Anji to Bamboo Eng by CloudPublication

About the author Dr. K K Tse Born in Hong Kong, KK holds a record of having studied in nine primary schools. Owing to this solid foundation, he had an easy time in high school. He immersed himself in selfstudy literature and excelled in organizing over ten student organizations. He entered The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1970, and graduated with First Class Honors in social sciences. He pursued postgraduate study at the University of Manchester, UK, where he was awarded MA and Ph.D. in sociology. On his return to Hong Kong, he worked as a business executive at the Lam Soon Group and Shui On Group respectively, before setting up his own management consulting firm KK Tse & Associates in 1992. He was the first generation of a local management consultant. KK retired early at the age of 52. He traveled around the world for a number of years before embarking on his second

career when he turned 60. He has been active in promoting social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Hong Kong and China. He was the Founding Chair of the Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum and was the co-founder of a number of social enterprises, including Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong), Education for Good, Dream Impact and Impact Partners. In recent years, he turned his attention to promoting the transformation of mainstream businesses. He was active in the global B Corporation movement and is currently the CoChair of B Lab (Hong Kong & Macau). KK was honoured by the international organization Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship with the title of “Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year 2020”.

Table of Contents Preface

You are reading a unique book

Chapter 1

Introducing Anji Play

Chapter 2

The Role of the Teacher

Chapter 3

Parents as Barriers

Chapter 4

The Five Principles of Anji Play

Chapter 5

How Did Anji Play Go Global?

Chapter 6

Who is Your Role Model?

Chapter 7

Anji Play in Hong Kong

Chapter 8 Waiting for Anji Play or Kickstarting Bamboo? Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children’s Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination Chapter 10 Bamboo Play Festival

Preface You are reading a unique book. It tells you the story of Anji Play and describes the dream of the world’s first-ever Children’s Bamboo Park. It is a unique book because: 1. It inspires rather than instruct - that is, it focuses on the WHY rather than the HOW TO. 2. I t is a visual book – we are trying to keep the texts to the minimum; there are plenty of photos and videos to convey the messages. 3. It is to be shared, rather than just being read – please feel free to share the book with your friends and associates and start a dialogue with them. The title of this book is “From Anji Play to Children’s Bamboo Park” . Let me begin with the Children’s Bamboo Park. The creation of a Children’s Bamboo Park is part of the Bamboo Generations Movement – a movement to highlight the power of bamboo in fighting the climate crisis. 6

Bamboo is tangible, touchable, and can be part of everyday life. It provides a down-to-earth anchor for actions once we have gained an intellectual appreciation of the danger and challenges of the climate crisis. We started with organizing Bamboo Scaffolding Workshops, which have proven to be very popular as it is fun and stimulating to work with bamboo. In the workshops, we enabled the participants to master the basic skills of bamboo scaffolding, which turned out to be not so difficult to acquire. In fact, we normally ‘taught’ it for 10 mins and then allowed the participants to practice it. The results have been phenomenal. After mastering the basic techniques, the participants were not asked to build bamboo scaffolding as such – that could be left to the trained and experienced tradesmen. Instead, they were encouraged to design and create bamboo products of various kinds. We were amazed by their ingenuity and craftsmanship. The workshop participants built a range of bamboo products, and these were being productively used by various parties.

Preface

We are deeply concerned about the climate crisis – and time is fast running out for massive actions before it is too late. There is of course a lot to be done, and we have identified bamboo as an iconic material to inspire the public to take action.

Then we struck on an idea: what if we could assemble all the products in one place? This was how the idea of a Children’s Bamboo Park came about. In subsequent workshops, we encouraged the participants to design and create bamboo products/facilities for display and use in the Children’s Bamboo Park. The Park will be open to the public, and we have a specific group of children in mind – those from low-income families. We firmly believe that children have the right to play. But in the Hong Kong context, many children are deprived of this right. Children from low-income families are particularly disadvantaged in this respect. Just think: Where is the right to play for children living in sub-divided flats? We would like to build not just one Children’s Bamboo Park, but many versions of it in different parts of Hong Kong so that they could be within reach of most children.

