Guizhou schools help preserve ethnic cultures

GUIYANG - Pan Qunfang, 13, has been practicing brush writing for around three years. The characters he writes are similar to Chinese ones, but only people from the Sui ethnic group can understand the ancient writing.

"This character means 'gold', and the other means 'fire'," Pan told a group of visitors to his home village in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

Pan lives in Shuiwei village in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture. There are 314 students at his school-with 215 from the Sui ethnic group.

The Sui are among China's 56 ethnic groups, with more than 400,000 Sui people mainly living in Guizhou and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

To cultivate students' interest in their own culture, Pan's school introduced Sui culture in classes in 2017.

"My grandpa and father know how to read and write Sui characters, but they are too busy to teach me at home," Pan said. "At school, three teachers teach us to read and write Sui characters."

Wei Yongliang, one of the teachers, said, "More and more students are becoming interested in learning Sui culture, and the cultural knowledge enriches students' lives at school."

Pan's school is not exceptional. According to Guizhou's Education Department, there are more than 5,000 schools offering interest-oriented lessons about ethnic cultures, up from around 100 in 2002.

Guizhou was one of the first provinces to include ethnic cultures in school classes, beginning around 2000. The contents of the lessons include ethnic martial arts, musical instruments, dances, songs, sports, literature and customs.

The curriculum at Liuguan Junior Middle School in Anshun, Guizhou, includes lessons on woodcarving and Tunpu culture, as well as local opera and folk costumes dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

Cao Zijian, who has taken woodcarving classes for a year, has learned to carve masks.

"I saw these types of masks when I was younger, but I never knew how they were made and had been curious until I joined the woodcarving class," Cao said, adding that he has also learned about the stories behind the masks and has fallen in love with carving masks.

Ren Fujiang, a 47-year-old craftsman, has been teaching carving at the school since 2012.

"The school has been trying its best to encourage more students to get involved in woodcarving," he said. "The reason I chose to teach craftsmanship at school is that I hope more and more students will like woodcarving so that the skills can be passed on."

More than 1,000 students have participated in woodcarving lessons since 2006, according to the school.

"Introducing ethnic and folk cultures into the curriculum can not only pass down the cultures from generation to generation but also enrich students' multicultural cognition, as well as cultivate students' cultural confidence," said Zhao Chenghong, headmaster of the school.

"It doesn't matter whether they will continue the craftsmanship or not. The most important thing is that they have a unique experience."