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China Daily

98 / 03 / 26 /

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1. New approach helps students
2. Austrian artist Max Weiler paints 'like nature'
3. Exercises help elderly keep fit
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New approach helps students
Zou Jingzhi took it as a ``family disaster'' that his Grade-six
daughter usually worked on her Chinese homework till midnight.
``It often took her a whole night to finish stacks of weird
exercises. Some of them even failed me,'' said Zou. ``Such as the
seventh stroke of a character.''
He doubted if excruciating amount of textbook exercises,
memorization or simply copying have made any sense to the child.
``I think the point should be whether she has learned the way of
learning, but not how many practices she could finish,'' said Zou.
He tried to persuade his daughter to reject the homework. But his
words failed because the daughter took teachers' words as law.
Zou's uneasiness intensified after reading the daughter's writings
which were mostly made-up-stories and ``big words.''
To get a good score, the daughter, like most of her classmates,
copied articles on reference books or just repeated the
stereotyped stories.
``I'm not sure what on earth she has learned in school,'' he said.
But he was sure the Chinese schooling has restrained the talents
of his daughter who once came up with many original expressions
like ``the ball pen tickled the paper happily.''
Parents like Zou, teachers and social scientists called for a
reform of Chinese education in primary and secondary schools.
The textbooks turned up to be one of the most controvertial
issues.
There are nine sets of textbooks available to primary and
secondary schools throughout the country. They are compiled by
various publishing houses and approved by State Education
Commission.
Generally both teachers and students have little say in choosing
textbooks because the decision is made by local education bureaus.
``About half of the texts adapted attach more importance to
ideological purpose, such as patriotisms, than to language
itself,'' said Chinese teacher Wang Li of a high school in
Beijing.
And worst, the information and ideas these texts convey are often
outdated, only prevailing 50s and 60s and making little sense to
the students in 90s, Wang added.
``It shouldn't be difficult to pick up more interesting and useful
texts for the students. China have developed a thousand-year-long
culture,'' she said.
Even to those literature based texts, Wang thought the comments in
reference books are mediocre and unacceptable.
Wang was unwilling to frustrate her students with these
meaningless lessons. But she couldn't defy the textbooks because
she had to help students pass the exam.
To solve this dilemma, she would carefully and skillfully add her
own opinions to that of the textbooks.
``The textbooks have wiped out their enthusiasm and restrained
their creativity,'' said Wang. ``I don't think textbook is
supposed to teach 100 students to say and write the same words.''
Xue Yi, another Chinese teacher in Beijing, was worried that the
education will give birth a ``mindless generation.
``My students didn't accept what the textbooks said. But gradually
they became used to that way and failed to come up with their own
ideas anymore,'' Xue said.
In response, People's Education Press (PEP), one of the leading
publishing houses of which textbooks have been used by 70 per cent
of primary schools nationwide, voiced their protest.
``Every time we published a new textbook, we would get positive
feedback at first but would be bombarded with complaints and
criticism soon later. We got used to it,'' said Cui Luan, senior
editor of (PEP) who has been engaged in compiling textbooks of
Chinese primary education for about 30 years.
Textbooks are compiled according to the education outline drafted
by State Education Commission.
``So we have to take many factors into consideration in the
compiling,'' said Cui. ``Unlike magazines or other publications,
it takes a long time to finish a set of textbooks.''
Cui argued that the latest set of Chinese textbooks of primary
schools complied by PEP in 1993 has made great improvement than
previous ones.
Lessons use cartoon and rhythms to present realistic and
interesting examples, so children will not get bored, Cui
explained.
Another tangible improvement, according to Cui, is that the
textbooks aims at improving children's all-out language ability,
instead of the ability to read.
The six volumes have integrated oral and written creativity with
children's literature.
Above all, Cui stressed, the textbook has featured more students'
involvement, Cui stressed. For instance, volume 1 to 5 has enabled
children to take up reading much earlier than before with the help
of Pinyin.
As to argument that the texts adapted were outdated, Cui protested
one fourth of the original texts have been replaced for the sake
of changing times and the editing team were still working on
refreshing the texts.
