Mutual support between Hong Kong and Jiangxi province has grown over decades. Anyuan county in the eastern province, in particular, has benefited from schools built partially with Hong Kong funds in recognition of its efforts to conserve the environment along the Dongjiang River. Li Bingcun reports from Shenzhen.
Siyuan Experimental School, which was jointly built by Hong Kong’s Yanai Foundation and the Anyuan local government in 2015, witnesses the mutual support between Hong Kong and Jiangxi. (WILLIAM XU / CHINA DAILY)
Chen Sihan — an 11-year-old girl from Anyuan, a small county in Jiangxi province — often gets up at 5 am on weekends to play soccer with friends, besides training for two hours on weekdays.
The slim, pony-tailed school girl is the best female player in her school’s soccer team. She scored four goals in a single match and would like to compete with stronger rivals, like senior students.
Although she is fond of sports, to Chen and her teammates, it’s just an interest for the moment and they would like to keep it that way. But not every child on the Chinese mainland is so fortunate.
Standard soccer pitches and professional training for juniors are still relatively new in Anyuan, a mountainous area that was mired in poverty until two years ago, especially in rural villages.
The Siyuan Experimental School, jointly built by the Yanai Foundation from Hong Kong and the Anyuan local government in 2015, has provided a stage for children to grow up and develop. Besides reminding students to be grateful for the help they have received, “Siyuan” in the school’s name highlights the mutual support between Hong Kong and Jiangxi, which are connected by an important river — Dongjiang.
(PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Located near the source of the river, which supplies Hong Kong with the bulk of its fresh water, Anyuan and nearby counties have made years-long efforts, which are often at the expense of economic development, to protect their environment. Besides allocating resources each year to planting trees and conserving water, Anyuan banned logging and mining in the area the river flows past, and rejected hundreds of investment projects that failed to meet its environmental protection requirements.
Lai Jinshan, a 32-year-old ranger at the Sanbaishan Mountain, a national forest park near the river’s headwater, inspects its surroundings on foot almost every day — in scorching heat or pouring rain. The intense walking means he wears out three or four pairs of shoes each year. Despite advanced technology being used in conservation, he said that a lot of work must still be done manually. The forest always needs caring and guarding and that is why he chose the job.
As a gesture to the efforts of Anyuan and the nearby counties, a group of social organizations in Hong Kong helped local authorities to develop basic education there. Education is of paramount importance in driving their development, especially in the underdeveloped areas.
The Siyuan Experimental School is one such result of the collaboration. The Yanai Foundation — a charity group set up by Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist Michael Ying Lee-yuen in 2006 to support educational and medical projects on the mainland — has helped build hundreds of schools across the country. It proposed building a public school that offers primary and secondary education in Anyuan, and donated 10 million yuan (US$1.6 million) as initial funding. Local authorities provided 70 million yuan to get the school operational in 2015.
(PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
In six years, the number of pupils has gone up from 2,100 to 4,057, and the quality of its teaching has topped other schools in the county for five straight years, principal Lu Hongsheng said.
The school’s design and facilities are not vastly different from city schools. It’s not particularly spacious, but has a soccer pitch, several basketball courts, dormitories for students and teachers, and a dining hall that can accommodate 900 students. Its teaching blocks have red and white ceramic tiles, with marks and slogans written in both English and Chinese on the walls. Even the signboard at the gate of the school is bilingual.
Lu said the school has grown rapidly, given the strong demand for education. To cope with a rising number of students, the school plans to build 20 more classrooms and a new teaching block by September.
Hong Kong’s support plays a vital role in the school’s development, the principal said, adding that “without the initial funding from Hong Kong, it could not have been built.” The Yanai Foundation footed the bill for designing the campus, and sponsored about 100 teachers to study and do exchange programs with schools in Chengdu, Sichuan province; Beijing and Shenzhen. These laid the foundation for its future operations.
The founding of the school reflects a growing emphasis on education in the small county. To drive long-term development, local authorities are focusing on improving the quality of education, especially by installing better teaching facilities. Local resident Sun Jinling sent his daughter to the school for a better studying environment than the primary school the girl was at the previous year, saying that the young school has caught up with other more established first-class local schools in a short time. He also rated the campus design and facilities as being ahead of many other schools in the county.
(PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The school offers conditions for Sun’s daughter, who is now a fourth-grader, to harness her interests. Inspired by animations, she is fond of playing soccer and joined the school team last year, attending training almost every day. Although Sun said he doesn’t understand his daughter’s passion for a sport that he finds more suitable for boys, the father still supports and accompanies his daughter to training. Sun’s only hope is that his little girl can grow up to be healthy.
Guo Min, a 23-year-old local resident, joined the school as a Chinese-language teacher this year. She studied at university in Jilin province — a bigger place with more work opportunities —but decided to return home after graduation. Guo said her current job is fulfilling and she thinks the school has huge potential. The young teacher said many of her friends also teach at the school and are happy with their jobs.
Care and support from Hong Kong are reflected in the development of other educational institutions in Anyuan.
Xiao Shuqiang, president of the Federation of Hong Kong Societies, has given donations for the construction of three campuses in the county since 2007. He has also offered scholarships to local high school graduates who have excelled in their studies.
Other organizations, such as the United Hearts Youth Foundation have repaid the efforts Anyuan made in protecting the Dongjiang River. In 2013, the youth foundation donated 300,000 yuan to build a primary school in the county. It has funded more than 110 schools nationwide, 13 of which are in Jiangxi province.
Elvis Kwok, who is in charge of supporting mainland schools at the foundation, has visited Anyuan four times. He said these visits enabled him to better understand what people in Jiangxi have done to protect the Dongjiang River, which supplies the water he drinks every day, and he appreciates their endeavors.
Kwok said that fostering exchanges between youths from Hong Kong and the mainland is a worthy cause. He has organized many trips to mainland schools for Hong Kong students to perform voluntary work. “I’ve been in touch with tens of thousands of rural students on the mainland, but none of them has been to Hong Kong,” he says, expressing the hope that he can do more once the pandemic is over.
Growing up in the foothill of the Sanbaishan Mountain, Sun has understood the importance of protecting the Dongjiang River since he was a child. Now that his daughter studies at the school that was built in return for the local people’s endeavors to protect the river, he said such a bond has resulted in mutual support.
Anyuan’s residents might not have expected anything in return for their dedication, but what they have done has echoed loudly in the hearts of the people they have helped, and they have been treated with warmth and kindness in return.
Contact the writer at bingcun@chinadailyhk.com
