University of Nanking - Linguist Yearbook (Nanking, China)

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THE LINGUIST 19 llla0 090-1' at New Year time sends high into the air and catches again on hlS string, their minds and spirits break away now and then from the Tronotony of existence in search of higher and fuller life. Some day, all 10 boys and girls of China will have a chance to find such a life. - Have a ride Z I called from my bicycle to a bright little chap i1lJOut eleven years old on his way home from school. Haoj' he shouted, Dlllled his blue gown up about his waist, and sat in front of me on my :heel Where do you study? Fourth Normal Primary. And then hilfifjld me about his basketball team, his playmates, the school store and U X, it Chinese water-color painting he was working on,and his studies. hire all your books here? and I pointed to the sehoolbook-basket lgmg On the bicycle-handle. No? We use a libraryg we are studying m1dCl' the Dalton plan. Shades of Confucius! I promised to visit his School and class, and put him off near his fathcr's paper store. Thank you Very much, he yelled in clear English. A week later, I saw Mi'lQ'Shao again in his school environment. Bright maps, diagrams, and Pictures on the wallsg well-illustrated and interesting text-booksg the school buildings divided into sections and named after continents and 00llntriesg an alert and progressive corps of teachers, ready to try new me'0ll0dSg a gymnasium and out-door swimming pond for June and SePtemberg boys and girls, clean, wide-awake, active. Moral education s through moral maxims and the teaching of citizenship. nlth careful training in manners. It is one of the best of the modern public schools in T '. . ' haulting and a promise of what Schools of Tomorrow and Ming-shaos of fOmorrow in China will be. Siao-tin-tz's head is at mass of sores and his eyelids are red and pulied from fPH0l10I11a. The cotton sticks out of his wadded trousers in a dozen SP0l2S and his face and hands are cold. But then what cares he? He has two coppers, gt Nexs, Year present from his grandfather to spend with the Cilfldy-peddler. lVatch his excitement as he whirls the candy-roulette wheel. Will it stop at the candy cow or the candy idol Z And then hasnt he a wonderful red and blue paper rabbit, which can be lit inside like 3

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18 CHILD LIFE IN CHINA Education textbooks, and under his private tutorship, they have mastered three readers in three months. Inside the simple thatched hut with its single room are numerous interesting objects,-the boys' old cradle, two bundles of lo-elrai-the tall dry reed used for fuel-a red pepper and an ear of red corn hanging on the mud wall, a bundle of dried leaves the color of tobacco supposed to be eflieaeious in killing bugs on the plants, matting GDB, v,,- 5 L I'l:oln hy .llisslou Pholo UIIVCIIII for repairing roof or wall, a little locked box of treasured pictures and trinkets, a varied assortment of mattocks, hoes, rakes and buckets. The little fellows are delightfully friendly and unusually honest. Their rough cheeks wrinkle and their eyes are full of 1llC1'l'lll1CDl2 as they look straight into yours. I ani tempted to give them many things because- strange again-they never ask for anything. They seem stolidly happy, they join now and then in games with neighboring boys, and the picture books which they are beginning to read open up a new world. Last Christmas a friend took them a basket of surprises and they listened with wide-open eyes and rapt attention to tl1e Christmas story. But what a narrow world they live in after all! Nevertheless, like the singing diabolo

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20 CHILD LIFE IN CHINA Jack-0'-lantern? His father gave this to him yesterday when he visited the New Year fair at Fu-tzi-niiao. Chin-fu's hands fmt gs are stained deep blue. I job as apprentice , . in a weaver shop is to fi -' spin and wind the 'L 'F-5 heavy cotton thread, and prepare it for the looms. He hums a street tune while the shuttles about him click, and longs to get out with the boys who are tiying kites. Last week he slipped out while it was still light A Smeg Cmuly Stand to throw and roll cash with at neighborhood gang. His employer found him and beat him angrily over the head with a stick. I saw him in the twilight dusk, squatting in front of the shop and eating a bowl of brown rice with a pinch of greens on top. He tried to smile at me as I passed, but his eyes were still teary,--and very wistful. ' They threw their arms around each other, ducked their heads and giggled into their hands when I called them Siao-mei-mei tlit-tle sisterl. Two wee sisters going to school, dressed in flowered cotton coat and trousers, pink socks, pink shoes, and knitted caps. Black hair in one long plait with red string at the end. They are going to Mingteh Christian Primary School, where their record in reading and writing characters, in singing and in gymnastics, is making the father, who owns a. jewelry store near Shwei-si Men, very proud of his daughters.