GoodWorks Coffee and Tea aims to provide professional training and jobs to orphans who have aged out programs, at-risk teens, and those who have previously been institutionalized. Sam Cornthwaite founded GoodWorks with his business partner Richard Elmore in Bozeman, Montana in 2013. The two invested $200 each into the company, half of which went to savings and the other went into growing the business. As we posted in September in an article that originally appeared in The Beijinger, Cornthwaite moved to Beijing fulltime in 2015 and began earnestly laying the foundation for GoodWorks.  However, Cornthwaite tragically passed away this September, leaving GoodWorks to be taken over by others.

We recently sat down with Thomas Crow, the man on a mission to continue Cornthwaite’s legacy. Crow took on the daily operations of GoodWorks after Cornthwaite’s passing in early September of this year. Crow learned of Cornthwaite and GoodWorks while on a long-distance bike ride from Beijing to Bali with his husband. The couple had been sponsored by Chinese companies and a US company, posting on social media about their experiences with each company’s products. Crow and his husband had partnered with Cornthwaite and GoodWorks, carrying and drinking the company’s coffee on their ride towards Bali. Now Crow is working with others such as his husband and Hannah Cornthwaite, Sam’s sister, to secure and blossom the business.

Thomas Crow at a GoodWorks event

Rebuilding a New Busines
After Cornthwaite passed away in September, Crow said rebuilding the business proved difficult. “Sam was a one man show and not always good at documenting his plans or previous work,” Crow said.

“I love a good puzzle though…so far it’s been about putting all the pieces together to understand the whole picture.” Thomas says that since he has taken on the business he has had to learn much of how GoodWorks had operated before including partner relations, finding spaces for a training lab that Cornthwaite had planned to open, and even how to roast the coffee beans themselves.

Crow used literature, online resources, and the help of a previous coffee roaster to learn how to roast the brand’s coffee beans. Eventually, Crow said the taste of the new roast matched that of GoodWorks’ roasts under Cornthwaite.  Since taking on GoodWorks in September, Crow has begun roasting coffee beans in a location in Shunyi. Other things have changed as well. Crow stated that in the beginning, when he first took on the management of the company, his focus was entirely on learning what had been done before and how to keep the company afloat. Now however, Crow says that things have begun to stabilize and he believes he is in a position to begin thinking about the company’s long-term strategy.

A Fair Price Through Direct Interaction
In talking to Crow, it was obvious that he had taken on the business both to honor Cornthwaite and because he truly believes in the mission of the organization. Crow believes that, unlike other social enterprises that do not always end up helping their target community, Cornthwaite had been doing something really good in a really smart way.

One of the main methods that the company focuses on helping its demographic is through personal contact with its coffee farmers. GoodWorks practices direct trade rather than fair trade, meaning that it purchases beans directly from the farmers, not through a third-party organization such as in fair trade. Crow says that this allows for the farmers to focus on the quality of the beans rather than producing the most beans in order to make the most profit. In direct trade, buyers will usually purchase smaller batches and focus on quality of product verses quantity. In practicing direct trade and setting fair purchasing prices, GoodWorks also aims to avoid the chance that the farmers they buy from will become subsistence farmers, only making enough to grow beans the next year.

Since the past few months have been focused on rebuilding the organization, Crow says that his communication with farms has been limited but that he plans to visit Yunnan in the near future. For now Crow maintains direct contact with two of the farms GoodWorks also previously partnered with and communicates with another farm via third party.

Sam and Hannah Cornthwaite

Providing Training for Those in Need
One of GoodWorks’ targeted projects is the company’s Training Lab. Prior to his passing, Cornthwaite had both secured a location and two trainees to start the Lab. However, since then, due to complications with the location and the sudden passing of Cornthwaite, the opening of the Lab has been on hold.

Though Crow has been focused on redeveloping the business and has put the Lab on hold, he expressed a fervent interest in starting the Lab early after the start of the new year, seeing it as an integral part of GoodWorks’ mission. In planning for the Lab, Crow has been working with Hannah Elyse Cornthwaite, Sam Cornthwaite’s sister, to develop the Training Lab. Hannah Cornthwaite plans to use her experience working with special needs individuals to set up a curriculum that can be used in the Training Lab to teach adults.

Until the Training Lab can be opened, Crow and Hannah will be working to secure the company’s partnerships, regrow its retail sales, find a space and trainees for its Lab, and always work to refine its coffee. For now, GoodWorks is working on opening a physical store with a training lab attached. For those interested in supporting their cause, Crow says the best way is to either buy coffee and tea (found on the GoodWorks website or through PopUp Beijing) or donate cash or cafe supplies. GoodWorks is also available for individuals or groups seeking coffee or tea for their events such as markets, coffee tastings, and the like. For now, those seeking to contact GoodWorks can do so through the GoodWorks WeChat (goodworkschina) or by emailing Thomas Crow at thomas@thurstoncrow.com.

Photos: Thomas Crow and Hannah Elyse Cornthwaite

Beijing has taken a giant step forward towards equipping public schools with air purification machines, thereby providing students a breath of fresh air during one of the city’s many smog attacks for the first time ever.

Years of bureaucratic red tape had left students with no policy on how best to protect themselves during the numerous bouts of severe air pollution that have beset the city.

Last December after having conducted a year-long study, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission said it wasn’t convinced air purifiers should be allowed in its schools. The commission said air purifiers couldn’t guarantee the safety of Beijing students because their use would mean “classrooms would need to be sealed, leading to no air circulation and thus the easy transmission of germs.”

As a result, air purifiers had been effectively banned from most Beijing classrooms.

Hu Qingming, a Dongcheng District resident who had contributed towards the purchase of an $770 air purifying machine for his daughter’s classroom, said the air filter was rejected by the school last year.

“We had no choice but to give up the idea. Finally, we sold the purifier,” said Hu.

A Hangzhou parent of a 5th grader had a similar story that ended with a far-reaching implication. “We went to the appliance store with the intention of buying an air purifier for the classroom. We contacted the class leader, after which the teacher contacted the school principal. But after all that, the teacher said there was no precedent for it,” said the parent.

The announcement doesn’t provide specifics on how much money will be allocated to each school, or as to what kind of air purification machines will be purchased.

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Even though the cost of equipping city classrooms with air purification systems won’t come cheap, some Beijing schools have already footed the bill.

Beijing private schools that have splurged on air purification systems include the Lycee International Francais Charles de Gaulle de Pekin, the Harrow International School Beijing, the Canadian International School of Beijing, and the International Montessori School of Beijing.

Two private schools, Dulwich College Beijing and the International School of Beijing, have even installed specialized domes with pressurized, built-in filtration systems where students can safely engage in physical activities.

The decision to provide the cash supply for air purification machines in Beijing classrooms comes a year after the commission decided to make air purification systems a standard feature in newly-built schools.

“Schools must guarantee students’ safety and get permission from their parents before installing,” head of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission Xian Lianping said at the time.

But even with the commission’s decision to allow air purifiers in Beijing classrooms, there is currently no official standard of what defines clean air in Chinese schools.

Despite being thoroughly educated on the risks of breathing unfiltered air during severe smog attacks, breathing clean air still isn’t a priority for some Beiing residents. Air filtration machines are often stigmatized as “luxury goods” by some people, while others can be seen outside without air filter masks during one of the city’s multiple red alerts.

Current emergency protocols for air pollution mean that classes are cancelled during a red alert, while outdoor school activities are cancelled during an orange alert.

More stories by this author here.

