By Marjorie Radcliffe

During our stay in Hong Kong, we had the opportunity to visit a Chinese school in the new territories. This was territory acquired from China by the British when they held Hong Kong.

The hundred-year lease expired a few years ago and the territory, together with Hong Kong and Kowloon, was restored to China. The school was originally a church school started by the Lutherans. Susie and Mike, who came to China years ago as missionaries, arranged our visit. They have had a long connection with the school and now their own children attend it.

The school has now been taken over by the government. It is a wonderful school with grades 1 to 6, mainly Chinese, but also some Westerners. The children were dressed in their uniforms: navy shorts with white t-shirts or dresses of pale blue seersucker. We were so delighted to visit, and they were equally delighted to see us. They greeted us initially with a performance of the dragon dance, with a line of students running around the edge of the yard carrying the long silken skin of “The Dragon” and making it rise and dip for our entertainment. Then it was our turn to perform.

Four of the Sound of Music children performed three of their songs on an outdoor stage with all the school children sitting facing the stage, exhibiting such pleasure and enthusiasm for the performance. Our kids went out into the audience to bring students up onto the stage for the final version of Edelweiss. These students had obviously been practicing our Sound of Music songs. The whole school sang and clapped along. Later they crowded around to ask our kids for their autographs. Our kids felt like celebrities. After the performance we got to visit some classrooms and see school in session. The Chinese schools use projectors that cast pictures onto the large whiteboards in front of the class. The students get to go up to the board to point to images and write responses. It is quite impressive.

After school was dismissed, we visited Susie and Mike’s home. Their subdivision was a collection of duplexes with a little more than 1000 square feet per unit. They had a tiny garden, but the car had to be parked on the road in front. These semidetached dwellings cost about half a million dollars American – unbelievable! From here we went on to the country club and a dim sum feast. Dim sum is the Chinese name for appetizers. Hunger is a fine sauce. We had been on the go since nine o’clock with only candy to hold us over. By one o’clock, when the steamers and platters started piling up in front of us, we were not about to question the content, we just dove in. It was great! The specialty of the house was steamed hairy crab. Did we get any? I don’t know. I don’t care. Whatever we got was great! Altogether, it was a wonderful experience, not only for us, but also for our hosts.

During the Sound of Music Asian tour, we visited China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. We have walked along the Great Wall of China and visited the Forbidden City, but this trip to a Chinese school will always stand out in my memory.