Volunteer Spirit
“For arts education in rural areas to mature will require years and years of work on our part. There is no similar experience to follow in China. But if we don’t devote ourselves to the arts now, when will we?” Li Feng said.
His foundation has faced obstacles, such as a shortage of funds, villagers’ doubts and suspicions, and a lack of support from some parts of local government. But Li Feng has never given up on his goal of making the arts accessible to everyone. Every week he has experiences that inspire him to stay committed.
One weekend, after finishing classes in Beijing, he took some local ballet teachers on a visit to Duancun. Walking down the main street, a woman whom he’d never met ran over and handed each member of his group a bottle of water. Without saying a word, she turned round, and ran away. Later, he found out she was the parent of a ballet student, and very grateful for the work he was doing.
“The raw emotion of it touched me,” he said.
On another occasion, a professor of music from Baoding, a city in the same province, came to Li Feng having heard about his work and offered his teaching services free of charge every weekend.
Li Feng hopes that one day, all villages in China will revel in the arts. “Children learn artistic skills and then influence their parents. The result positively impacts the whole of rural society. The arts are crucial in any humanistic society, and spreading art, music, dance and all the rest brings joy, hope, culture and understanding to the most remote regions. It’s an upward spiral.”
Li Feng is not just spouting ideals. He was himself skeptical about the worthiness of his project at the beginning. His opinion changed when he witnessed a stark change in the mindset of the children he taught.
In recent times, many local governments from around China have caught wind of the experience of Duancun and invited the Hefeng Foundation into their villages. Some enterprises have promised to fund the expansion of the foundation’s work. Li Feng hopes for Duancun to become a model for a comprehensive system of arts education in the countryside.
While the Hefeng Foundation looks set to roll out arts education nationwide, Li Feng is looking to deepen the scope of their work. He is already working on developing an ebook with cartoon characters to introduce children to the arts. “The different characters in the book are to represent different art forms, and the stories told through them will hopefully pique children’s interest.”
An ebook is crucial because teachers and volunteers are unable to cover the whole country, especially very remote villages. Electronic learning materials can – with proper funding – reach everyone.
How long will it be before a comprehensive system is built and everyone in China has access to top-quality arts education? Li Feng answers frankly: “Maybe two to three hundred years. It’ll be longer than my lifetime, that’s for sure, but at least I’m doing my part.” Hopefully there’ll be no shortage of volunteers in future years to ensure Li’s dream is realized.
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