Chengdu Waldorf School was built by group of parents and young people led by Harry and his wife Lily and his friend Zewu who was trained at Emerson College in UK). A cooperative community of young people formed around the school during this first year. We rented a run-down holiday resort and rebuilt it to set up the kindergarten and the school. We lived, ate, studied and worked together in the first two years of the school. It was a life-style that many older Chinese had experienced before. But, the school soon grew out of the space. Now, we have expanded the campus and turned all the rooms into classrooms and workrooms. Now, a large community of parents are joining the initial group. We are celebrating Chinese festivals, dancing, and performing plays. The school community is attractive to many new Chinese parents who have been isolated in the apartments raising children on their own for two decades. (Many people lived in their apartments without interaction with neighbors which led them to feel unsupported and unsure about how to raise their children.
The community environment is similar to Anthroposophical communities in the west, but, we do not have as much Anthroposophical content in our conversations.. Those Chinese who have some kind of spiritual life tend to keep it inward and not verbalize their beliefs.. So instead of discussing spiritual issues, we study together, do artistic work or real practical work. Or we eat a good meal together.
We are also a part of the worldwide anthroposophical community. Many visitors and friends have come to visit us in the past two and half years. There are some parents coming from the West to enroll their children to our school because they want their children to be educated in Chinese. But they do not want to go to other private or public schools. Our foreign visitors bring culture diversity to our school.
Ben and Thanh Cherry have been to our school six times since September 1994. In addition, more than a dozen western teachers have been to our school and given workshops and lectures. Among these were: Michaela Glockler, Kathleen Young, Tammy Hughes Ronal koetzsch, Caroline Phinney, Claude Driscoll, Shin Shi, Lai, Andrea, Jayake and Andrew and Peter von Zezschwitz. There have been quite a few others, and there are more planning on coming next year. We have successfully hosted many courses and workshops introducing Waldorf education to the public with those experienced teachers or educators. There were often more than sixty people who came to whatever courses we have offered in China. Out of our work, there are six initiative groups that have become active in different cities throughout China. Throughout the nation there is a longing for more courses and workshops and we can barely meet this need.
