An Wei's Educational Journey: Post #1: An Wei in Elementary School

Entrance to a homestead similar to An Wei's

Autumn 1950. In a very poor village in the middle of China, a ragged 9-year-old hugged thin paper books to his chest. His energy surged as he walked along the dirt track to the small temple being used as a school. His older brother had refused to attend, so An Wei had grasped at the chance to take his place. It was the first time the village had a school.


Unlike other villagers, An Wei went on to junior and senior high school in a nearby town and then passed the grueling college entrance exams for college. He succeeded and was assigned to the Xi’an Foreign Languages Institute as an English major. Four years later, with plans to perfect his English and become an instructor at the institute, the Cultural Revolution launched and his dreams vanished. He eventually became an interpreter for English speaking foreign visitors and interpreted for world leaders including President Jimmy Carter and Henry Kissinger.

Many villagers lived in caves up until the 1980s. An Wei’s family, however,
lived in a homestead made of rammed earth and locally made clay roof tiles.

The Communist government created the People’s Republic of China in October 1949, and now one of its highest priorities was being realized – universal education. They required every child to attend. An Wei’s grandfather, who thought school a waste of time, refused but grudgingly agreed to send one. He needed the children to toil in the fields.
 
About 50 boys from An Shang and neighboring villages crowded into the one-room temple. Teacher Wang, who taught grades 1 through 4 in turn, directed the younger boys to sit on large clay bricks that turned out to be cool in warm weather, but painfully cold in winter. They used their laps and books to write on. The older boys shared the few desks made from adobe.


Teacher Zhang helped them make sense of the symbols in the books, teaching them to write Chinese characters, read stories, and calculate math problems. In the dirt courtyard they would use a sharp stick to practice writing characters. But while he and a few others practiced writing, reading stories and reviewing math problems, most of the boys played around.

Primary school class in An Wei’s village in 2004.

On rainy days they all crowded into the classroom, the odor of old damp clothes mixing with the musty temple smell. In winter they never changed their one set of quilted, lice-filled clothing.


An Wei loved school. The different subjects fed his insatiable curiosity. They had no homework because at home, all the children did chores until bedtime. In the morning, though, before the light touched the paper window of the family’s room, An Wei lay awake on the family bed and practiced characters in the air.
 
At the end of grade 4, An Wei and a few others passed the entrance exams for the fifth and sixth grade school in the nearest town. His parents arranged for him to live with relatives there, returning home on weekends.


As far as we know, no photos of An Wei’s village exist from the time of his primary schooling in the early 1950s. Those included with this post are from the early 2000s and provide an idea of what it must have been like.


Submitted by Nancy Pine


Future posts will describe An Wei’s later educational experiences.


This short story was adapted from Pine's book, One in a Billion: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey through Modern-Day China, for which she interviewed An Wei over a period of 10 years.