The Young Pioneers

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All of the students at my school (and probably everywhere in China) wear uniforms; either blue sweats for gym day or black pants/white shirt for boys/plaid skirt/white shirt for girls. Whether it's gym day or not, all students wear a red scarf tied around their neck. I'm kind of a dunce sometimes and just thought it was part of the uniform. I didn't realize it was symbolic of the communist party. And I also never noticed that I had yet to see a first grader wear a red scarf. It turns out there's a reason. The Communist Party has an organization for the youngsters called The Young Pioneers and the red scarf shows membership. The first graders were not yet members until two days ago when the school had a big ceremony out on the 'playground'. Rosemary and I went out to watch and take pictures. Our contact teacher, Tina, thought that was a little strange that we'd want to watch but didn't seem to mind. I think she forgets or doesn't understand that we don't have anything like this in the States, so it's interesting to me.. When else am I going to see a platoon's worth of five year olds get inducted into the Chinese Communist Party? All the teachers also donned red scarves for the event. One teacher told Rosemary and I that she'd get us each a scarf if we wanted to wear one. We declined.

Watching the entire school file out onto the track is always fun for me. I'm amazed at how perfectly they march and line up. I realize they practically start from birth doing this, but it's still a wonderment to me. For this particular ceremony, the order was a little different. It was the older students' responsibility to tie a scarf on the young ones, so some of the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders lined up along side the first graders. There were speeches, but they were extremely brief which was surprising. Chinese speeches have been known to drain vital essence and thus rob the listener of precious life years. The Young Pioneers have their own flag, song, and salute and I got to see/hear all three. It was fun and let's face it, Chinese kids are ridiculously adorable.

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Photos

The Young Pioneers
Some of my fourth graders bearing the flags.

Toy Soldiers
Look how perfect those lines are!

Step Number One
Tie scarf on tiny child

Step Number Two
Salute!

My fourth graders
The boy on the right speaks English. I'd say 'he's fluent' but that would be downplaying his abilities. He sometimes acts as interpreter for me in class.

My sixth graders
They're not as punky as they were at the beginning of the year. I like this lot quite a bit.

Comments

[trish]

awww
how can something that is completely opposite of our beliefs be so darn cute?! I almost feel bad for thinking ' aww'

[john]

such festivities!