As a country that makes up 20% of the population of the world and 10% of Darlington, China has become more and more influential these days.
As a response, Chinese students at Darlington held China Awareness Day for the purpose of spreading the true image of modern China the day before China National Day (Oct. 1). With the support of Mr. Evans, I started the event to focus on politics, education, economy and the culture of China. Placed in the Dodd Banquet Room, China Awareness Day attracted numerous students and teachers (special thanks to Mr. Evans and Mr. Inman for bringing their classes), and the responses were positive.
The politics part involved different policies and problems of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. Mentioning the one-child policy and traffic control policy, students saw a lot of unique policies in China. Kira Zhang, a Chinese senior from Dalian, introduced the difference between the U.S. federal government and Chinese unitary government. As a relative of a former general of the China Nationalist Party, senior Ward Li of Macau sincerely shared the story of his family. In the end, students learned about the diplomatic relationship between China and several countries, including the United States.
Education in China is known for being tough. Senior Tyler Dai, from Hangzhou, told his story—10 periods of class and homework that took up to four hours to finish, assigned every day. The huge amount of studying everyday makes students from China advanced in math and science in the early years. The Chinese SAT and SSAT were also interesting to some level: the extremely hard math problems were far different from those “easy” English questions.
The culture of food in China was another main point. Students from everywhere passionately shared their local food, which demonstrated regional differences inside of China.
Often considered as a socialist system, the economy of China is really more capitalist nowadays. I, being born and raised in the capital city of Beijing, briefly introduced general information on the Chinese economy, including currency, banks, and the stock market. I also explained the recent depreciation of the renminbi (RMB) and stock market crash. Known as Special Administrative Regions, Hong Kong and Macau were also shared with the group by comparing them with mainland China.
Contrary to the ancient Chinese culture based on Confucianism, which paid a lot of attention to etiquette, modern China has assimilated with the international world. Although the lives of Chinese citizens have few differences compared with those of the U.S. people, restrictions such as the “Great Firewall of China” and local protection policies have sort of isolated the Chinese Internet.
We appreciate Darlington for offering students such a chance to hold this event. Hopefully everyone who attended China Awareness Day learned something interesting and useful. We believe as a School with students from all over the world, Darlington will be an even more welcoming place for international students in the future by holding more of these events.
Haojun "Dick" Xu is a twelfth-grade boarding student in Moser House from Beijing, China.