``We admit that there are room for improvement in our textbooks,
but there are still many other factors that have given rise to the
deficiency of Chinese education.''
Some Chinese educators agreed that it was the ``exam-oriented''
that led to the dilemma.
``The goal of education is to make education unnecessary. But now
grades have become the only objective for teachers and students,''
said ??Yang Dongping.
Students hoped to get a high grade to get into a key high school
or university and teachers hoped to climb up their career ladder
on condition that the students get high grades in the exam.
As a result, students like Zou Jingzhi's were confronted with
shelve of practice books, spending most of their spare time on the
multiple-choice exercises.
Experts worried that these tests could only turn schoolchildren
into an ``exam-minded machine'' and ultimately lead the Chinese
education to more dangerous condition.
With the increasing call for the education reform, hope did come
in sight.
School pupils may soon breathe a bit easier as more primary
schools begin emphasizing quality of education instead of
concentrating exclusively on test scores.
Most tests use a scoring system ranging from zero to 100. This
system has put great pressure on schoolchildren because parents
and teachers usually pay more attention to scores than to whether
a student is actually learning anything.
So far, some primary schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and
Liaoning Province have abandoned the 100-mark exam standard.
Instead they use four grades of ``excellent, good, pass or fail''
to define students' exam results.
Students may feel less pressure as such evaluations are more
flexible.
Last February, State Education Commission came up with a new plan
to lower the requirement of Chinese course in primary and high
schools in the hope for release students' schooling pressure.
Chinese academic requirement in primary and high schools have long
been higher than its counterparts in the West. Experts argued that
it was beyond the ability of the teenager, which dissipated
students' confidence and enthusiasm in learning.
In the education reform, Shanghai took a lead among the big
cities. It began to cancel the entrance exam to high schools to
release students' pressure.
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_Date: 03/26/98_
_Author: Ou Shuyi_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Austrian artist Max Weiler paints 'like nature'
THE painting of Max Weiler, born in Absam near Hall in Tyrol,
Austria, in 1910, occupies a special position in that country's
20th-century art.
Much as it may defy categorization in terms of specifically
Austrian traditions, there can be no doubt of its rank in the
context of modern art in Europe.
One key feature of modern art is its tendency to embrace abstract
formal idioms, as exemplified by the painting of Wassily
Kandinsky. This process of approximation to abstraction was
accelerated by two factors.
On the one hand, by the study of nature, the development of a
progressively simplified, intensified, and therefore abstract
image of the landscape; and on the other hand the treatment of
religious and spiritual ideas. The objective was to produce an
intellectually impregnated picture of Nature, an abstraction born
of an "inner necessity" that endowed it with its claim to
validity.
This is also the path Max Weiler has followed in his seven decades
of artistic output to date. His work likewise harbours the two
elements that gave rise to abstraction in European art: first, a
profound love of the countryside and, in consequence, a constant
preoccupation with the pictorial representation of the landscape;
and second, deeply rooted religious thinking and feelings.
From the outset, Max Weiler sought to unite these two elements in
his art and, by blending them, to arrive at a spiritually and
intellectually perceived image of nature.
From earliest childhood, the countryside of his native Tyrol --
its mountains, forests, meadows and rivers -- left an indelible
impression on Max Weiler. This formative influence was reinforced
by the "Neulandbund," a group for which he felt a kinship on his
very first encounter with them at the age of 16.
Founded in 1921, the "Neulandbund" was a Catholic youth movement
whose purpose was to bring new life to the traditional structures
of religious belief. Its members set out to discover a proximity
to nature.
Max Weiler would not, however, have been able to evolve the
pictorial idiom typical of his work -- what he once described as
"the recreation of nature without an (external) resemblance to
nature" -- had he not come under the influence of a third and
decisive factor. Its impact began to make itself felt when, at the
beginning of the 1930s, he enrolled at the Vienna Fine Arts
Academy.
His teacher, Karl Sterrer, had travelled to the United States,
where he had visited several museums on the East Coast and
encountered the landscape painting of the Song Dynasty (AD
960-1279).