How Anji Play came in After we embarked on the path to realizing this ambitious dream, we were introduced to Anji Play by one of our partnering organizations. After some research on this new and powerful phenomenon, we 8

Credits: ajplaychina.com

were convinced that Children’s Bamboo Park and Anji Play could complement each other. We will actively learn from the Anji Play movement and incorporate its principles and practices into the Children’s Bamboo Park design and operation. At the same time, we feel that the Children’s Bamboo Park has something unique to offer, as it is built around the imperative of tackling the climate crisis, which is not prominent in the Anji Play movement. Now we will tell the incredible story of Anji Play. In case you think you need some more convincing before joining the Bamboo Generations Movement, I would recommend the following TED Talks to you. 9

One is Greta Thunberg, who made the compelling case that we must act now on climate change. Ted Talk - Greta Thunberg

The disarming case to act right now on climate change | Greta Thunberg

https://youtu.be/ H2QxFM9y0tY

The other is architectural engineer Pablo van der Lugt, who helped us rediscover bamboo as a sustainable material with endless possibilities. Ted Talk - Pablo van der luge

Bamboo to Save the World | Pablo van der

https://youtu.be/ wI_fdwCU_oc

Preface

Bamboo Parks Vs Mobile Games A friend said to me recently, “KK, you’re not young anymore, why are you so keen to build the Children’s Bamboo Park?” I asked him back, “How old is your child?” “Eight.” “What does she like to play?” “Games on her mobile.” “How do you feel about it?” “Not good at all. But what could I do? Her Mom and I are keen to stop her spending so many hours on it. But once we lose sight of her, she is back on it again. Any good ideas?” “No, I don’t have any – yet. All along what I have been doing was to discourage my friends from buying stocks from companies that make money from mobile games. But it doesn't have any impact. The main reason I am keen to build the Children’s Bamboo Park is to create a new platform to generate more opportunities for kids to play. I want them to know and experience other ways to enjoy themselves, which can be exciting, fun and have ample opportunities to challenge themselves. But it should not be something that they would do only once or twice a year, but something that they will keep coming back for more. “Children’s Bamboo Park’s biggest competitor is mobile games.” The fight has hardly begun. So you could appreciate how anxious and restless I am. Maybe you could join us and help make it possible to have the Park available all over Hong Kong.

Preface

Credits: Milkos/depositphotos.com

Chapter 1

Introducing Anji Play

The challenge of introducing Anji Play here is twofold as I am aware of two types of readers of this book: 1. Those who know little about Anji Play; and 2. Those who have some knowledge or even direct experience of Anji Play. For the first group, it may be relatively easy. However, the challenge is to use the minimum of texts and the maximum of images and videos to create a striking and lasting impression to the point that they would like to find out more about implementing it in Hong Kong. For the second group, who might have more direct experience of Anji Play than myself, the challenge is to summarize the gist of this powerful movement in such a way that they feel the urge to share it with their friends and associates. ‘Anji’ is the name of the county in Zhejiang province in China where the Anji Movement started. It is about three hours by train from Shanghai. ‘Play’ refers to the unique curriculum for kindergarten children between 3 and 6. If a picture paints a thousand words – so to speak– what could a video do? Far more than a thousand words. For sure. So let’s watch a video before we say anything more about Anji Play. There are dozens of videos available on the internet (whether or not 16

https://youtu.be/ cuksYrro7Cc

Risk and the Role of the Teacher

This video enables us to appreciate the spirit, principles, and practice of Anji Play. Anji Play is an early childhood curriculum for children between 3 and 6. It is a curriculum in a very special sense. The most defining characteristic is that children focus on playing rather than learning in traditional subjects like writing, arithmetic, or English. Every morning, children will have two solid hours of free play. During this period, the children could decide: What to play? How to play? Who to play with? How long to play? Etc. Teachers and adults would not come in to assist or guide them. Teachers are present and closely observe the children at play, and they intervene only when they notice major hazards. 17

Chapter 1 Introducing Anji Play

you google Anji Play in English or Chinese), we have selected this one for you to begin:

