Desiree Sturrock, age 12, Assistant tour blogger and emoji editor
Today we visited the Shanghai Nanyang Model High School. One of the top high schools in all of Shanghai - it's (quoted from Charlie Zhang) the "Harvard of Shanghai high schools." There are about 10,000 students attending this school and they reside on campus in dorms. Faculty consists of about 400 instructors. Our gracious hosts provided us with a boxed lunch from none other than McDonald's - my understanding is that they wanted us to have a meal that reminded us of home. I don't normally eat McDonald's (except the fries or hash browns), but...I must say that a large Coke on ice, fries and a Big Mac was actually really nice - thoughtful of our hosts and tasty for us
A few interesting facts about compulsory education in China shared by our tour guide:
- The school schedule used to be 6 days a week but was changed to 5 not long ago.
- In elementary school, the main subjects are math
- In high school, the days are long. Competition to track toward university acceptance is fierce, so high school students attend school all day (about 7:30a.m. to 5p.m.) tutoring (our guide called it "extracurricular" education, but it's not club soccer and it made Kumon seem woefully inadequate) is after school with a teacher. Afterwards, students get home for dinner at about 9p.m., eat and study more until midnight at least!
- High school is 3 years (equivalent to sophomore through senior year in the U.S.) and for 1 week in each year of high school, students do projects that are intended to help them appreciate the life of a worker (build with wood
- Academic pressure does not ease much during college, though students do have options to participate in non-academic activities like social societies.
After a short (seriously - it was only about 45 minutes and traffic was relatively light compared to what we've experienced during the past few days in Beijing) bus drive, we arrived at the Model School. Setting up for rehearsal was described by Symphony staff member Eileen as "Tetris." We had to squeeze over 100 students onstage! But we managed. Dr. Kalia was also interviewed by a local TV news team just prior to the show, which shows the keen level of interest the community has for this event. When the concert started, it was clear that once again, everyone brought their A-game. It was like watching two professional orchestras in a row. Auditorium acoustics were fantastic! The audience was completely engaged and obviously appreciated the performance given by both groups. What an absolute privilege to be there to experience this. The program consisted of:
- "Spring Festival" Overture (combined)
- Overture from "The Force of Destiny" (Verdi) and the last movement from Shahrazad (Model School), and
- Selections from "West Side Story" ("Boy" and "Mambo") and the last movement from Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 plus an encore - the "Star Wars Imperial March" (PSYO)
As PSYO completed the last few bars of Tchaikovsky; however, my throat started to tighten and my eyes welled up. Then I could feel a wet drop in the corner of one eye, and another drop forming in my other eye. I took a deep breath and tried to collect myself. I didn't really want to start crying in front of everyone, and I know my daughter would be baffled by my reaction (later I told her about my reaction and her comment was, "but mom, it's not even a sad song"). But that wasn't it at all - it wasn't even because our daughter is in the group or because it's so amazing to be here in China on this tour, I think it was because I was reflecting on the deeper significance of this performance. Watching these young people make a connection between east and west through music - transcending cultural, historical and political differences - what a joyous moment. As I write this, I know words are inadequate to describe how it felt to actually be there, but suffice to say, PSYO played in a way that made you feel something - and isn't that what art is meant to do? Help us communicate without words? And on a more personal level, so may of us, myself included, have immigrated from China and other nations or we have ancestors who immigrated before us. Why? I think mostly to have more freedom and opportunity that was not available in our native countries. How amazing to come back to the place from which many of us came and make a connection through music. Thank you PSYO. With utmost and heartfelt sincerity, thank you.
Today after the show, we had some down-time...YAY! Actually HALLELUJAH (Handel's Hallelujah Chorus chorus should now be playing in your head). We were able to return to the hotel, refresh, relax and eat. Immediately after dinner we attended a Chinese acrobat show
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