No other era in European or non-European art has made such an
impact on Max Weiler as the painting that emerged in China around
the year 1000.
Weiler believed that he had discovered an inner affinity reaching
back over the centuries with such painters as Guo Xi (1020-1090)
and Song Emperor Huizong (1082-1135). He held them to be "kindred
spirits," although at first he knew their works only from
reproductions.
All his life he derived strength from exploring their art. Again
and again his "Day and Night Books" cite the names of the Song
painters as those to whom he feels most akin.
Max Weiler's unique and unparalleled achievement is to have sought
and found a synthesis between the guiding tenets of modern
European art, as they evolved in the early years of this century
and the personal interpretation of experience as he perceived it
in the painting of the Song Dynasty. It is this synthesis that
powers his work and makes his art unmistakable.
The selection of Max Weiler's output assembled for the exhibition
at the China National Art Gallery in Beijing, which will run
through to April 8, comprises 30 large-scale paintings dating from
the years 1981 to 1995. His late work constitutes the culmination
of the development of his painting. He has reached a point at
which he can review with supreme mastery everything inside him
that had urgently sought expression throughout his life.
Weiler's late work is synonymous with pictures of radiant
colourfulness. They may "resemble a landscape," look "like
nature;" and yet their forms do not merely imitate the visual
world.
The world which they convey appears as gleamingly fresh as on the
first day of its existence. Witnesses of its creation, we are
invited to explore it anew. This world is taking shape before our
very eyes.
Max Weiler's pictures may strike us at first sight as highly
abstract, yet they are infused by a vigorous perception of nature.
"Nature is imprinted on my brain, my nerves and my blood," he once
remarked.
He has no alternative but to re-create nature, even when his style
is abstract. He is aware that the nature he perceives is also
within him and determines his being to the very finest strand of
his nervous system.
Weiler's late paintings immediately juxtapose shaped and shapeless
elements, mineral and vegetable forms, graphic articulation and
the painter's arabesques, minute details and lavish gestures.
Sharp proximity suddenly slips into remote distance, one thing
leads to another, clouds become coloured stones, and cliff faces
are metamorphosed into menacing thunderstorms. As the perspectives
shift, so flowers burgeon into trees and trees sprawl into
mountain ranges.
The abstract blends within the concrete, the sweeping gesture
gives birth to infinite subtlety, dream and reality fuse, and the
inner and outer perception appear interchangeable.
As Weiler views painting in his late work, it has no other purpose
than to reveal this natural process, and it can do so only by
revealing the process of painting itself. In this sense, then,
Weiler can be said to paint "like nature."
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_Date: 03/26/98_
_Author: Wieland Schmied_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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Exercises help elderly keep fit
ON April 16, 1994 Zhang Biao and his wife, Liu Yamin, celebrated
her 80th birthday.
Zhang presented his wife a special gift -- his 2,000th climb to
the Xianglu (Incense Burner) Peak, 557 metres above sea level, the
highest summit of the Fragrant Hills in western Beijing.
The peak was once called Guijianchou, meaning the peak that even
worries ghosts, because its once-narrow paths made it difficult to
climb.
"My wife was very happy and even wrote a short poem to celebrate
my unique gift," Zhang said in an interview with China Daily.
On July 1 last year, Zhang climbed to the Guijianchou peak to
celebrate in his own special way China's resumption of the
exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. That was then his 2,500th
trek to the top of the Fragrant Hills.
Zhang, 86, has set himself a new goal taking him into the 21st
century. He plans to scale Guijianchou for another 10 years,
trying to accomplish a record of more than 3,600 climbs.
Zhang was a pilot during the War of Resistance Against Japanese
Aggression (1937-45) and is still an active member of the Beijing
Aviators' Association (BAA). He said it was by no means easy to
acquire such robustness.
Some 40 years ago when he was a teacher in Nanning Military
Institute, Zhang suffered from fatigue, sleeplessness and
bronchitis.