The materials the children play with are specially designed and selected for the purpose. As seen from the video, they are typical of the materials available, which are drastically different from the colorful plastic and metal materials found in most playgrounds. The materials used in Anji Play are mostly loose items, minimally structured, related to daily life, light enough for children to move around. Such as ladders, wooden boards, bamboo sticks, bricks, wooden bricks, tires, oil drums, ropes, paint, brushes, sand, water, beach wares, etc. These materials look plain and ordinary. But in the eyes and hands of the children, they are vastly versatile, infinitely combinable, full of creativity, and unlimited possibilities. They would come up with different formats to play with every day, unlike the standardized items typical in most playgrounds. Credits: mrsiraphol/depositphotos.com

A teacher’s remarks underline the difference between True Play’ and ‘False Play’: “ I meticulously designed and administer a game for the children to play and they seem to enjoy it. When it ends, the kids asked me, ‘Can we play now?’ This really hurts me. They don’t think they have just played.” In short, Anji Play provides the children with unlimited space and freedom, and makes possible the following: 1. Self-initiated learning 2. Self-expression 3. Self-creation of toys 4. Self-creation of the mode of play 5. Self-imposed rules 6. Self-discipline 7. Self-assessment of risk 8. Self-responsibility of consequence 9. Self-directed cooperation 10. Self-leadership 11. Self-achievement All these are in stark contrast with the conventional curriculum. There is no expectation of meeting any targets for learning outcomes, such as spelling, counting, English words, etc.

Chapter 1 Introducing Anji Play

Such circumstances are conducive to the emergence of ‘True Play’, as contrasted to ‘False’ Play’ which are designed and administered by well-intentioned teachers. In ‘True Play’, the children are far more proactive, more involved, and feel more happy and enjoyable, making possible a heightened sense of realism, participation, sense of achievement, and satisfaction.

In Anji Play, children learn and enjoy through play, without any regard to scoring and assessment. They could just immerse in experiencing and acquiring some skills and habits that are essential for their future learning and career. Let us look at the contents of the short video again:

https://youtu.be/ cuksYrro7Cc

Risk and the Role of the Teacher

1. The main activity looks simple enough: a wooden plank on top of a big oil drum with children climbing up there and jumping from the edge. 2. All the materials are loose ones and were put together by the children without any involvement of adults or teachers. 3. The children play with discipline and order, no need for anyone to enforce rules. 4. Who came up with this idea? Difficult to tell. Somehow someone suggested it. There might be some discussion or even debate. How long did they talk over it? Can’t tell. But in the end, there was an agreement to move ahead. So things were brought together until it was ready for play. 5. There might not be too many children playing in the beginning. 20

To sum up, this video reveals Anji Play in action. If you are interested in getting a better feel for Anji Play, try this video in English: This is Anji Play

https://youtu.be/ HV0JIjxisUc

This is Anji Play

Chapter 1 Introducing Anji Play

But gradually it got noticed and more children came along and joined the queue. 6. At the back of the picture, there was an adult, apparently the teacher. She kept a close watch of children’s activities but did not intervene. She also used her cell phone to record how the children play, for use in the afternoon debriefing.

Chapter 2

The Role of the Teacher

If you were a practicing teacher at a kindergarten and came across the following advertisement, how would you react? 1. Laugh it away. 2. Resend to someone who is looking for a teaching job. 3. Apply right away.

Ideal Kindergarten Invites application for teacher Our kindergarten is practicing the “Anji Play” curriculum. Every day our pupils learn through self-directed free play. The teachers do not ‘teach’ anything, instead, they are expected to care for the pupils, observe them closely, and conduct 1-on-1 and group guidance, in order to develop their self-confidence, communication abilities, self-initiative in learning, creativity, and teamwork. All newly appointed teachers will receive two months intensive training and will be awarded a certificate on completion. They will also have the opportunity to go to Anji County in Zhejiang, China, for advanced training. All expenses will be borne by our kindergarten.

