China Summer was established
by Wu Na and James Reilly, currently the East Asia Representatives for the American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
. Since 2001, every summer approximately 35 volunteers from China, the United
States, South Korea, and other countries have volunteered to take part in China
Summer, working together to teach approximately 150 rural Chinese students for
three weeks.
On the first China Summer workcamp, Chinese and American participants worked together to renovate the old school building and taught English in the afternoon in family homes. The next summer, the workcamp expanded to include South Korean participants. Participants lived in the old school building, and taught in newly renovated classrooms. In the afternoon, they led environmental education projects.
For the third year, this format remained mostly the same, except that participants taught in small groups rather than individually, with some participants leading smaller groups of students on environmental projects during the school day. Click here for pictures from the 2003 China Summer
China Summer was established out of concern about the tendency of rural girls to drop out of school after middle school, and interest in promoting environmentally-sustainable development in rural China. Jamie and Wu Na wrote the following description of how they came to the idea of holding the China Summer workcamp, and the support they received from Westfield Monthly Meeting:
How China Summer came to be
We first visited the village of Xiaoshicun in the summer of 1998. A small rural community nested amidst the lush green hills of Hunan Province, Xiaoshicun has been a prosperous agricultural village for several centuries. Its society is dominated by extended patriarchal clans that often include up to four generations living together under one roof. These families have maintained an extensive, complex web of family roles and personal obligations despite the dramatic changes in China over the past 100 years.
In traditional Chinese society, women's contributions were infrequently recognized as an essential part of the family's economic success. Cooking, cleaning, rearing children and household work rarely afforded them the opportunity to travel outside the home, to make decisions about the family, or act independently.
After the 1949 Communist revolution, many women from villages such as Xiaoshicun moved to nearby cities to work in the new factories, schools, and government offices. As important breadwinners, these "new women" gained a measure of influence and independence both inside and outside the home rarely seen in rural China. Now largely retired, many have decided to return to their traditional family homes. We joined one such group on their trip back to Xiaoshicun.
As we all sat outside one family's home in the languid heat and fading light of a summer afternoon, a dispute arose over whether the family's oldest daughter should continue her education or not. The visiting aunt argued forcefully for the value of education, even offering to pay the 300 yuan (US$40) annual tuition. The grandfather and father emphasized instead that the girl would simply marry outside the family anyway, and should work around the home until she gets married. The aunt lost the argument, and the girl dropped out of school.
We received a letter from this aunt. Along with several of
her former co-workers, she had decided to purchase an old elementary school
building and open the first non-profit secondary technical school for girls
in rural Hunan province. Since we also had been searching for a way to contribute
to women's education in China, we were inspired by her example to organize this
workcamp and to work with them to help establish this school.
We first came to Westfield Monthly Meeting with our concern in the spring of 2000. Members were extremely supportive, and so asked the Meeting's Peace and Social Concerns Committee to oversee this project. The Meeting funded Wuna's trip back to Hunan that July to lay the groundwork for next summer's workcamp. During her five-week trip, Wuna hired two Chinese coordinators, met extensively with local officials and residents, planned school renovations, and conducted general community research.
This page last updated Tuesday, October 23, 2007