Photos: Netease

Today forecasts predict snow in some parts of Beijing, but we want to remind you that Beijing’s snow is not crystal clean like the snows of our youth, nor will they close down schools on Monday, even if the snow sticks for days.

Though snow can bring in blue skies the following day, as writer Ruth Silbermayr-Song has pointed out, the actual snow could be just as dirty as acid rain. Beijing Meterological Bureau warned the entire city that snow can pick up pollutants as they drop through the air in response to Thursday’s snow falls.

Those of you who are from the warmer climates of the world where snow literally shuts down society, you can be thankful that milk and bread won’t run out at your local supermarket even with the expectation of dirty snow. However, this means when Monday rolls around, even if roads are still iced over, you will still need to take your children to school and lug yourself to work. Beijingers can, apparently, drive in snow, ice, hail, and sleet, though fog tends to freak everyone out. (This is purely circumstantial evidence based on last Wednesday’s social media reactions.)

For those who are accustomed to happy, busy snow days, we suggest not letting your children lick snow off of poles and avoid snow angels in deceptively white hills. But we assume if a child is wearing a mask and you are sure to wash outer layers, sliding on a sled should be OK.

We would also warn you not to skate on any bodies of water in Beijing, unless they have been confirmed to be safe. On the upside, there are plenty of ice rinks in Beijing to help you still enjoy the perks of winter without the potentially nasty snow.

Indoor and Outdoor Ice Rinks

INDOOR

All Star Rink
Located in Solana mall, this charming indoor rink is popular with families and even private lessons (in Chinese only) from national skating team coaches.

Open year round, 10am-9.30pm. RMB 50 for an hour and a half. Lessons cost RMB 135 for 40 mins. 1/F, Solana Lifestyle Shopping Park, 6 Chaoyang Gongyuan Lu, Chaoyang District (5905 6328)

Century Star Club
If you want to go for a leisurely skate, then this is not the place for you. However, serious skaters will enjoy the high quality lessons offered at this rink, though the number of students and teachers leave no room for more recreational visitors.

Open year round, 1.30-7.30pm. RMB 120 for a half-hour lesson. B/F, Capital Gymnasium, 54 Zhongguancun Nandajie, Haidian District (6834 6346) www.centurystar.com.cn

Joy City
From hockey tournaments to post ice team window shopping, this shopping mall housed rink has a wide spectrum of options for visitors.

Open year round, Mon-Tue 10am-9.30pm, Wed-Thu 10am-10.45pm, Fri 10am-8.30pm, Sat 3-7.30pm, Sun 1-7.15pm. Mon-Fri anytime and any duration before 5pm RMB 60, after 5pm RMB 70. Weekends, RMB 80 for two hours. 7/F, Joy City Mall, Chaoyang North Road No. 101, Chaoyang District, Beijing 7F (8552 6871, 8552 6695) www.championrink.com/en-us/events/champion

Le Cool
It may be a small rink, but the skaters at Le Cool give it plenty of personality. Thanks to its central location, it draws a crowd that is both vast in size and wide in variety, making it one of the liveliest and most downright fun rinks in town.

Open year round, Mon-Sat 10am-10pm, Sun 10am-7pm. Weekdays RMB 30 for 90 min (10am-6pm), RMB 40 for 90 min (6-10pm). Weekends: RMB 50 for 90 min. Skate rental included. B2/F, China World Shopping Mall, 1 Jianguomenwai Dajie, Chaoyang District (6505 5776, lecool@cwtc.com) www.lecoolicerink.com

Paradise Walk Mall (Tianjie Shopping Center)
This mall also boasts its own skating rink, with virtual reality shops, and a large indoor playground.

Mon-Fri 10am-9.30pm, Sat-Sun 10am-10pm.  5 Yongxing Lu, Daxing District. (5280 3300)大兴区永兴路5号院
OUTDOOR

Dulwich
While many popular local skating venues are bustling hubs of activity, this outdoor rink will satisfy many foreigner’s longing for the quieter ice rinks of their hometowns. Indeed, Dulwich’s rink is perfect for timid children looking to better their balance, along seasoned adults looking to skate in peace.

Open for the season from Nov 22. Weekends, 3:30pm-7pm (not open to the public on weekdays, opening time sometime change due to special events, call beforehand). RMB 50. Dulwich College Beijing, Legend Garden Villas, 89 Capital Airport Road, Shunyi District, Beijing (64549150) www.dulwich-beijing.cn

Houhai
Glide across the ice with hutong rooftops as your backdrop. Nothing else will ever give lifelong laowai skiers such a simultaneous taste of both home and abroad.

Open to the season from Dec 20. 10am-dusk. Prices TBC. Qianhai, north side of Beihai Park, Xihai Beiyan, Xicheng District. (6612 5717)

Summer Palace
Like Houhai, this historic site will give your ice time a distinctively Chinese feel. Better still: the lake is huge, giving you plenty of room to attempt to make figure eights.

Qinglongqiao Jiedao, Haidian District (6288 1144). This season’s opening times and prices not available at press time (we suggest calling ahead). In years past it was open from Nov-Apr and priced at RMB 50.

Source: thebeijinger.com, Kyle Mullin

If you can’t bare to have the snow flirt with your winter-loving heart, you could also take a day trip to cleaner slopes. Check out options here.

Photo: Anathea Utley (Flickr)

For teachers and homeschoolers, finding resources online can prove to be a headache when VPNs go down, or when students don’t have access to at-home VPNs. We’ve tested out each of these sites to make sure you can access them from behind the bricked-in view of the Great Firewall.

Our Favorites

Codeacademy – A bright career path awaits you through learning how to code!
Khan Academy – When managing editor Vanessa Jencks needed to pass several Praxis tests, she used Khan Academy to brush up on her long unused Calculus skills.
PBS Kids – Educational games and cartoons for children 3-7.
Zooniverse – enables everyone to take part in real cutting edge research in many fields across the sciences, humanities, and more. The Zooniverse creates opportunities for you to unlock answers and contribute to real discoveries.
Wikipedia – It’s a great starter space for research. Just never use it as a citation, kids!

Art, Culture, Language, Humanities, and Music
Creative Overflow – Get a design crash course in Photoshop through this resource.
Drawspace – Save on in-person art classes and use this site instead.
Academic Earth – Academic Earth was launched on the premise that everyone deserves access to a world-class education. In 2009, we built the first collection of free online college courses from the world’s top universities.
BBC Languages – This extension of BBC remains unblocked.
DuoLingo – Learn a new language for free while helping to translate the web.
JustinGuitar – Hundreds of free guitar lessons as well as some basic music theory.
Planetebook – Free downloads of 80+ classic books.
Yabla – Learn Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English.

Technology, Math, and Sciences
Udacity – These project-based online classes, are mainly dealing with computer, data science and mathematics. Good news is that it’s also available in Chinese!
MIT Open CourseWare – “The idea is simple: to publish all of our course materials online and make them widely available to everyone.” Dick K.P. Yue, Professor, MIT School of Engineering
Shodor – “Established in Durham, NC in 1994, Shodor is a nonprofit organization serving students and educators by providing materials and instruction relating to computational science (scientific, interactive computing).”
Scitable – A free science library with resources from genetics to the complexity of organisms.

Multiple Subjects
Open Culture –  “brings together high-quality cultural and educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.”
Open YALE Courses – “provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the Internet. The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences. The online courses are designed for a wide range of people around the world, among them self-directed and life-long learners, educators, and high school and college students. The integrated, highly flexible web interface allows users, in effect, to audit Yale undergraduate courses if they wish to. It also gives the user a wide variety of other options for structuring the learning process, for example downloading, redistributing, and remixing course materials.”
How Stuff Works? – If you ever get a hankering to watch the “How It’s Made” TV Show but don’t have access to online streaming, maybe this will satiate your thirst for knowledge.
OEDb – claims to be “the most comprehensive collection of online college rankings and free courses anywhere online.”
Open Learn – Gives you free access to Open University course materials.
edX.org – Free courses designed specifically for interactive study.

