children to school. As the script writers of the film, we visited some teenagers at their homes in mountainous areas. A girl was unable to go to high school as her father got injured in an accident and the family suddenly faced financial problems. A brilliant boy dropped out of school as his father had gambled away all the money and his mother had walked out on the family. A baby girl, deserted at a railroad, was picked up and then adopted by a railroad worker. She worked very hard in school in the hope of becoming a doctor in the future and learning how to cure her foster father of a chronic disease. A boy worked in a bamboo-weaving factory in the hope of earning enough to support himself through middle school. The house where he lived was almost empty.

In 2001, Chenghe Middle School started a special class called Hongzhi Project or Senior High School Aspiration Project. Sponsored and financed jointly by the government of Hangzhou, the news media of the city and the province, and many entrepreneurs, the school began to enroll academically brilliant students from poverty-stricken families across the province. The students are exempted from tuition and other expenses for their three-year senior high school education. They each receive a monthly subsidy of 300 yuan in cash. In 2001, 150 students were enrolled into the project. Since then, students have been enrolled every year across the province. The project is not all inclusive, but it has helped many students.

Students

All the students in the project treasure their opportunity. They are inspired and they all know what the opportunity means. They aspire to be academically brilliant. They all agree that the hardship they have experienced has given them strength. They are grateful to their parents for their love and upbringing, to teachers for everyday care and teaching, and to the Party and the government for great concern and for making the project happen, and to the general public for love, care, and support. The young students are gracious, bright, hard-working, and grateful. Of the first 150 students, many had a parent dead, and many had physically challenged parents. Some had been from families that could not afford education. Some had been even worried about food and shelter. After three-year care-free study, they all graduated to colleges and universities. Today, those who graduated from the project in the first few years have completed their college education. Some are working while others are studying abroad. They have started a foundation to help the project. And many of them have become legends in their home villages as they are the first college graduates the villages have ever seen.

Teachers

The teachers of the project have played a big role in making the Aspiration Classes successful. Chen Liqun, principal of Chenghe High School, is the key figure of the success of the project. He has set a good example to his colleagues by treating project students as his own. We interviewed him several times during the writing of the film script. The teachers dedicate themselves to these students. The school gives top priority to guaranteeing a full-fledged and all-round education to these students so that these students grow morally, academically, physically, and aesthetically.

The General Public

The success of the Aspiration Project at Long River touches the heart of the general public. Zhejiang Wanli Group provides tuition and boarding expenses for the students. Huaye Holding Group donates 300,000 annually. A Chinese businessman in Singapore heard of the project and donated a million to the project after a visit to the school. A retired teacher of Zhejiang Medical University said in his will that his apartment should be sold after his death and the proceeds should go to the project so that the students each could have two eggs a day. The school often receives anonymous cash donations from the general public.

It is hoped that the film can help turn the spirit embodied in the Aspiration Project into a precious social wealth that benefits all of us. The Aspiration Project at Changhe Senior High School has inspired more than students. It has inspired the public to give more and care more about those who need help and support.

Anna Chennault, a distinguished Chinese American, inscribed 宏志 for the project and attended the unveiling ceremony for the monument that bears the inscription. She spoke to the students of the project, encouraging them to aspire to a great future. She is honorary principal of the school. □