If you find it difficult to make a decision, the following description of the teacher’s role may be of interest to you. Before you could become an Anji Play teacher, you may be required to re-educate yourself. First, you may have to re-examine and probably reject many of your current approaches and methods in early childhood education. Second, you have to psychologically prepared that once you have 24

The reason is simple. Once you appreciate the power of Anji Play, you would like to see all kindergartens be converted into this approach. I am not sure if you will be ready to take the plunge. Let’s see if Ms. Cheng Xueqin, founder of the Anji Play movement, could convince you: https://www.facebook.com/AnjiPlayWorld/ videos/350336153 6369951/

Anji Play founder Ms. Cheng Xueqin describes an important role of the teacher.

https://www.facebook. com/AnjiPlayWorld/ videos/3503361536369951/

Chapter 2 The Role of the Teacher

taken up a post in an Anji Play kindergarten, it will be very difficult for you to leave this job and go back to a conventional kindergarten. The nature of work in these two types of schools is so dramatically different that you will have tremendous difficulty in adapting. Above all, once you have begun teaching pupils with the Anji Play methodology, you will notice how happy they are and how happy you yourself will be. This also means that you will have to continuously upgrade yourself and share with and learn from other teachers in order to acquire a deeper understanding and more effective skills in Anji Play. In short, you will likely be not only an Anji Play teacher but more of an Anji Play advocate.

The Teacher’s Challenges We mentioned ‘re-education’ above. It is not an exaggeration. You could tell yourself by reviewing the key duties of the Anji Play teacher as follows: 1. Observation in the morning session. 2. Leading the reflection session in the afternoon. 3. Learning from fellow teachers.

Observation in the morning session You have to observe the activities of the individual pupil and the entire group playing together. This sounds simple enough but is actually very demanding. You have to be ultra-meticulous because you have to observe if the actions of the individual pupil are causing danger to themselves and those around them. There are also pupils who are queuing up for play or are making all sorts of preparation to join the play. Secondly, you may have to exercise deep observations. Sometimes, you have to pay attention to the motives, intentions and consequences of individual actions. You could not possibly cover all pupils to the same depth. But you may have to identify those who are particularly ‘courageous’, ‘silent’, ‘self-centred’, ‘selfless’, ‘proactive’ or ‘uncooperative’, etc. These observations will be valuable during the debriefing and reflection session in the afternoon. Leading the reflection session in the afternoon This forms a critical part of the Anji Play approach. Indeed, if the 26

The ‘hi-tech’ used is just the recording done in the morning session, which is now being played on a big TV screen. Teachers and pupils will be grouped into various teams with one teacher leading the session for a couple of hours. Although there is no pre-set format, the teacher typically raises a set of questions to solicit pupils’ responses. 1. What did you play? This is the simplest and most direct question. As the pupils have just experienced it, they could usually tell with confidence and logical structure. Different pupils may express the same activity with a somewhat different understanding and in different manners, which are all OK. This is primarily aimed at raising the pupils’ communication skills. 2. What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them? Did they feel they encountered any problems or difficulties in the first place? Sometimes what seemed a problem to the teacher may not be seen as such by the pupils. How did they handle them? What solutions were arrived at? How did feel about them with hindsight? Are there alternative ways of handling them? This is to strengthen the pupils’ problem-solving abilities. 27

Chapter 2 The Role of the Teacher

pupils are just allowed to play without this reflective session, it is not appropriate to say that it is true to the Anji Play spirit.

Credits: ajplaychina.com

3. How to evaluate risk? The teacher could highlight some examples with apparent highrisk, and ask the pupils, What you did seem to be dangerous, why did you do it? Were you not afraid that you will get hurt? Such questions could help to assess how they look at risk and risk-taking. From the experience of many teachers, these young kids are actually quite good at assessing risks. They seem to know how to maintain a balance between risks and anticipated benefits. They are usually very careful not to do things outside their abilities, in order not the cause harm to themselves. Indeed, more often than not, they design apparently ‘dangerous’ activity as self-challenge. This is to enhance the pupils’ ability in risk management. 28

During the morning play sessions, many forms of play are available. Every day is different; they seldom repeat themselves. Some are relatively simple, while others are more complicated. The teacher could ask: who raised their ideas? Who seconded? Was there discussion or debate? How was the decision made? How was work divided among the pupils? Who directed it? Was what was finally produced close to what was originally planned? Were there any changes or modifications in the process? Who initiated them? Etc. etc. Since no adults were involved in the process, the pupils have to do all these in their own ways. They may not have such concepts as leadership or teamwork, but they are actually practicing them. This is to nurture the pupils’ leadership and teamwork abilities.