Video Learning
VideoLectures.NET – These videos by top scientists and thinkers can be a great conversation starters (or homework) if used well.
TED – Watching one of these during a taxi or subway ride is well worth a bit of your mobile data.
iTunes U – offering many free video courses, books, presentations, and audio lectures.
Udemy – Though you can buy courses, type in “Free” to their search bar to see what’s available at no charge.
unplugthetv – This site curates random educational videos, but the site wasn’t mobile friendly when we tested.

Miscellaneous
No Excuse List – Their motto: “The best place on the web to learn anything, free.” (We can’t guarantee everything in the sublinks are VPN free.)
My own business – and Kutztown University – both focus on business learning.
Free Computer Books – “Everything in this website is 100% Free. This includes, but not limited to, books, lecture notes, magazines, white papers, and tutorials.”
Lifehacker – Need a DIY shelf, bag, or plastic? You’ll probably find what you need here.
 Pinterest – Similar to Lifehacker but includes the areas of art and crafts, and acts more as a research tool.
The University of Reddit – In typical Reddit fashion, a list to many educational resources. (We can’t guarantee everything in the sublinks are VPN free.)

Source

The biting cold and lingering smog have made most families stay at home in recent days. Surely doing an outdoor activity is quite distressing because of the unfavorable weather. However I received an invitation to watch an ice hockey match, just to keep things lively on what otherwise might have been another boring winter day.

The match was held at Hokay Ice Sport Center, just behind the Civil Aviation General Hospital on Chaoyang Road, in between 4th and 5th East Ring Road. When I went inside the center, the match had just begun.

Spartans vs. Hokay home team

It was a part of the 2016-2017 Goodwill China Tour of Trinity Western University from Canada. Its award-winning ice hockey team, the Spartans, has been touring for a cultural interchange through sport with teams from Russia, Sweden, South Korea, and China. On January 5, they played the home team Hokay.

John Mcintosh, the tour manager, told me TWU visited Hope International School and Canadian International School of Beijing after finishing the team’s inaugural match this tour year in Chengde on December 28. “We visited the schools because we’re very interested with building relationship to have their students go at Trinity,” Mcintosh said.

A lot of audience members were not only from HIS and CISB but there were also local families. Martin Beeson, a teacher at HIS, watched the match together with his 3 sons. Beeson said TWU contacted HIS last year to let them know about the goodwill hockey tour. He added that Liberty University from the US also contacted HIS for last year’s ice hockey friendly event.

“We are delighted that the teams [referring to TWU and Liberty University]have included us in their itineraries,” Beeson said, adding that HIS is looking forward to continue building good relationships with the two universities. “Every senior who has graduated from HIS has gone on to attend university in some part of the world, mostly in the US. We’d like to see some of our students go to TWU and Liberty.” 

Just as the players took a half-time break, a Chinese kid caught my attention as he was really hooked into the game. It’s when I asked his mother, Lucia Su, that I found out that 5-year-old Lucas was fond of the game and that he’s a member of a local kid’s hockey club.

5-year-old Lucas Jia watching the game

“Last August, we went to the US to watch a live hockey game,” Lucia said, adding that she also plans to bring Lucas to the US to study, and for a possible hockey career. I asked if she looks forward to maybe seeing her son play for the Chinese hockey team at the Olympics and she heartily replied, “I hope so!”

Lucas Jia (bottom right), together with his parents Peter Jia (left of Lucas) and Lucia Su (right) pose for a pic while the players are on break.

As the excitement for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing builds up, surely winter sports like ice hockey are becoming more and more popular in China. Some kids in the audience told me that the game is bringing the heat especially during cold winter days. “All the long shots and the adrenaline rush make ice hockey satisfying and fun to watch,” said JH Yoon, a 12-year-old sixth grader who also used to play the game. “If you like hockey, you should definitely try it! It’s fun,” 11-year-old Vince Ma from CISB told me, while cheering for the Spartans.

TWU concluded its friendship games in Tianjin, where the Spartans celebrated the 25th anniversary of their relations with Tianjin Foreign Studies University. Mcintosh said he hopes they’ve accomplished the aim of their tour – goodwill. “Sport is a wonderful bridge for international friendship,” Mcintosh said, adding that ice hockey teaches kids how to prepare for the world.

“You need to learn in the real world how to keep your head up. It’s the same thing in hockey, we say, ‘Keep your head up, look to see who’s coming to hit you,’ because if you have the puck, anybody can hit you. It’s like that in life.”

First two images courtesy of TWU Media / Jacob Kropf

Just as Beijing ushered in the new year with the worst week of bad air in three years, police in the capital have announced to organize an environmental force to tackle smog in the new year.

China’s state news agency Xinhua reported that Beijing’s acting mayor Cai Qi said city authorities will take tougher measures to curb air pollution. “Open-air barbecues, garbage incineration, biomass burning, dust from roads — these acts of non-compliance with regulations are actually the result of lax supervision and weak law enforcement,” he told the press and citizens at a meeting on Sunday. He added that coal consumption in the capital will be slashed by 30 percent this year.

Last week, while people in the capital had been inhaling foul air with a seven-day average AQI of 334, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission announced that air purifiers purchased using city finances will be installed in local elementary and middle schools. However, the commission did not specify how much money will be allocated to each school, or what kind of air purifiers will be purchased.

Prior to the announcement, the commission said in December it had qualms about putting up air purification systems in Beijing classrooms, saying their use would lead to “the easy transmission of germs,” since rooms would be sealed. Commission head Xian Lianping said schools must get permission first from parents prior to installing air purifiers.

Despite this, several private schools in Beijing have installed air purifiers or even specialized domes with air filters for physical activities.

Current emergency protocols for air pollution mean that classes are cancelled during a red alert, while outdoor school activities are cancelled during an orange alert.

The days of video games distracting children from their studies are about to come to an end. Now, ambitious young students are turning such digitized recreation into an essential component of their education. A perfect example can be found at the International School of Beijing, where students are using the popular game Minecraft to create a scale version of their Shunyi campus, learning pragmatic skills mathematic and geometric skills all the while.

Austin was the middle school student that spearheaded the project as part of the school’s Genius Hour program, one of the many research and development (R&D) opportunities offered at ISB along with the Futures Public Radio program, The World is a Stage drama program, Gardening Innovation program, and more. Austin also also saw the project it as a way to help his fellow students. “It can help students find their way around school and get familiar with the campus,” he says, adding that it was very beneficial for him, because he and his teammates went around ISB meticulously measuring the halls and rooms with a yard stick, before inputting that information in the game to make it accurate. “I tried to make it educational, and to me it’s about moving around and exploring. I really had fun doing it.”

Dr. Mark Hardeman, Deputy Head of Schools, is the ISB administrator that helped spear head ISB’s R&D initiatives and the grant program that allows teacher to secure the funds they need for its various projects. “What we were hoping to do was find ways to support initiatives that came from teachers that wanted to be more innovative in their classroom,” he says, adding: “There’s a lot of research that our teachers look into that supports learning results for students, and when we have teacher who says “I would like to try this and I know it’s successful in other places based on the research done,’ then I think it’s our job as a school to support them and help students improve their learning.”

