Ceremony, Laughter and School

Today was a day that felt like school—it’s what we do.  And we did it with lots of ceremony and lots of laughter.  The morning began on the campus of Xi’an Jiaotong University, the sister university of UNL.  It’s a lovely campus, with many trees, and a large square with statues symbolizing the four inventions of the early Chinese people:  paper, print making, the compass, and gun powder.  Graduation is approaching, and many students were in small groups around the campus, posing with friends for photos.  We were there for the formal opening ceremony, hosted by the leaders of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), greeting us as the delegation from the UNL Confucius Institute.  The President of the University, Nanning Zheng, hosted the morning ceremony.  It was both formal, with formal seating and a definite protocol, and informal, because of the personable nature of President Zheng and David Lou, Director of the UNL Confucius Institute.  Formality that honored the occasion, and ease that made all of us comfortable.

It is unusual for the President to meet with visiting delegations such as ours, so it was indeed an honor.  Dr. Zheng had visited Nebraska earlier in this spring, giving the commencement address at UNL and receiving an honorary Doctor of Science degree.  He is genuinely interested in the work of public school educators, and he liked the Nebraska people he had met earlier.  The opening ceremony included remarks by Dr. Zheng and Dr. Lou; Alan Schneider, superintendent of ESU 5 in Nebraska, and I spoke on behalf of the Nebraska educators.  It was an honor to do so.  We also exchanged gifts; I was delighted to be able to present Dr. Zheng with a beautiful piece of Nancy Childs’ art.  Nancy, as you know, works with and makes her own paper, so that was particularly appropriate for the President of a university in the country that created the process for making paper.  We received lovely shadow puppets and fans, especially appreciated because of the very warm days in Xi’an in June.  It was a gracious and centering way to begin the day.

President Zheng hosted a banquet in our honor at noon, and I was seated at his left hand.  He talked about the similarities of the United States and China, both large countries with many people.  I noted the importance of education for the future of both nations, and he agreed.  Then, engineering professor that he is, he commented that he thought educators have “the human heart of the engineer.”  It was a touching statement.

In the afternoon we had a Chinese language and culture class, and I remembered all over again how very difficult it is to begin to learn a new language.  Our teacher was excellent, and we’re all learners sitting around the table.  We’re motivated, we’re interested.  And we struggled to learn to count to 10 in Chinese.  It’s just hard.  We also learned key elements of Chinese culture and history, including the timeline of the dynasties and the times during which paper, print making, the compass, and gun powder were invented.  She taught us about the significance of the dragon in Chinese culture, and she taught us about Confucius and Confucianism.  We were engaged throughout.  We did much better with the culture and history part than the language, because we have some prior knowledge about culture and history.  Most of us have absolutely no prior knowledge of the language, and without “hooks” in our brains to connect the new learning to old, it’s very difficult to learn brand new concepts or terms.  Makes me all the more in awe of our English Language Learners and their teachers…..

Tomorrow, a visit to the City Wall and another lecture on the Chinese culture.  Soon, for this blog, thoughts about food and photos….

Posted from Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.