Learning from fellow teachers We mentioned above that Anji Play teachers need to undergo training before they start work. The training is not one-off; there needs to be continuous training and enhancement. But there are few training courses for the purpose, as most learning and skills could not be acquired through formal classroom training. For Anji Play teachers, the most effective way to enhance their skills is through exchanges with and learning from fellow teachers, in the same kindergarten or across kindergartens. Every kindergarten practicing Anji Play is conscious of the need of providing opportunities for teachers to learn from each other. Indeed, special time slots are provided for the teachers for this purpose. 29

Chapter 2 The Role of the Teacher

4. How to divide work among themselves?

Teachers who are in the process of continuous professional development realize that one major benefit is getting to know more about oneself, including: 1. A better appreciation of one’s interests and passion. 2. A better appreciation of one’s strengths and improvement areas. 3. Strengthening one’s growth mindset. In short, Anji Play as a professional practice is constantly evolving, and teachers’ involvement and contribution to perfecting it is both a challenge and an opportunity. With the continuous upgrading of the skills of the teachers, there is a great chance for Anji Play to fulfill its mission of revolutionizing early childhood education.

Chapter 3

Parents as Barriers

This chapter addresses some issues that may or may not be unique in Hong Kong. The big characters in the Chinese text are difficult to translate. I will try my best.

勤有功，戲無益 This refers to a very popular Chinese saying meaning that ‘Diligence has its rewards; play leads to nowhere.'

虎爸爸，虎媽媽 Literally, it means ‘Tiger Dad, Tiger Mom’.

贏在起跑線 Winning at the starting line.

匪夷所思 Utterly incredible. Please answer the following question honestly. Assuming you have a 3-year-old child and there is an Anji Play school in your neighbourhood, would you enrol your child there? Yes? Why? No? Why? I wonder if you find it easy to give a response. In the Hong Kong context, I have the feeling that over 90% would say NO. The main reason: they have not heard of Anji Play. But you as a reader of this book is different. You have at least some knowledge of Anji Play by now and would probably give a different response. 32

Chapter 3 Parents as Barriers Credits: ajplaychina.com

Let me ask you again? Would you send your child to an Anji Play kindergarten? These are some possible responses: 1. No. 2. May be, but I would like to talk to the principal and some teachers there first. 3. May be, but I would like to know if their teachers are properly trained in Anji Play. 4. May be, but I would like to talk to some parents, to know their views and experience. 5. May be, but I would like to observe the classes in action. 6. May be, but I would like to know more about it on the internet. These are all natural responses. But the message is clear. Parents would not choose Anji Playschool lightly. They would like to know more about its approach, its operations, the quality of the teachers, the learning outcomes, etc. before coming to a decision. Still, these will be a minority of the parents. The overwhelming majority – I would say, over 90% - may not accept the Anji Play approach at all. Let us take a closer look. 33

‘Diligence has its rewards; play leads to nowhere’. This is deeply ingrained in the minds of most Chinese parents. ‘Diligence has its rewards’ means children should be diligent in study, do homework, review what has been learned, read reference books. Children are also supposed to take part in various interest classes, such as music, arts, sports, foreign languages, etc. The more, the better. ‘Play leads to nowhere’. It is considered to be unproductive, not worthwhile, a waste of time. In short, play is not essential, the less, the better, so as to allow more time for other diligent activities. Even in kindergarten, play is not valued. How could you expect parents to embrace Anji Play?

Credits: Photodjo/depositphoto.com

In traditional Chinese thinking, parents feel the urge to make the children the best in everything. Some of them even use forceful and repressive measures to compel their children to excel themselves, including attending all sorts of interest classes, forcing them to practice long hours, deprive them of rest and playtime, and room for pursuing their own interest. Are these measures effective? Sometimes they are. But the social costs are also huge. The most detrimental damage is depriving their children the opportunity to initiate their own development, rendering their dependence on parent instructions and arrangements, hurting their self-confidence and self-esteem. In many cases, the relationships between parents and children also suffer, and in extreme cases, may cause serious defects in the children’s character development, or pushing them towards anti-social and law-breaking behaviour in later life. All in all, even if some Tiger Dad and Tiger Mom manage to produce some results with some of their children, I would say that the overall impact is negative rather than positive. What proportion of parents are Tiger Dad and Tiger Mom in Hong Kong? I doubt if there are reliable statistics. My guestimate is over 50%, among them are usually those who are relatively well off and more educated. There is another group of parents we should pay attention to. I could not find a name to describe them. I call them ‘ 苦爸爸 , 苦媽媽 ’, literally meaning ‘Bitter Dad, Bitter Mom’. These are parents who 35