For Genius Hour, Hardeman and his colleagues sent teachers to a studio in Boston called NuVu that has partnered with ISB. NuVu works with local students in the same professional model that architects use to design solutions to problems, and create products or plans that provide solutions. After partaking in this approach themselves, the ISB team of teachers returned to Beijing to set up a similar model for their students to try. Thus the Genius Hour initiative was born.

Lindsey Cox, the ISB teacher that is helping to coordinate the Genius Hour projects with her colleague Julie Lemley, says the program offers students like Austin an exceptional opportunity to be creative without inhibition.

“We don’t have to worry about curriculum or assessment, the kids will do fantastic work still and it’s not graded,” Cox says. “So taking the grades away allows them to be more relaxed and follow what they actually care about.”

Lemley agrees, adding: “It’s so open, and they get to have so much choice with these projects. That it’s amazing, especially in Asia where grades have traditionally been so important, that they can be completely invested in what they want to create, and don’t need that conventional restrictive framework.”

Below Lemley and Cox tell us more about some of the Genius Hour’s most standout projects.

These students made their own perfumes for their project

Cox: One team of girls designed their own perfume. They tested scents, made their own labels for the bottles, and looked up all the online procedures about home made perfume. They put it together, and even determined what the pricing would be.

Cox: Another student made a board game, but he got stuck on it. He was stubborn about it looking professional, and said he didn’t want it to look like he had cut it out of cardboard. Fortunately one of his teachers at ISB, by chance, is in the board game design business. So our students coordinated with him and made a very professional looking board game about mining, mainly because he likes the video game Minecraft so much. Once he chose mining as his theme he was able to make playing pieces on a laser cutter and a 3D printer with ISB’s tech teachers. He learned so much by making this game on his own terms.

Cox: One of our students worked on home made essential oils for this project. It was hard to find the specific flowers she needed, but she eventually found them in our school’s garden. ISB has a gardening enrichment program, and she was able to find rosemary and jasmine flowers there, though there was a bit of confusion after that because one of our teachers is named rosemary.

Lemley: This student that made the essential oils was very enthusiastic, which was great for both her classmates and the parents who got to see her project. These projects have a showcase component, where parents come in to see what the students have worked on. Having that context and those discussions, and listening to the kids articulate their excitement, is just so great.

Cox: Another student was so ambitious, and wanted to design a hand drier that was pedal powered, kind of like how you use a sewing machine. He made all these blueprints and it had gears and other components that he used a 3D printer to make. But when it came time for the exhibition he wasn’t ready, and I was really worried about him. I could tell he was sad, but he realised that it was all about the process, not the end product. When I asked “Would you do it again?” he said “Oh yeah!”

Lemley: It’s also good for them to learn that it’s ok to fail and come back, and try something new. Sometimes they’ll have these massive ideas, only to find that the reality is quite different. But we’ve had kids build on these things from the past, and have even bigger successes.

This post is sponsored by ISB

Photos: ISB

Did you know we have a family events WeChat group? Join two hundred other internationally-minded families for the latest information on what’s going on in Beijing. Send an email to editor@beijing-kids.com with your WeChat id or add vanessajencks on WeChat. Please note that readers should confirm with each organizer if events are cancelled or scheduled as planned.

Free
5th Annual Beijing Pond Hockey Tournament, Jan 13 and Jan 14
Ages 9+. Join in the fun at one of the West’s ultimate winter sports – hockey! The event is free to watch with a passport or Chinese ID. Free. 7pm-10pm (Friday, Jan 13), 8am-12pm (Saturday, Jan 14). Dulwich College Beijing (Jan 13) and Millennium Monument (Jan 14).

Chinese Paper Cutting & Chinese Knots, Jan 15 
All ages. Break up the mid-winter monotony with a little fun and a Chinese theme celebration featuring Chinese New Year decorations. Spend an afternoon with the BICC center in Shunyi and learn how to create Chinese paper cutting and tying Chinese knots. Free. 3pm-5pm. Refox Relocation.

Mei Lin’s World at the National Museum, Jan 9 to Feb 12
All ages. Artist Mei Lin is a contemporary Chinese artist, working in a range of mediums including painting, calligraphy and sculpture. He is considered one of China’s most important artists, and his work was previously displayed at the National Museum in 2011. The theme of his exhibition is “Return to Folkart Roots” and it includes important works in Mei Lin’s unique style from the last five years. Free. 9am-5pm. The National Museum of China. (For more information click here).

Classic Movie Tuesday, Jan 10
Ages 10+. Pop-up Beijing is hosting a screening of ‘Ball of Fire’ (1941), starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Oskar Homolka. In the movie, a group of ivory-tower lexicographers realize they need to hear how real people talk, and end up helping a beautiful singer avoid police and escape from the Mob. Free. 7.30pm-9.30pm. Pop-up Beijing.

ICVS “Departing from China with Pets” FREE Info Session, Jan 14
Ages 10+. A new year brings new regulations and changes in requirements to take pets overseas. It is never too early to begin preparations for overseas travel with pets, even if you are unsure of your final departure date or destination country. Join the experts from ICVS as we share step-by-step instructions on the newest exit process for 2017. Free. 11am-12pm. International Center for Veterinary Services (ICVS).

Unique
The Arabian Way – Cultural Relics of Saudi Arabia, Jan 9 to Mar 12
All ages. In cooperation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the National Museum presents an exhibition of over 460 archeological relics, showing the historical development of Saudi Arabia’s culture. The relics start in the Stone Age, and moving forward to the present. RMB 30. 9am-5pm. The National Museum of China. (For more information, click here).

Design Your Own Vision 2017, Jan 10
Adults. It’s a new year with new resolutions. But wouldn’t it all seem more achievable with a plan? This event provides a space for creating a vision for our 2017. RMB 400. 7pm-9pm. The Bookworm.

Dialogue: Ding Yi and Elias Crespin, Jan 11
Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery presents an exhibition featuring two major artists of the international contemporary art scene: Ding Yi and Elias Crespin. Elias Crespin’s grand kinetic installations will be shown side by side with the works on paper of Ding Yi, the pioneer of abstraction in China and the two artists will be invited to interact and dialogue about their works. Free. 11am-6pm. Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery.

Best of Next Week
International Ski Club for Kids, Jan 14 and 21
Ages 7-14. Imagine brings you this exciting activity for skiers of ages 7-14 of who wish to improve their ski skills but also the ones with not prior experience whom want to start learning from zero. There will be qualified international ski instructors from England and other European countries who will ensure safety, skill acquisition, and fun during the process. RMB 50 per class Single Outdoor session: RMB 550 per class. Qiabo Indoor Ski Session.

Classic Movie Tuesday: The Ladykillers, Jan 17
Ages 6+. Tuesday 17 January at 7.30pm, Pop-up Beijing is screening ‘The Ladykillers’ (1955), starring Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers and Cecil Parker. In the film, five diverse oddball criminal types planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians. Free. 7.30pm-9.30pm. Pop-up Beijing.

YCIS Beijing’s Annual Temple Fair, Jan 18
All ages. Celebrate the upcoming Year of the Rooster with YCIS Beijing at the school’s annual Temple Fair! There will be performances by students and a variety of vendors offering a host of other activities and popular shows such as martial arts, lion dance and the shadow puppets. Free. 8.30am-2.30pm. YCIS.

Chinese Bird-Flower Painting Class, Jan 18 and 19
All ages. Traditional Chinese painting is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink; oils are not used. As with calligraphy, the most popular materials on which paintings are made of are paper and silk. The class will be conducted in English. The supplies or the Four Treasures of the Study are provided. Free. 10am-8pm. Chinese Culture Center.