"As a pilot, I was used to severe training," Zhang said. "But
after five years' routine work in an office without much physical
exercise, I found that my health was steadily deteriorating.
"During that time, I always doubted whether I could live beyond my
60s considering my health was so bad," Zhang said. "I tried to do
some exercises to improve my health, but not systematically."
When he retired, he came to live in Beijing.
"An old man gave me the inspiration to work out a specific plan to
rebuild my health," Zhang said. "I still remember the first time I
met him."
He was strolling in Longtanhu Park one morning when he was drawn
to an elderly man performing Eight Trigram shadow boxing.
When he stopped to rest, the old man told Zhang he'd been
paralyzed and confined to bed for several years. One morning, he
asked his son to buy him a few deep-fried dough sticks. However,
his son, busy with his own morning routine before rushing off to
work, simply ignored his request.
"The old man told me he felt very sad because he believed he was a
burden to his family," Zhang said. "So he started physical
exercises and was able to become independent again."
"Good health means more to the aged," Zhang said.
So Zhang began his own long-term exercise programme.
"Without his legs, a man turns senile," Zhang said, explaining why
he chose climbing as his fitness programme.
"I can do things on my own if my legs are strong enough, so I
resolved to climb the Fragrant Hills."
Now, he goes hiking three or four times every week.
Many people feel very bored while climbing, but Zhang said it is a
good opportunity to enjoy himself.
When he doesn't go hiking, he walks 1,200 paces every day. When
the weather is too bad, he does shadow boxing at home.
Every hike is a fresh experience, he said. "Of course, there is
much more fun at the top of the mountain."
At the summit of Guijianchou, he loosens up his shoulders,
concentrates on breathing, and senses the energy pouring through
his body.
"Standing at the top, I am fascinated by the beauty of the natural
scenery," Zhang said.
He has also persuaded his wife to accompany him on many of his
hikes.
He has now been to Guijianchou 2,540 times.
He has filled six thick note-books with his physical training
experiences and more than 800 poems.
"By exercising, I have improved my physical and spiritual health
and made family life more harmonious," Zhang said.
Now, both Zhang and his wife are climbing addicts.
Interestingly enough, one of Zhang's old comrades-in-arms, Lu
Guanqiu, has also kept fit and healthy by riding his bicycle 22
kilometres every day.
Each morning, 85-year-old Lu sets off from his home in Shaoyaoju
near the East Fourth Ring Road in Beijing.
Riding down Huixin Road through Hepingli Nankou, Lu Guangqiu goes
west on the Second Ring Road. He turns right into Guloubei Street,
continuing due north till he arrives at the Northern Fourth Ring
Road. He then goes east again for another seven kilometres before
returning home.
The round trip takes about two hours, but "I don't feel tired or
bored," he said.
Lu said it took him years before he discovered cycling was the
best exercise for him.
When he retired from the airforce in 1955, he started to teach in
a middle school in Changchun, capital of Jilin Province.
Eager to maintain his health, Lu turned to newspaper fitness
stories for help and tried numerous methods.
"I didn't think about whether these methods were suitable to my
own physical condition."
He once tried eating eggs steeped in vinegar.
"I was sent to the hospital and the doctor told me my stomach was
severely damaged by vinegar," Lu said. "I learned a big lesson.
"I realized I should choose a way that suits my own body."
So he started cycling.
However, it is a real challenge, even for a young man, to ride a
bicycle among the massed ranks of Beijing cyclists.
Last summer, Lu was knocked off his bike by a middle-school girl
cyclist.
But, just two weeks later, he was back with his bike on Beijing's
roads.
"To begin with, I was really worried about his safety," said Feng
Jumei, Lu's wife, "but he enjoys riding bicycles so much that I
couldn't bear to discourage him, especially since he has benefited
so much from it."
"The bicycle is the best means of locomotion for those who want to
appreciate the beautiful scenes in Beijing," Lu said. "I believe
this sport will never cease to amuse me. And it helps keep my
medical expenses down."
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_Date: 03/26/98_
_Author: Hu Qihua_
_Copyright© by China Daily_

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