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Issue: 1070 Date: 2/24/2011
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A different Spring Festival
17 students from Beijing visited Barat, Priory, and Villa High Schools
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This year's Spring Festival brought a gift to three St. Louis high schools all the way from Beijing. Seventeen students from LuHe High School, accompanied by three teachers, came to live and attend school with students at Barat Academy, Priory School, and Villa Duchesne.
Over the course of their two week stay, the students enjoyed home cooked American dinners, observed high school basketball and hockey, and visited The Arch and Mizzou in Columbia.
Last week, on Thursday February 17, this adventure culminated with a Chinese style dinner at Mandarin House Chinese restaurant. The students' host families joined select faculty, administration from these three schools to welcome them.
Mr. Dave Rogowski, 12th Grade Global Issues Instructor of Barat Academy, who organized this dinner with Mr. Francis Yueh, St. Louis County Commissioner. They also invite Prof. Hong-Gay Fung (UMSL), Dr. Chensheng Xia (Principal of St. Louis Modern Chinese School) and Mr. May Wu (Director, St. Louis Chinese American News) to represent St. Louis Chinese community to welcome these 20 visitors from Beijing.
This dinner served as a chance for the students and their host peers to reminisce about the past two weeks, dream of and plan a reciprocal visit to Beijing this summer, impart chopstick skills, and compare Americanized Chinese dishes of Crab Rangoon and Sweetened Fried Shrimp to authentic Chinese dishes like spicy Hunan Beef.
Our Chinese friends were eager to share highlights and observations from their experiences. One boy, who assumed the English name Frank, talked about the kindness and hospitality he noticed of many people in Missouri. Frank also shared his observation of students at Barat Academy being far more eager to raise their hands and participate in student centered classes than back in Beijing, where high school students are more often quieter while expecting the teacher to be at the center of the class.
Another boy, Yang, modeled his graceful chopstick skills for his host family's youngest son, who eagerly fumbled the chopsticks in his hand while trying to emulate him. At the end of the dinner, a group of girls gazed quizzically at the fortunes in their fortune cookies, both trying to read and comprehend their fortunes and understand how this invention is considered Chinese in America.
While the host families made this amazing dream a reality, the support of the administrations from Priory, Villa Duchesne, and Barat Academy envisioned and coordinated this exchange. Their hard work and commitment to building a cultural and educational bridge between China and our community in St. Louis has paved the way for a successful exchange, and only promises to expand to longer exchanges in the future. |
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