Franz Lehar’s Opera “The Merry Widow”, Jan 18 to 22
Ages 10+. The Merry Widow first came to the stage in 1905, and has been enjoyed by audiences around the world ever since. The National Orchestra brings the comic tale of a wealthy widow whose countrymen are desperate to keep her wealth nearby by finding her the right husband. The score is by Austro-Hungarian Franz Lehar, and it is for this work that he is best known. Tickets from RMB 94 – 827. 7pm-10pm. The National Centre for The Performing Arts (NCPA). (Click here for tickets)

Outgoing tourists and families who take along their cuddly pets during the holidays can hang on to a bit of hope: a change in regulations can cut the mandatory isolation period for “low-risk” animals entering or returning to China.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine told China Daily that it is looking to revise quarantine regulations based on the recommendations by the World Organization for Animal Health to prevent the spread of rabies.

The government agency said one of the possible moves is to include a simple test for animals deemed as “low-risk” at their port of entry, which can shorten quarantine period to an hour after arrival from the current seven to 30 days. Animals within the “low-risk” category and what kind of test they will be subjected to are yet to be defined by the agency.

Zhang Ao from the quarantine inspection office at Beijing Capital International Airport told China Daily that pets entering the airport are usually owned by returning Chinese students, diplomats, or foreigners who are permanent residents in China. Ao added that during peak seasons and holidays, the office receives at least seven animals — mainly dogs or cats — a day and checks them for conditions like rabies and other infectious diseases. If found with serious conditions, the animals are usually sent back to the country of origin.

Meanwhile, other foreign residents planning to leave China with their pets are advised to prepare at least six months in advance, given that many countries and airlines have stringent restrictions on transporting animals. The International Center for Veterinary Services has come up with a list to prepare pets for relocation or rehoming.

Online retailing giant Alibaba, which owns Taobao and Tmall, is suing two of its vendors that is accused of selling fake Swarovski watches.

The RMB 1.4 million lawsuit is a relatively small price for a company which sold nearly RMB 18 billion worth of goods on Singles Day alone, but the move is seen as symbolically significant because it’s the first time an online retailer has taken action against sellers through the Chinese courts.

Alibaba is desperate to clean up its reputation, having recently been labeled a “notorious market” for counterfeiting by the Office of the US Trade Representative. It has launched an English language version of Taoprotect, its system for reporting fakes, and promises more action in the future. “We want to mete out to counterfeiters the punishment they deserve in order to protect brand owners,” said Zheng Junfang, chief platform governance officer of Alibaba Group. “We will bring the full force of the law to bear on these counterfeiters so as to deter others from engaging in this crime wherever they are.”

In another step forward for intellectual property rights in China, a Shanghai court this month ruled that a Beijing-made animation was a copy of Disney’s Cars. The makers of The Autobots claimed theirs was an original story, but the designs of the characters, the title and even the poster are suspiciously similar to the much-loved Pixar film. The Autobots is less well-loved, having achieved the dubious honor of being the lowest-rated Chinese language movie of 2015 on douban.com.

However these problems are not unique to China. A California company has filed a lawsuit against Ebay, Paypal, and 2000 of their sellers, using legislation aimed at preventing Mafia-style organized crime, while Amazon recently launched its own action against alleged counterfeiters. It’s clear that online retailers worldwide are being expected to do more to ensure that goods sold through them are the real deal – even though many customers are quite happy to pay a bargain price for a convincing fake.

Photo: chinadaily.com

Fifteen Beijing teenagers are under detention for robbing Sanlitun visitors at knifepoint and then blowing their earnings at area bars and restaurants, Chinese media reports.

The kids, ranging in age from 13 to 18, were caught on Jan 9 after several robberies were reported near Gongti Beilu in Sanlitun.

The gang would bump into pedestrians as a pretext to getting them to stop, and then rob them while wielding electric batons, baseball bats, and knives police reports indicate.

The gang, all students in high schools in Chaoyang, Shunyi, and Changping, has been operating a while and apparently frequently changed outfits and hairstyles to avoid detection.

One victim, surnamed Jin, reported that he was bumped into by two teenagers while walking in the Sanlitun area on Jan 8. One teen claimed to be hurt and demanded money to pay for a visit to the hospital, but when the victim tried to brush them off as typical street scammers, they quickly pulled out knives, and others from the gang popped out to surround him.

He was then dragged inside a nearby housing compound and forced to kneel in the ground, and RMB 800 in cash was taken from his wallet. Another teen grabbed his phone and managed to transfer RMB 300 from the victim’s WeChat account. Not satisfied, the theives then dragged the man to a nearby ATM and forced him to withdraw another RMB 1,000 and stole his phone.

Another victim told police the gang was enraged to find that their victim had no cash and slashed at him with his knife, cutting his coat and causing a minor injury.

Police from the Sanlitun District Police Station have several of the incidents on tape from area security cameras and the perpetrators appear to be the same group of teens.

Each member of the gang had different roles, one responsible for keeping lookout, another selecting victims, another conducting the robbery itself.

Police said that while the teens were young, their knowledge of keeping themselves undercover was quite sophisticated, always wearing hats and wearing pollution masks, and never wearing the same outfit. The police noticed that one of the perpetrators wore a scarf to several of the robberies, providing the break in the case the police needed.

The gang operated mostly between midnight and 3am, and tended to target young people, police said.

One suspect, surnamed Tian, is in his first year in high school, and told police he spends his days in school and his nights robbing people in Sanlitun.

Tian said that they could rob five to six victims per night, and if the victim does not cooperate, they’ll deliver a beating.

Another of the subjects, surnamed Cui, said every time he goes out he’ll get RMB 500 to RMB 600 as his share, but some of the more powerful gang members will take up to RMB 800. Most of the time they immediately blow the money partying in area restaurants and bars, Cui said.

According to Global Times, China experienced a baby boom in 2016, with a million more births than the previous year (17.5 million compared to 16.5 million). The boom was attributed to the relaxation of the one child policy. However, as is so often the case with statistics, all may not be as it seems on the surface.

After forty years of the one child policy, China faces the dilemma of an aging population: by 2020, nearly a quarter of citizens are expected to be over 65. In many ways, this reflects progress. Life expectancy has increased from around 40 in 1960, to 69 by 1990 and over 75 today. It’s also not a problem unique to China as the west’s own “baby boom” generation reaches retirement age. However it does present the challenge of a declining labor force, and raises the question of who will support the elderly, few of whom have pensions.

This was the rationale for the latest in a series of relaxations of the rules governing family size. From January 2016, all couples are permitted two children. By November this was being hailed as a success, responsible for the increase in births. However that seems oddly early to have gathered and analyzed data on births in a country as vast and populous as China.

There are other factors too. Births in the first half of the year could not have been influenced by the announcement, which came suddenly and without warning. It has also been suggested that some part of the rise in births is due to last year having been the Year of the Monkey, seen as a particularly auspicious year.

More cautious voices say that the rise is in fact the last rule change filtering through: from 2013, families were allowed two children as long as one of the parents was an only child. This includes large numbers of urban households. Some have even suggested that controls should be dropped altogether, since trends in the west and Japan indicate that families in developed nations limit their own size. Only time will tell whether this year will bring a bumper clutch of little Roosters.

Photo: Jakob Montrasio via Flickr

Still in the middle of winter and looking for cool things kid can do? Why not take them to audition for a theater camp?