Chapter 3 Parents as Barriers

‘Tiger Dad, Tiger Mom’

incline to act like Tiger Dad and Mom but do not have the time or financial resources to do so. Compared to Tiger Dad and Mom, they are usually economically less well-off and less educated, and both parents may have to work long hours to feed the family. They are thus unlikely to find the time to closely supervise their children to impose the kind of discipline that Tiger Dad and Mom could undertake. More often than not, they may not have the means to send their children to various interest classes or have the capacity to take multiple trips in a week to attend those classes. Their ‘bitterness’ comes about because they want their children to do good but could not afford to make it happen. Will these Tiger and Bitter parents be receptive to Anji Play? I doubt it. In fact, I see this as the biggest obstacle to promoting Anji Play in Hong Kong, and it is these types of parents that we need to put in special effort to win them over. Credits: DragonImages/depositphotos.com

This is another fatal idea: obsession about winning at the starting line. Again, this is an antithesis of Anji Play. For many parents in Hong Kong, it is imperative to prepare their children in the best possible manner in order to have a great start in education (read schooling). The assumption is the earlier the preparation, the better. This simple idea has driven many parents to act in ridiculously counter-productive ways. Before their children reach kindergarten age, they are already in pre-school classes in order to be exposed to and start to learn a vast array of subjects, all for enhancing the chances of entering some ‘good’ kindergartens. At the kindergarten, the emphasis is to prepare them to gain access to ‘good’ primary schools. Whatever the primary school would assess during admission, kindergartens would provide systematic and intensive drills for the children to get up to speed. This is repeated at the primary school level, where all the curriculum caters to preparing the pupils for getting good grades to enter ‘good’ secondary schools. This cascading of demands is most strongly felt at the kindergarten level, which has basically sacrificed the childhood of the children for school examinations. This is a far cry from what was the rule some 30 or 50 years back when kindergarten was joy and fun for the kids. Under such circumstances, what is left of the role of play? The question is: Would parents think that Anji Play could help prepare their children to win at the starting line?

Chapter 3 Parents as Barriers

‘Winning at the starting line’

‘Utterly incredible’ Imagine the following scenario: A group of Tiger Dad and Mom were invited to observe Anji Play classes in action. How would they react? I am sure they would find it Utterly Incredible. They would ask: 1. What have the kids learned? 2. What is being taught? 3. Playing all day? 4. No homework? 5. What kind of education is that? 6. What kind of teachers are they? 7. What kind of school? This reaction is perfectly understandable. As mentioned above, Anji Play is revolutionizing early childhood education, something that most people (including teachers, parents, and educators) may not have comprehended or appreciated. Every new approach and methodology takes a long time to gain acceptance. Fortunately, Anji Play has been practiced in Anji County for some twenty years and there is a lot of experience accumulated. Moreover, this approach has gained international recognition and acclamation. In Hong Kong, there is a group of twenty kindergartens that have signed up for a 3-year pilot scheme, with the support of the Anji Centre for Education Research in China.

However, it remains clear that we need to mount an enlightenment movement on Anji Play. The publication of this book is part of this effort.

Credits: ajplaychina.com

Chapter 3 Parents as Barriers

In the coming months and years, more and more people will begin to appreciate the nature, benefits, and potential of Anji Play in transforming early childhood education in this part of the world. (More discussion below).

Chapter 4

The Five Principles of Anji Play

The philosophy that supports the practice of Anji Play is founded on the value of and ability of the adult to discover the child—see the child’s abilities, and record and reflect on them when possible—and then provide the physical and human environmental conditions for the child’s continued reflection and expression of ability. The outcome of love—a safe, accessible, consistent, honest, open, predictable environment that is characterized by clearly articulated, simple, and reasonable expectations and expresses trust for each person—allows for freedom and risk. Self-determined risk, the natural trajectory of our growth and learning, is most often experienced as joy and characterized by deep engagement. When reflection is the core practice of adults and children, myriad opportunities for revisiting experience naturally create a structure for the continued growth of the child, adult, family, and community.

