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Michelle Johnston (center left) poses with her People to People delegation in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony inside the Forbidden City.

One of Michelle Johnston’s most enduring images of China is a partially constructed 14-story technology center in Nanjing encased in bamboo scaffolding. It’s an image that captures the hurdles China faces as it enters the 21st century. The associate dean of Education and Human Services was delegation leader to a group of educators who toured the country under the auspices of People to People International, an organization founded by President Eisenhower in 1956. Its Ambassador Program promotes understanding between professionals from around the world.
The 10 members of Johnston’s delegation studies how the Chinese teach and learn language and how that compares to American schools. Johnston is no stranger to cross-cultural studies, having taught teachers in Okinawa, Sao Palo, Brazil and in Bal bone in the South of France. “I’ve always been fascinated by how people all over the world do things,” she says. “So I was very excited to be the leader of this delegation.”

A Delicate Balance
Their first stop in China was Shanghai, where they stayed at the Shanghai Hilton. Across from the hotel was a park where local residents practiced Tai Chi. Pet caged birds filled the air with song as people perfected such movements as Grasp Sparrow’s Tail and White Crane Spreads Its Wings. The exercises embody China’s admiration of balance and grace, apparent in everything from the subtleties of social custom (“You need to bow deeply when presenting your business card or you’ll give offense,” notes Johnston), to the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe’s breathtaking performances of plate-spinning and chair-stacking at the state-of-the-art Shanghai Theater.
There are other kinds of balance at play in China as well. With the Cultural Revolution becoming a distant memory, ordinary Chinese are more aware of the world at large. The juxtaposition of cultural images can border on the surreal. Johnson tells of another group of scholars at a park in Beijing. There, locals were exercising to the accompaniment of an accordion, whose player suddenly switched to “Jingle Bells” upon catching sight of a group of Americans.

Land of Legends
The group’s main school visit in Shanghai was the prestigious Number Three Girls’ School. Administrators told how the daughters of the powerful Soong family all attended Number Three. Lore has it that one daughter married for money, one for power and one for China. Ch’ing-ling Soong who married for China married Sun Yat-Sun, and became honorary chairman of the People’s Republic. Mei-ling Soong who married for power married Chaing Kai-shek and became known to Americans as Madame Chaing Kai-shek. Almost lost to history is Ai-ling Soong who married a wealthy businessman. It’s a story that says something of the Chinese tradition of creating legends.
“I told one of our guides about a Chinese-Brazilian girl whom my mother hired to help with the housework when I was in high school,” Johnston recalls. “This girl ended up painting and playing the piano because my mother loved her art and music, and I cleaned the house. ‘That’s a legend!’ the guide told me,” Johnston says with a laugh. “With 4,000 years of history, there are many stories that become steeped in myth.”

Li Po on a Laptop
In Nanjing the group learned a great deal about how language is taught. Children first learn Pinyin, which uses the Roman alphabet with additional marks to indicate critical voice inflection. Students then study the 3,000 Chinese characters through 6th grade and memorize dozens of poems and idioms. The use of Pinyin is important for the growth of technology due to the limits of computer keyboards. The United States recognizes the importance of standard Pinyin use. In October 2000, the Library of Congress began a project using Pinyin as the standard romanization for Chinese characters.
At the delegation’s last stop, Johnston was the only American to speak at a forum hosted by Beijing Normal University. She talked about how Ferris State University’s teacher education program uses technology to keep students connected after graduation. After her talk, a government official spoke about spending needs and the challenges of serving such a large population with many minority communities that each have their own dialects. Johnston describes his talk as enlightening and “surprisingly frank.”
Like a student learning about Li Po, T’ang dynasty poet, from a Power Point presentation, the challenge for China is to move its students into the future without losing its reverence for the past. But, then, China knows about balance.

C&G