Beijing Playhouse Academy of Performing Arts in partnership with Beijing Playhouse is opening the curtain for kids ages 6-14 aspiring to become the next big thing in theater, dance, and music. The auditions for Kids Spring Weekend Stage Theatre Camp will be held at Daystar International School on January 10, at 10 AM. Participants will be exposed to all facets of theater, like the basics of acting, singing, and dancing, as well as set and costume design and prop making! And of course, the goal of the camp is to let kids have fun.

Everyone will be cast to perform Jules Verne’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with song, dance, and acting. The camp lasts eight weeks from March 18 to May 6, 2017, and is done every Thursday 5 PM to 8.30 PM and Saturday 9 AM to 4 PM. It will culminate with a family performance.

Tuition is RMB 9,000 and some English proficiency is required. For inquiries, please visit Beijing Playhouse’s website or email them at broadway@beijingplayhouse.com.

All photos courtesy of Beijing Playhouse.

The days start out in either blue or white, depending on what we see outside our window.

L1 heads for the light. “It’s not polluted today!” My little observer squeals, pointing at the blue skies that have replaced yesterday’s heavy smog. “Maybe we can go to the playground later?”

“It depends on what the air is like later,” I answer, careful not to make any promises. She goes on to play with her toys while I prepare her clothes—long pants and a dress or shirt, which will hopefully be enough to keep the mosquitoes from feasting on her again today.

To help her not feel so alone when she first started attending kindergarten, I would give her her Hello Kitty doll and a bottle of her favorite Pororo juice drink to keep her company. She eventually outgrew her Hello Kitty doll, but today she remembers her juice. “Don’t you remember,” I say, “how we talked about no more juice this week? We are running out of juice. If you are thirsty you can drink water at school.”

I’ve said that line three times already this week, and as they say, third time’s the charm. She lets her shoulders drop and looks away. Before any tears can start flowing, her father cuts in. “Honey, I’m about to go.” He turns to L1. “Let’s go L.”

She immediately perks up and bids me adieu. “Oh L, what did you forget?” I ask her. I’m referring to my daily kiss.

She pecks me on the cheek. “See you later Mommy,” and she gives me the biggest hug a tiny little girl can give. I say I love you. “I love you too, Mommy,” and I get another peck on the cheek.

***
According to my husband, there are still some days when L1 isn’t happy after being dropped off. On those days, she will greet her teachers with a frown and then sway from side to side, her discontent communicated very clearly. Nonetheless, she will still follow her teacher into the school.

The children will start their day by heading into the common room and then having breakfast with their peers. Weeks ago when my daughter caught the Hand and Mouth virus, my mother asked me what reassurance I had that the tiny kindergarten’s food was clean. It brought back memories of the few days I spent with L1 in her new school, with L2 in the baby carrier. The teachers were kind enough to also provide for my littler one. When L2 couldn’t finish her food, I took a spoonful and found the food very satisfactory—not too salty, not too sweet. Almost bland to the adult palate but just right for toddlers. With that moment in mind, I told my unbelieving mother that the school food was safe for children and that L1 had most likely gotten it from her classmate rather than the food.

Not only that, L1’s school uploads pictures of their food daily via their phone app. Here’s an example:

After breakfast, the children will generally head upstairs to do some exercise. The last time I was there, one of the kids’ activities included walking along an oval. This routine is very deeply ingrained in L1, who—at the sight of a fat line to walk on—will start tiptoeing along its line.

Next up is their DIY class. Every child has an assigned space on the floor or on the table and are in charge of bringing over their own mats (when necessary). Some of the teachers have mentioned that this is L1’s favorite activity. She loves putting her hands to work and sometimes gets mad when she’s bothered. Here’s a picture:

Snack time will come next, and fruits are generally served. This is followed by a reading activity or a trip to the playground outside their door. Unfortunately, our playground has also become a feasting ground for mosquitoes, and I’ve requested the Head Teacher to not bring L1 to the playground anymore. I realize I might sound like a wet blanket, but L1’s 15 minutes of fun isn’t worth a whole night’s worth of nonstop “Mommy, so itchy!!!”‘s. To make matters worse, the black scars across her legs are making her look diseased.

During her first two months, L1’s English teacher became her favorite by default, since she was the only one she could communicate with. It’s her class that she goes to after the kids visit the playground. She generally loves participating in English class…except when it’s time to play games. Interestingly, when her teacher shared this dislike for games she also added that L1 says it’s because “mommy doesn’t like it.” You can imagine my surprise! I have no idea why she said that!

The children’s start growling around 11:30, and they troop back to the dining room to wait for their meals. Children are expected to eat by themselves and then wash their own hands afterward by themselves, and I’m quite proud to say that L1 can already do that because that’s how we do it at home as well.

Some children stay for half the day, and the rest stay until late afternoon. For those who are expecting their parents at 12, they will wait within the common room’s play area. The children are invited to play some toys while waiting for their parents. Other kids just play with their teachers.

I’m not always on time, which I often feel crappy about. But when we finally see each other again, I can feel L1’s happiness as she puts away her toys and changes into her shoes quickly.

***

“Bye!” She heartily bid the Chinese teacher who brought her out to me today. It was the first time she didn’t put up a fight about saying goodbye.

As we walk away, for the first time since she started attending her Bilingual Montessori Pre-school she happily says, “I like my teachers!”

It’s a bittersweet moment when you’ve learned to let go—even if it’s just a tiny bit. I’m less stressed, and she’s also becoming happier in school.

It really is a beautiful day today. ?

*This post was written for the Multicultural Kids’ August 2016 Blogging Carnival entitled “Schools Around the World.” Hope you liked it! ?

This post originally appeared on Bringing Up the Parks.

One of the most annoying frustrations about life in China when I first moved to Beijing was that electricity needed to be pre-loaded on to our house meter before usage. I understand this is a better control measure than an unending supply that just runs, especially in a city with millions of people who migrate or who want to save money, but inconvenient for many expats, nonetheless.

In the middle of my first winter, the electricity stopped in the middle of the night, and we had no idea what was wrong. Our landlord had initially put electricity on the meter, which we paid her for, but we were clueless about the process of recharging the meter. It’s one of those things that none of your re-settlers know that you don’t know, since they’ve never lived out of China.

I don’t know why we were panicked the first time the juice was cut, but we did. We called one of our friends and he got up in the middle of the night to add more money to our meter. As expats from the South in the US, we felt incredibly embarrassed because it’s expected that you “grow up” in our culture. Responsible people can take care of things for themselves, or pull themselves up by “their own bootstraps.” I typically didn’t like to ask for help, and especially not for things I should be able to do on my own.

I was so happy when I learned how to use Alipay to charge money to our electricity, though I did need a friend to help set it up. This prevented almost all further problems not including the instances when the electricity shut off before I had expected, and then in turn shut down our router and internet. Since I didn’t have data on my phone at the time, I had to ride my bike to school to use the internet.

I became obsessed with making sure our electricity was always charged – even getting up in the middle of the night due to anxiety. I didn’t want to be stuck with the electricity off during a time when the neighborhood electricity office was also closed.

After we moved to a different apartment, I continued to utilize Alipay to pay for our electricity. I was really proud of myself for noticing one night that we only had RMB 300 and that I needed to put on enough for the next season. We had a big apartment and guests over often, so I guessed RMB 2,000 would be more than enough to last us for a while.

I added the RMB 2,000 to my account and had put it out of my mind until one night the electricity cut off in the middle of the night. Our guests at the time woke up along with us, and I set up a WIFI hotspot using their phone since I still didn’t have data (I finally do, by the way). I added another RMB 2,000, in a bit of shock that it ran out so fast, and went back to sleep since sometimes the system takes a while to adjust.

