Library dedication in China immerses Bangor teacher in culture of Far East

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Editor’s Note: Bangor High School is participating in a three-year partnership with Primary Source, a nonprofit organization that helps schools integrate China studies into the curriculum. History teacher Ryan Bradeen traveled with the group to China recently.

Aug. 8 was a hot day to be standing in the sun. But as our bus snaked along the narrow dirt road through the broad cornfields to Pangliu village, 50 miles south of Xian, young and old stood in long double lines at the roadside waiting for us.

Schoolchildren costumed in bright homemade uniforms were in the first line cheering, playing horns, drums and cymbals, waving red banners. In the second line, the elder people, the farmhands and the parents raised their arms in greeting or swung red flags over the heads of their children. At the end of the long columns of villagers waited a party of local dignitaries, dressed in their best and sweating.

For the 25 American educators riding in the air-conditioned bus, it was like driving into the final scene of a movie when the heroes return victorious to cheers, parades and confetti. But I had missed three-quarters of the film.

We were here to dedicate the new Chinese-American Friendship Library attached to Pangliu’s village school – built with funds raised by New England teachers and students – in a rural Chinese village I had never seen.

Our visit to Pangliu was part of a three-week study tour of the Silk Road, organized by Primary Source, a Boston nonprofit group devoted to bringing education about China into American classrooms. The Pangliu village project was something I had heard about in the Primary Source summer institutes, seminars and workshops I had attended.

But without experiencing the village for myself, it was hard to know what to expect when we arrived in Pangliu.

Fortunately, two people with vision, one American and one Chinese, had seen Pangliu and knew what collecting pennies and washing cars could do to change a poor farming village in the Chinese heartland.

Dr. Anne Watt, senior program director at Primary Source, had vision. And Richard Wang, the only Pangliu native ever to have studied in the United States and now the founder of a successful international travel company, had vision.

These two people first met in 1999 while Wang was leading one of Primary Source’s frequent China study tours for educators. They have initiated a project that has altered the landscape of Pangliu village and changed the lives of many New England educators with excitement and mission.

After exiting the bus into the heat that August day, and making our way through the brigades of hand-shakers, we were guided through the dusty streets lined with brown brick buildings and into the schoolyard.

Every one of the 8,000 people in the village had come to the large courtyard of the school. The faded, worn farmers with sun-deepened crow’s-feet, wearing broad field hats, kept to the shade along the walls and packed the balconies of the main school building.

The children, brightly dressed and shining with purple tinsel headpieces and fuchsia wristbands, raced and chattered about the yard, heedless of the sun. They crowded around us, laughing and pointing.

The youngsters posed for pictures, giving the V-sign with their fingers and struggling through small conversations with us in our limited Chinese.

The young parents and our group sat on the narrow benches in front of the stage area for the dedication ceremony.

Behind the stage stood the stately Chinese-American Friendship Library, which had been completed in five months using local labor and materials.

Fine gray tiles dress the sides of the building while the roof is finished with glossy red tiles. The two-story building includes an office and large book room on the first floor. On the second floor is a community meeting room and a nicely furnished bedroom for guest teachers. Huge bronze characters attached to the face of the building announce the “Chinese-American Friendship Library.”

New England teachers, students and their communities as part of a growing relationship between Pangliu and New England schools raised a total of $19,000.

The only other source of funding was a small grant of $625 from Pangliu’s county and township governments to install the village’s first and only Western-style toilet in the library – for the benefit of American teachers when they visit.

Wang and village leaders claim that welcoming American teachers several times a year has made a big difference in village life, and has given them all something to plan for and look forward to.

In his opening speech, Wang said, “Since April 1999, our school has received over 200 American teachers in nine groups. This is unprecedented in Chan Gan county, which has a population of more than 1 million.

“We feel very proud of this,” he said. “The visit of American teachers to our school and village has greatly broadened the vision of our teachers and students, inspired their enthusiasm for their studies and greatly promoted our teaching work.

“We have learned a lot from these visits about American elementary and high schools. They have brought lots of teaching supplies and books each time they have visited us. This fully shows the kindness and friendship of the American teachers and students to our school,” Wang said.

The money for Pangliu was raised in several ways in a number of New England schools. Children in Susan Logsdon’s elementary school in Dover, Mass., collected so many pennies and nickels in a “Pennies for Pangliu” drive that the glass aquarium holding the coins broke on the way to the bank.

When the money was all counted, they had collected more than $800.

Meg Holmes, a school librarian in North Andover, Mass., was in the first group to visit Pangliu in 1999. When her high school-age daughter died in a car accident in late 1999, the community donated more than $3,000 in her memory, money Holmes and her family gave to this project.

Many other schools raised money through carwashes, bottle drives and other types of fund-raisers.

After the speeches and a tour of the library, the children separated by grade for a series of performances. Under flawless skies and relentless 110-degree heat, the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade troupes danced and sang well-choreographed and long-rehearsed traditional stories.

Local people played traditional instruments to accompany the young performers. Late in the show, two local elders sang parts from a Peking opera, their makeup running down their cheeks from their long wait in the sun.

After the speeches, songs, dances and meetings with village education officials had finished, Wang arranged for us to eat in the homes of local people.

We feasted on so many dishes that the plates were stacked on top of one another on the table – spicy green beans with chili peppers, tasty greens, chicken and peanuts, bowls of thick noodles, a bland corn soup claimed to be good for cooling the body against the heat, and many other dishes.

In some groups the hosts showed off their ballroom dancing skills; in others the conversation went to matters of local economy.

For the New England teachers who have been part of the nine Primary Source China study tours to visit Pangliu, the village has been a highlight of their China experiences. It is a rare opportunity for nonspecialists to be able to visit remote Chinese villages.

Before the first Primary Source visit in 1999, no American ever had been to the town. Since then, the village has welcomed American teachers regularly, giving them a view into a lifestyle, education and economy that involve most of the Chinese – but that few American tourists have a chance to see.

The Pangliu library project has created opportunities both for the villagers to better educate their children, and for American teachers to be better prepared to teach about China.

“This library is witness to the friendship between the American and Chinese peoples,” Wang said. “It will sow the friendship seeds in the hearts of our young students.”

To keep that friendship growing, officials from Primary Source have invited Wang and his family to visit the Boston area during the winter of 2002. This will enable Wang to meet and directly thank children and teachers who helped to raise money for the library.

With his impeccable English and winning manner, he will tell the inspiring story of his rise from a poor farming childhood in the village to a successful entrepreneur in the modern Chinese economy.

At the same time, Wang will paint the picture of his brothers’ children’s lives in Pangliu village today, and will thank his American friends for the opportunities his nephews and nieces now will have because of the Chinese-American Friendship Library and the friendship with New England school communities.

For information about the Pangliu village project or Primary Source, contact Dr. Anne S. Watt, Senior Program Director, Primary Source, 125 Walnut St., Watertown, Mass. 02472; or telephone (617) 923-9933; or check the Web at www.primarysource.org.