Tibetan Students in Shanghai

SUN MEPE
THE campus of the Shanghai Middle School for Hui Nationality is very beautiful. In the middle of the campus is a round lawn and in the center of the lawn is a tall cedar. Around the lawn are the classroom buildings, students' laboratory building, the cinema and an office building. Shades of green and bright flowers are seen everywhere. Just after a spring rain, the campus appear especially fresh and pleasing to the eye. More than 400 Tibetan students are studying and living at this beautiful school.
They are mostly the children of ordinary Tibetan families from the Tibet Autonomous Region; all are top students from their local schools. They have been selected through special examinations. In addition to the middle school curriculum, they are also studying Tibetan history. Most of them will enter college and study further in Beijing, Tianjin, Chengdu and Chongqing. Other will study in vocational schools after graduation and return to Tibet to take part in the construction there.

Life in the School
All the expenses of these Tibetan students are paid for by the State. Actually, each student is subsidized annually 1,000 yuan by the Shanghai Municipality. These subsidies cover the cost of their room and board, clothing and medical services throughout the four year program. Since 1985, the State's financial allocation to the school for the opening of the Tibetan class has reached one million yuan, while the financial subsidies from the Shanghai Municipality reached 1.2 million yuan. The school itself has also invested 700,000 yuan in building dormitories of Tibetan students.
Since Tibetan students prefer food that is salty and spicy, the school has opened a dining room specially for them. Delicious and nutritious food is cooked with care here. Under the meticulous care growing strong and healthy.

Studies
The more than 400 Tibetan students have come thousands miles from Tibet to Shanghai to study. It is not easy for them to become accustomed to a life that is totally different from what they are used to. They also have to study very hard.
When they first came to Shanghai, their educational level was actually below the standard of middle schools in Shanghai. Their Chinese and mathematics were especially poor. The biggest problem is that those from pastoral areas could not even understand the Han language mandarin, which makes teaching very difficult.
Considering the actual conditions of these students, the school begins with language, laying emphasis on review and coaching to gradually narrow the gap between the Tibetan students and students in the hinterland. With teachers' concern and hard work, those Tibetan students make great progress.
In a unified examination in Zhabei District, the mathematics marks of the first year Tibetan students surpassed the average marks of the students in the same grade, raking at the seventh in the district. Some Tibetan girls did not understand the Han language when they first came to Shanghai and could not speak fluently. Now, they have improved so much that two of them have even been invited to be reporters with the Children's Newspaper.
In addition to providing Tibetan students with general cultural lessons, the school attaches importance to the teaching of the Tibetan language. Teachers from Tibet give seven periods a week of Tibet give seven periods a week of Tibetan language lessons. The school also tries every way possible to create a good environment for students to learn the Tibetan language, such as holding Tibetan calligraphy competitions, exhibitions of homework in Tibetan language, publishing articles in Tibetan language on blackboard newspapers and organizing regular lectures of knowledge about Tibet. These activities have helped students to learn more about the history and culture of their own nationality and also helped to cultivate their love for Tibet and a desire to make a contribution to their native place.

Colorful Life at Spare Time
Nima is attending for the second year. She is a pretty young Tibetan woman with a fair complexion and sweet smile. Her father is doctor while her mother a farmer. Three years ago, Nima joined the photography class under the Shanghai Children's Scientific Station. The municipal education bureau has shown great concern with the Tibetan students' photography classes and has allocated special fund to equip them with cameras. Early this year, Nima took part in the Shanghai Middle and Primary School Students' Photographic Competition, at which her photograph "Late Autumn" won the top prize for the middle school group because of its perfect composition and good artistic conception. She is also a reporter on the Children's Newspaper.
At the same time the school recommends and sends its Tibetan students to the various events and activities outside school, it has also set up many interesting groups inside school to attract Tibetan students' interest and involvement. They include groups for painting, calligraphy, photography, dancing and basketball. Additionally, the school holds regular art performances, speech competitions and intelligence contests.
Every summer vacation, the school organizes travels for Tibetan students to Beijing or Lushan, etc, to provide them with opportunities to learn more about their motherland. Moreover, the school often takes Tibetan students to tour and learn about Shanghai. Every spring and autumn, the school organizes students and takes them to the parks. In February this year, the school held a women's league football matches. The team made up of a group of bold and vigorous Tibetan girls, won second place.

Friendship
Recognizing that the Tibetan students are far away from their homes, every holiday or festival, teachers and students of Han nationality of this school would invite Tibetan students to their homes to spend holidays together.
On every New Year's Day of the Tibetan calendar, which is the most important holiday for Tibetan people, the teachers of the school are very busy. According to the Tibetan customs, on the first day of the Tibetan calendar, while the students are still sleeping soundly, the teachers come with steaming guandian 9a kind of typical Tibetan food made of barley wine, brown sugar, milk and butter), and put a pure white hada(ceremonial silk) on every door of the students' dormitories. The school is filled with a warm atmosphere when teachers and students celebrate the holiday together.
At ordinary times. Tibetan students and students of Han nationality form pairs and students of Han nationality form pairs and make friends to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship. The school has made videotapes of the life and studies of the Tibetan students and sent them to Tibet. Through these videos, these Tibetan students' parents learn about their children's life in Shanghai.
At ordinary times, Tibetan students and students of Han nationality form pairs and make friends to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship. The school has made videotapes of the life and studies of the Tibetan students and sent them to Tibet. Through these videos, these Tibetan students' parents learn about their children's life in Shanghai.
Recently, the reports about how Kong Fansen, a cadre of the Han Nationality, contributed selflessly to the construction of Tibet, deeply moved the Tibetan students in the school. Every day, students crowded in front of the newspaper stand, vying with each other to read the report. Many students shed tears and felt sorrow for this cordial person, who had left his elderly mother, wife and children, gone deep to the hardest areas in Tibet and contributed his all to the Tibetan people. When the teacher and Tibetan students of Class One, Grade Two were discussing a way to organize an activity symbolizing national unity with the Shanghai students of the senior third year, students unanimously began to recite Kong's word, "The sun and moon have one mother, who is light; the Tibetan and Han people have the same mother, who is China."

Translated by MAN LIN