When I woke up, the electricity still hadn’t been adjusted. I felt sick to my stomach that so much money had somehow not ended up on our meter.

After some investigation, I remembered I had to make a separate house account on Alipay to pay for my new apartment’s electricity since it was not as easy as simply removing our old apartment from the account.

Our friends stepped in and immediately contacted the electricity company to see what could be done. Essentially, nothing. The money was already charged to the account, and they would need permission from the owners of the meter to take money off.

Our friends then called our landlord, who we thought would be reasonable, as we had separated on peaceful terms. Surprisingly, her response was that it was our fault, and that it’s major trouble for her to give us this money back, but we could go ask the people in the apartment.

Our friends took my husband and went back to the old apartment. No one answered, and we were never able to get in contact with them.

Finally, a bold friend called the electricity company. The woman at the electricity company told us every time she had ever contacted the owners of meters in this sort of case, the party who had come into the money unfairly would usually return the money. They completely understood. The mobile apps are convenient, but accidents happen. She was shocked to hear our landlord refused.

Our bold friend then contacted a lawyer. The lawyer told us that with a fapiao from the electricity company and clearly establishing that this was a former landlord, we should sue the landlord since there was no reason for her to keep this large amount of money from us.

At the pinnacle of the conflict, my bold friend told her he was going to sue her in our name, and she yelled back, “You’ll never get a cent out of me!”

Our circle of friends, all Chinese, were absolutely furious to hear that this was happening in their country and felt that such injustices were not acceptable. They said they thought instances like these contributed to the reason “everyone” dislikes landlords. They called her crooked and a shame. I was just embarrassed and wanted to hide in a hole. If only I had humbled myself to have someone help me with the Alipay, this never would have happened.

Since the old apartment contract was in my husband’s name, he had to go through the process of appearing in court, which was kind of like a bank with judges sitting behind windows. Those with complaints or small cases would take a number and then wait their turn to explain the problem.

The judge who saw my husband and friend said it was a simple case. The landlord clearly needed to return the money. Eventually the judge required her to come in person and then required her to pay for both the accidentally added money and then an additional RMB 2,000 as part of the settlement. She went on a payment plan, which is hilarious, considering she was very wealthy with a mansion in the north.

My misconception of a lawless, scam-filled China was corrected. Admittedly we succeeded because we had awesome Chinese friends willing to bear with us through the process. Of course, there was also the fapiao to prove that it was actually our money, and our landlord couldn’t prove we owed her money (since we didn’t). If anything this process made me realize if I wanted to be self-sufficient in China, I would need to learn to read the language, not just fumble through speaking it.

Photo: Flickr

House ownership in a Chinese marriage

When my Chinese husband and I got engaged on a grey-sky day in Guangxi province on New Year’s Eve of 2012, I did not ask for a bride price. It seemed materialistic to me, and sexist too. My husband, much more the pragmatist, asked if there were any expectations for a bride price in Austria. To him, planning our future as a family also meant planning for an apartment. Before taking home the red booklet, the man is often expected to provide a home in a Chinese marriage. And while the man is usually supposed to buy the apartment, the woman is supposed to finance the furniture and a car. It might not even out, but that already sounded a bit more fair to me. Both of us wanting to be equal partners in our relationship, though, we decided that if we bought an apartment, we’d buy it together. Same with a car and the furniture.

The babies came much faster than we could save up any money for an apartment. Buying a house was never on my list of priorities in the past, but I now sometimes wonder if I should have asked for that apartment after all.

Renting in Austria vs. China

Why? I’m glad you’re asking. While in Austria it’s easy enough to sign a 5-year contract for renting an apartment, and usually not too hard to renew the contract if you’re not a terrible tenant–in China, it is not. The first place I lived at in China was a flat with glass fronts facing the north and the south in an old-looking compound built just before the turn of the 21st century. The house was located in a central district in Yunnan province’s capital city, Kunming, and I shared the flat with two other exchange students. One of them, the main tenant, had decorated the rooms nicely with blankets with flower patterns–and plants and flowers that would bloom beautifully in a bright pink colour lined the window sills. Although the apartment was furnished nicely, it was certainly not a high-end apartment. It was located on the sixth floor without elevator, small, and although we had running water, we would sometimes have to wait for hot water for days, because the compound’s hot water all came from solar water heaters installed on the eight story high houses. No sun, no hot water. But still, I loved living in that tiny room of the apartment that was my first real home in China. Not too long after moving in and months before the one-year contract would have ended, though, the landlady told us that we’d have to clear the apartment within a week. This was my first move in China. Little did I know at that time that many would follow. The reasons I had to move apartments in China varied. Sometimes I could not extend a contract after one year was up. Sometimes the landlord would raise rent to unimaginable high numbers. Sometimes the landlady would want the flat back before the contract was up. Other times it was our own fault because we moved cities or crashed at other people’s places in times of transition.

Whenever the word home comes up in a conversation with my 2.5 year old son, he’ll ask: “Which one? Which apartment?”. This reflects just how many times we have moved ever since he was born. In the 30 months since his birth to the ringing of church bells on a warm summer day at the beginning of July 2014, we have lived in nine different apartments. My son has been lying on parquet floors as a newborn, crawling on tiled floors as a baby and walking on concrete floors as a toddler. We’ve looked at the change of seasons through big glass fronts and small wooden windows. While he is always excited to pack suitcases for a trip to Austria or really just anywhere, packing boxes–over and over–makes him anxious. Every move means tears, meltdowns, adjustments. Which is why I always make an effort to take his favorite toys, books and one or the other decorative item I know will make him feel more at home.

After years of moving every three to four months on average–a big part of these moves happening in China–I’m starting to understand why owning an apartment is so important here. Owning an apartment gives you some predictability in an otherwise seemingly unpredictable world. It creates a stable base from which to explore–both for you and your kids. If your kids grow up bridging cultures, like mine do, it will also allow them to grow some roots and come back to that place in the future. And while my husband and I haven’t found that one place where we want our roots to grow deep into the soil yet, I don’t judge anyone wanting that house for a bride price.

Ruth Silbermayr-Song is an Austrian illustrator, German teacher and mother of two. She writes about life in China as a foreign woman, her cross-cultural marriage to a Chinese man, and child rearing bridging cultures and languages on her blog China Elevator Stories. Her story of pregnancy and parenting in China has appeared in the anthology “Knocked Up Abroad Again”.

Photos courtesy of Ruth Silbermayr-Song

Our family is a big fan of story time. We have collected loads of children’s books, and we love reading them to our daughter in our different reading nooks around our house.  After our Bookworm adventure we heard about  a nine year old  girl with a reading corner, which she sets up twice a week in a tearoom in Shunyi. As my daughter was craving to go back to England, I decided to take her to a little piece of London right here in Beijing.

This tearoom in Shunyi has a children’s play corner, kid’s menu, and very parent-friendly toilet, with changing facilities and a small throne. This is the perfect venue for parents with kids of all ages to meet other parents, especially those who are in need of a British cup of tea and some warm scones. I myself wanted to stay all day at the tearoom and bask in the flowery décor.

The nine year old story teller, Lily Rose Lyman, was very happy to see us, and tried to engage my 3 year old from the minute she saw her. My daughter was happy to listen to the stories with me, later by herself. Shy at first but slowly warming up to Lily’s enthusiasm, my daughter played around in the kid’s corner and listened to the stories. I enjoyed Lily’s Curious George story as she had brought along a stuffed Curious George monkey and made all the cute monkey noises.