Love Bonds of trust and respect between children, their teachers, families, and the environment. Safety, broadly understood to develop from clear expectations, responsiveness, predictability, stability, consistency, honesty, and trust created by the adult for the child is a powerful expression of love. In Anji Play environments, love is the foundation for all 42

Credits: anjiplay.com

Chapter 4 The Five Principles of Anji Play

relationships. Only in an environment that supports freedom and self-expression can the child engage in physical, emotional, social, and intellectual risk, continuously discover and pose questions, and challenge themselves to the furthest limit. In Anji Play environments, not only do teachers love children as if they were their own, but the relationships between children, between teachers, between the school and the family, and between the school and the community are characterized by love. Love plays a critical role in establishing the Anji Play ecology and influences Anji Play schools and the life of the community.

Risk The experience of physical, intellectual, social, and emotional learning takes place when we are uncertain about an outcome and make an attempt. Doing something based on a prediction is a risk. This is also the basis of deep learning, and central to the scientific method. Without risk, there is no ability to solve problems. Without problemsolving, there is no learning. Children select challenges according to their own ability, time, and place. In the exploration of the limits of their own abilities, children discover difficulty and solve the difficulty. In Anji Play environments, the adult is present to observe, document, and support, but not to interfere, intervene, or direct (unless there is a specific danger to the child or the child has truly exhausted all approaches within their grasp), and, to the greatest degree possible, guarantee the child’s access to and enjoyment of physical, cognitive, and interpersonal risk. Credits: Wild Rumpus /Anjiplay.com

The reward of self-determined discovery, growth, and learning. Positive feedback and reward (internal and external) give us joy and motivate us to continue pursuing joy. Without joy, play cannot possibly be true play. Joy is the outcome of self-determined participation in play, self-adjustment of the difficulty of play, and continuous reflection. The standard that adults should use to assess the content of any day is whether the child has achieved a state of joy in their activities. In their experience of joy, the child can be quiet or focused, they can be raucous or expressive......joy is the state of mind that nourishes the life of the child.

Credits: Krystina Tapia / anjiplay.com

Chapter 4 The Five Principles of Anji Play

Joy

Engagement A deep connection with the world and all that inhabits it. The experience of pursuing limitless depth is engagement. True engagement arises from the process of a child’s passionate exploration and discovery of the physical and social worlds. Anji Play confers the greatest degree of freedom to the child, allowing the child opportunities to move within an open-ended space, to fully explore and experience the surrounding environment, and therefore fully engage body and mind.

Credits: ajplaychina.com

The self-guided understanding, expression, and development of complex thinking. The story of our experience is reflection. Reflection is the crucial process that transforms the child’s experience into knowledge. In Anji Play environments, the child reflects and expresses their daily experiences through a range of means, and continuously adjusts their own knowledge of the world on the foundation of their pre-existing experience. The teacher and parent, both through materials and environments, support the self-determined reflection of the child on the child's own experience, and through their observation of the child and exploration of their own memories of play, participate in the child’s reflection. Credits: True Play Foundation

Chapter 4 The Five Principles of Anji Play

Reflection

How an American educator sees The Five Principles of Anji Play Denisha Jones June 3, 2019 LOVE Love is the foundation for all the relationships in Anji Play. The teachers love the children, their families, and the community. The children love their teachers, each other, their families, and the community. The families love the children and the teachers and the community. And the community loves the children, their families , and the teachers. Love is all around in Anji kindergartens. Only with love can the children be free to engage in self-directed true play. RISK Risk is probably the hardest principle to accept for those of us who feel that it is our job to keep young children safe. First, safety is a big issue in Anji Play, and the teachers are there to keep the children safe. But safe does not mean risk-free. Risk is a natural component of true play. Only through risk do children learn how to problem solve and truly express themselves. The first time I watched a video of Anji Play, I must have reached out to grab what I felt was an unsafe structure about a dozen times. However, the teacher who was there the whole time only had to provide extra support once.

