‘Because of my last name, students sometimes asked if I was related to the actor Jackie Chan,’ says music teacher Lilly Chen (43). She has to laugh about it. Or they asked if it’s true that all Chinese are good at math. Then I tell them I’m really bad at that, so that doesn’t work.’ She does not recognize the wisecracking and naughty of her students from her own school days in China. ‘When a teacher came into the classroom, we all bowed our heads a little.’
Confucianism – the philosophical movement in which respect for each other is a core value – can be found in many areas in Chinese society, and therefore also in education. “We were very polite to the teachers,” Chen says. ‘We had to, because we were in a class with sixty students. In the Netherlands, everyone is encouraged to give their opinion.’ The music teacher emphasizes that one is not better than the other.
From China to the Netherlands
Chen grew up in Chengde, a city near the capital Beijing. She entered the Tianjin Conservatory to become a classical pianist and piano teacher. Many Asian music students want to continue their studies in Europe, Chen says. This is where much of the classical music they study comes from. She ended up in the Netherlands because of her part-time job in the lobby of a five-star hotel, where she played the piano. There she met a Dutch couple who suggested they come to the conservatory in Amsterdam.
At the age of 22 she moved to the Netherlands to start training as a music teacher. In those years she had to do many internships. “My students and colleagues thought I was very introverted because I barely spoke,” Chen says. ‘But I’m just extra-, extra-, extravert. I spoke little, because I could barely speak Dutch.’
The uncertainty she felt during her first lessons is gone when she walks through the corridors of her school in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. “Miss Lily, how are you?” She answers students’ comments and questions cheerfully and with a giggle. “Do your best for the exam this afternoon, eh?”
Chinese Educational Culture
In China, education revolves around numbers and gathering knowledge. Issues such as asking critical questions, collaboration and presentation skills, which are stimulated in Dutch students, are more in the background in Chinese education. Chen explains that in her native country, social status is very important. ‘By getting high grades you can go to the best universities. And that in turn determines how much money you can earn later. The inequality of opportunity in Chinese education is very large.’
In order to achieve high grades, Chinese students go to massive amounts of tutoring in the evenings and weekends. “You’re almost forced to do that, otherwise you’ll fall behind.” The workload is also much higher in China. Chen: ‘When the lessons started at 8.30 in the morning, we were there an hour in advance for self-study. Classes lasted until 4 pm. Then we would go home for dinner and then we would come back to school for more self-study, from 7-9pm. That is still the case today.’
From the start, the students have respected who she is and where she comes from, except for a few times. ‘A student once asked me if he could call me tjaptjoi’, she says, ‘It was meant as a joke, but it’s not nice. I then asked if I could call him potato.’ It has been an exception, in the fifteen years she has been teaching. ‘Pupils are often very curious about China. I often have nice conversations about Chinese culture with them.’