Lily is in 3^rd grade and homeschooled. Her absolute favorite thing in the world is reading (and real princesses). Her mother explained that Lily came up with the idea to create a reading corner. Now Lily takes her big bag filled with books from her home library to the tearoom to spread joy and happiness with her story telling. Lily has a charm and wit that is tangible when she reads her books.

We had a little Q&A with this fantastic storyteller.

Why did you want to start the reading corner?                                                                                   Because I love to read, and I wanted to share the love of reading with the world.

What is your favorite reading memory?                                                                                                            I remember the first time I read Geronimo Stilton by myself, I felt like I was in the story it was so exciting.

How do you feel about the reading corner now that you have started it?                                                   I feel very excited about it. I look forward to the reading corner every week, I love sharing my favorite books with kids and seeing them smile and laugh. I want to be a librarian someday and the reading corner is really helping me start learning how to manage my library and being able to share the love of reading to others which I think is important when becoming a librarian.

How many new friends have you made?                                                                                                 Bunches of friends! Everyone who comes has become my friend, and I look forward to seeing them every week. It nice to meet other kids, who love reading as much as I do.

Listening to stories is a pleasure whatever age you are, from baby to grandparent. And I am delighted to find story tellers from all ages all over Beijing.

Lily will be reading her stories on Mondays  2.30-3.30pm and Fridays from 10-11am, at the Tearoom in Shine Hills, Shunyi.

Lily’s Reading Corner has a WeChat group. For updates, scan the QR code.

Pauline van Hasselt has been working for beijingkids since October 2016. Born in Wassenaar, The Netherlands, she moved with her husband and her 3 year-old daughter to Beijing in June of this year. Prior she lived in the Netherlands, Belgium, Paraguay, Texas, and London, studying and working as a chef. Pauline enjoys biking around Beijing, finding markets and new restaurants, reading crime and fantasy books in bed, and most importantly, turning her house into a home for her family.

What defines educational success for our children? Do we know for sure that our current education models, learning environment and institutions are set up for success in the 21st Century? These challenging questions form the framework for discussion about the next iteration of top-notch education around the world. On Tuesday January 17th at 4pm, Beijing International Bilingual Academy will host a screening of the new documentary film Most Likely to Succeed to begin a discussion on what education will look like in the future based on the lessons from our past.

Teachers, Parents and members of the community are invited to join us for the film screening and following discussion presented by Dr. Philip J. Bossert of ORIENTECH and Director of Strategic and International Programs for the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools.

Most Likely to Succeed (MLTS) offers an inspiring look at what students and teachers are capable of — if we have the vision and courage to transform our schools. Directed by acclaimed documentarian Greg Whiteley, the film has been an official selection of two dozen of the world’s top film festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, AFI, Cleveland, Dallas, Milwaukee, Sarasota, Seattle, Virginia, and Bergen. It’s been featured at leading conferences on education, including ASU/GSV, SxS Wedu, Harvard/Goldman Sachs, and New Schools Venture Fund. Audience members call it the most compelling film ever done on the topic of school.

This film is not yet publicly released or available for individual purchase. In the past year, more than 1,500 communities have booked a screening of Most Likely to Succeed. These screenings create space for meaningful and necessary discussion between educators, administrators, parents and students about how steps towards change can be taken on a school level.

The run time is 89 minutes; the screening will be followed by a discussion on applications for a 21st century education. Light food and soft drinks will be prepared.

About the Presenter

Dr. Philip J. Bossert: In addition to presenting to schools and conferences around the world, Dr. Bossert is also the Director of the Institute for 21st Century Teaching & Learning and Schools of the Future Project at the Hawaii Association for Independent Schools. He is simultaneously the co-founder and a principal consultant of OrienTech, an education technology consulting and resource development company. He has served as Executive Director & CEO of the Hawaii High Technology Development Corporation and as Vice President for Business Development with Ohana Learning.

Prior to that, he was Deputy Director of the Hawaii State Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, President & CEO of Strategic Information Solutions, Assistant Superintendent for Information & Telecommunication Services for the Hawaii State Department of Education, Strategic Information Systems Manager for GTE Hawaiian Tel, and President of Hawaii Loa College. Dr. Bossert has been a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and National Endowment for the Humanities Grantee; and he holds a B.A. in Economics & Philosophy from Rockhurst College in Kansas City and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. He has published five books and more than thirty articles and reviews in the areas of technology, education and philosophy; and has worked as a consultant for numerous corporations and non-profit organizations in the US and Asia.

Education and Curriculum Reform in 21st Century, Jan 17
Ages 15+ BIBA Middle/High School 4F Meeting Room. Free. 4-7pm. 5 Yumin Road, Houshayu, Shunyi, Beijing

Happy New Year! For some, who applied early to schools, Santa may have arrived. For some, the little elves only brought deferrals and for others, the stockings were filled with coal as letters of denial came. But have no fear; there is more to come in the next few months.

One issue with admissions is that often there is no rhyme or reason to decisions. I had one student accepted to Fordham and received a healthy scholarship but was deferred from Northeastern. No doubt this decision confused both of us. While the universe plays tricks on all of us, one thing is certain. Stay the course!

There is still much to do in the coming months for students applying to either university or boarding schools. First and foremost, keep working hard at school. Whether or not you were accepted, every school will be looking to see how you do between now and the end of the year. Universities will be expecting Mid-Year results i.e. your first term grades and boarding schools will be looking for the same information.

It is entirely plausible that students who were not accepted during the first round are feeling a bit out of sorts. Get it together and get back to work. First of all your “dream school” did not make their decision because they didn’t like you. Most likely they loved you, but just not enough. But, I have already covered this in my last post.

What can you do for the remaining schools? First, make sure you get those applications done. Second, just take a quick read through of your essay. You shouldn’t have to make any significant changes. Rewriting makes absolutely no sense. Instead, just have a look to make sure your personal statement makes a complete presentation and that all the information creates a closed circle. Third, make sure they are updated with anything new you have done since your application was submitted – awards, projects, and other achievements which will add to your current application. Finally, make sure you are doing everything a school recommends i.e. interviews, essays, submitting scores etc… Always read “recommended” or “optional” as REQUIRED. If you really are interested in the school, you will do everything necessary to increase your chances of being admitted. Certainly, your competitors are going that extra mile.

If you are applying to boarding school, now is the time to make sure all the materials are in place and sent. Deadlines are approaching next week. Interviews – both Skype and Vericant and or InitialView need to be sent. Make sure test scores are sent even if you are taking a last test this January. It is important that schools have some scores to work with at the beginning. Updating your scores as soon as you receive new scores (hopefully higher!) only add to your profile.

On that note there seems to be an irrational fear that a student should only send their highest score to schools – whether university or boarding school. I always advocate for students to send all of their scores (though TOEFL may be an exception) but certainly for SAT/ACT and SSAT/ISEE. Why? When a student sends scores that are on the upswing, it shows that a student is both teachable and has the potential to improve. Obviously, one does not want to send scores that are lower than earlier, higher scores. But typically a student will increase in different sections on different test dates. As part of this idea, the more information a school has as related to test scores, the better they are to make a decision. BUT, please remember this is not advice to endlessly take tests. A maximum of three (3) times in the most a student should ever take one test (SAT, ACT, SSAT or ISEE). One does not want to appear to be a perfectionist nor as having something to prove. Finally, on that piece of advice, students typically max their scores by the second or third time.

So as we roll in the final stages of the admission process for universities and boarding schools, make sure you have everything in place. For your essays, make sure they tell a good story. Make sure there are no errors in spelling, or superfluous information that detracts rather than adds to your story. As a final reminder, if you have done your best, then let go of the results. You will definitely be well rewarded.

Photo: trulyhappylife.com