Paris District High School - Yearbook (Paris, Ontario Canada)

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PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK 23 of having escaped and of being in a quiet place to continue their work for China. No word of complaint is heard although they have lost all their belongings and their money and many have seen their dearest ones shot down. They express only the desire to get back into work and build up a New China out of the shambles of the old. Our refugee students are the cream of China's students. They are the active ones who have somehow found ways and means of coming from the coast regions some fifteen hundred miles away into the interior. Some have walked! They have resisted the glamour of the uniform, the temptation to go and tight, and instead are intent on giving their lives to the building up of the New After the War China. Indeed one of the amazing things about the effect of the war has been the absence of hysteria or mob enthusiasm orf the part of the Chinese. All are loyally and enthusiastically supporting the Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. Everyone recognizes, however, that al- though the War is inevitable and that it must be opposed with war, yet that this war, or any other war, can settle nothing. After the war comes the great opportunity and responsibility for the universities and their graduates. In fact, the Government has given strict orders that university students are not to be allowed to enlist but are to concentrate on their studies. This attitude explains the remark of a dentistry teacher to a girl refugee student. She had just received word that her home had been bombed by Japanese planes and her mother and family killed. As she sat in the lecture room taking down notes, her grief became uncontrollable and she burst into tears and open grief. The teacher told her to stop, that China required her to forget her private sorrow and to concentrate on her studies so that she could better serve her country! That is a stern philosophy, but it is one that is guiding thousands of the youth of China. Of the eleven Christian universities and colleges, which are joined through the American China Christian Colleges Committee, which last year raised through an Emergency Campaign S300,000, one institution is carrying on in Japanese occupied areas, two are threatened daily with bombing by planes carrying death and destruction, seven have had their campuses destroyed or occupied but are still doing teaching work in other places, only one university, the West China Union University in Chengtu is privileged to be still on its own campus, untouched, as yet, by the raids of the Japanese. Because of this state of affairs, this university occupies a key position in the educational plans of the Christian Colleges. These eleven colleges are attempting to directly influence China to be- come a Christian country. Their success is shown by the influential posi- tions that their graduates now hold in China's national life. Although each institution is still supported 'by missionary organizations in America, Canada and Great Britain, an increasing measure of their support has come from within China. They are a recognized part of the Chinese educational system, approved by the government. In each place there is a small group of Anglo-Saxons, who are greatly interested in the Chinese people and their struggle to build a New China. In each place, there is direct contact be- tween the best of the East and of the West, an attempt based on Christian love and friendship to synthesise a new culture for China that shall be

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22 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK A Chinese University in VVar Time Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, the campus of the West China Union University was a busy spot in the life of a great interior province of China. The university is just a mile or so outside the south gate of the city of Chengtu, the capital of the province of Szechwan. On a clear morning We can look out to the west and see the great snow moun- tains of Tibet, the land of fascination and romance. We had a student body of some four hundred students divided among the faculties of Arts, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. But today a much different picture can be drawn. For we have welcom- ed to our campus refugee students by their hundreds and refugee teachers by the score. Up to the present there have come, either in whole or in part, four other Christian universities and one great government school of medi- cine and dentistry. Our student body has increased to almost one thousand and consequently classrooms and laboratories have been put on double shift in order to meet the new demands. Our guests have had a hard time as they fled from the downriver in- stitutions before the arrival of the Japanese. Practically all are separated and out of touch with their families, money is very scarce and the future uncertain. One of our friends, a professor of chemistry in the University of Nanking told us of being given forty-eight hours in which to pack up all chemicals and apparatus and move the faculty and student bodies out of Nanking. Carpenters by the hundreds were called into nail up the boxes which were feverishly packed as carefully as possible. Imagine the amount of delicate apparatus that would have to be disconnected, wrapped individ- ually and then carefully packed so that the gentle handling of the Chinese stevedores would do no damage. Another friend told of the inteolerable crowding on the few steamers that were left in Nanking to carry crowds of refugees upriver to a haven of safety, of being without food or even water to drink for days, and of the constant fear that a Japanese bomber would sight the boat and ruthlessly bomb them. What kind of leaders and teachers are these, who have come to our campus? They are a fine group. Most of them have spent three years or more abroad studying, after graduation from a Chinese university. In addition, they have been leading the way in finding new ways and means of educating Chinese youth. One of our guests, Dr. Wu, is president of Ginling Women's College, commonly called the Vassar of China. She is one of the outstanding women in China today. Another is Dr. Wei noted for his development of extension Work at the University of Nanking. He has pioneered in the use of educational movies in Chinese high school work. Still another is Dr. Bi, a leader in Public Health work in China. He was forced out of Mukden Medical College by the Japanese conquest of Man- churia in 1931 and now six years later is again driven to a new sphere of work. These leaders have come, conscious of the privilege that is theirs,

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24 PARIS HIGH SCHOOL YEAR BOOK Christian. These colleges are bridges of good-will between China and the great English-speaking countries and are surely sorely needed in this age of dictatorships and cries of narrow self-sufficient nationalism. The significant place that West China Union University has in this programme today is best illustrated by the remarks of one of our guest teachers. He gave an address using as his text the six characters which make up our name in Chinese. The first two are Hwa Hsi, meaning West China. These represent the location of the new home of Chinese culture and civilization which will come into being born out of the tragedy and testing of this present war. The next two characters Hsieh Ho carry the idea of Union and this is the keyword of the present spirit of China, for it is the most necessary thing to be cherished in her present strug- gle for her national life. The last two Dak Hsuo or University is the in- stitution on which China depends to train her ,future leaders who will go out and rebuild a New China. To the devoted pioneers who twenty-iive years ago undertook the task of creating a modern university in faraway West China, who had as their ambition a true Union University and who felt that through the Christian university great things could be done for China, to them a great debt of gratitude is due. Today, in the midst of this national crisis, we are en- deavouring to carry out their dreams, so that China may rise, as a great na- tion, to take her place with America and the British Empire as true guar- dians of world peace and democracy. KATHLEEN FERGUSON SPOONER. SPRING SI-IOVVER The sun is sinking deep in yonder sky, The shadows lengthen and the clouds quite softly glow, A deep, deep blue comes from the east up high And settles down: a heavy cloud hangs low. A spot of rain, another, in a breath The air is tilled with big soft drops of dew That gaily chase each other down, down, down, From out the sky of deeper, deeper hue. And now the sun, from just below the line That closes off our view, bursts forth again. And just as quickly has the rain gone past, But still the clouds full bright remain. They gleam with bright and awe-inspiring light, And now a rainbow arches high the vault Of Heaven, and we Whisper reverently, God hath made all Nature without fault. Audrey Brooks.