JOY When the children are loved and allowed to take risks , they experience joy. This joy can only come from self-determined uninterrupted true play. Joy is abundant in Anji Play. Even with all the adults watching and taking pictures, the children are expressing pure joy. Their eyes smile wide, and laughter is the universal language of true play. ENGAGEMENT Because they are experiencing true joy, the children are fully engaged in Anji Play. They have hours to explore with the materials as they see fit before they go inside for play stories and play sharing. The concentration level of these children was mesmerizing. Whether they were painting outside, playing with water, or building complex structures, these children were fully engaged.

Chapter 4 The Five Principles of Anji Play

The children knew how to assess the level of risk and how to make sure the structure was safe. I saw this with my very own eyes at the Anji Experimental Kindergarten. A little girl was climbing on a structure that did not appear safe. As I watched her, I noticed how she was the best person to determine if it was safe. She stopped several times to reorient the structure, and finally, she called in reinforcements to make sure she could make it across safely. I was impressed with her ability to engage in a selfassessment of the risk.

REFLECTION Reflection happens at the end of the play, and I think this is one of the unique aspects of Anji Play. Children come inside and draw pictures of their play. Then the teachers select pictures from the children and photos and videos that the teachers captured and engage the children in play stories. Although I could not understand the discussion because I do not speak Mandarin, what I saw was a group of children spending 40 minutes with their teachers discussing one play story. The children were attentive and focused on the discussion. Not once did the teacher had to remind anyone to keep their hands to themselves or pay attention. Perhaps when children get hours of true play, they no longer have a problem sitting in a group! Watching the reflection was truly inspiring because it was obvious that the children enjoy talking about their play and problem solving together!

Chapter 5

How Did "Anji Play" Go Global?

This Chapter focuses on the following: Why is Anji Play gaining so much international attention and recognition? What draws the continuous stream of educators from all over the world to come and observe Anji Play in action? Why are some educational institutions beginning to practice Anji Play in their respective countries? Living in Hong Kong – a major confluence of the West and the East – such a phenomenon comes as a surprise, to say the least. We used to think that the Western education system (including early childhood education) is generally superior to that of Eastern ones. What makes it possible that a county-level early childhood education system could become a global attraction? It appears to us that the Western education system is already providing far more room for children’s development than their Eastern counterparts. What makes them come short compared to Anji Play? These are legitimate queries. Let’s explore them. First, it is true that there is more room for various sorts of play under the Western education system. But this is far from universal. Some schools have more rooms than others. There is a popular observation circulating in Western societies: “Rich kids go to school to play; poor kids go to school for instruction.” Parents of well-to-do families appreciate that play is beneficial to their children and could afford to let them play in school. For the not-so-well-off families, sending kids to school is already a financial burden, and they would like their children to learn rather than to play. They would think that playing could be done elsewhere and less expensively than in schools. In short, not all children have equal access to play even in economically advanced countries. 52

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global? Credits: anjiplay.com

Second, even in schools where play is allowed or encouraged, it differs from Anji Play in one significant way: the lack of systematic reflection. With Anji Play, in contrast, the afternoon reflection exercise is mandatory, and is well planned and conducted so as to enable the children to learn from such things as storytelling and communication, taking and managing risks, problem-solving, etc. Third, in playful endeavors in the Western education context, the individual is at the center. It may be self-initiated and self-directed, but the individual is the de facto driver and player. In Anji Play, while self-initiative and self-direction are equally emphasized, the play as such often takes place on a group level. The child decides on what to play and how to play, but they typically have to communicate with 53

each other, discuss and deliberate on options, and once a consensus is reached, they have to work together to create the ‘toys’ or facilities to play with. There is a large amount of team communication and teamwork to make the play possible. Fourth, another distinctive element of Anji Play is the design and supply of materials to play with. Anji Play deliberately chooses a range of simple, minimally-structured, lightweight, and easily assembled materials that the children could combine in limitless ways. This makes it possible for new ‘toys’ to be created on a daily basis with little guidance from adults. Finally, there is a difference in the role of teachers. Those in Anji Paly take up a very different role as compared to those in conventional schools. Anji Play teachers do not provide instructions in traditional subjects, nor do they influence or interfere with how the children play. They serve more like an observer, a recorder, and a counselor. Their job is to create a safe and conducive environment for the kids to play and learn happily. Conventional teachers may need reeducation if they choose to become Anji Play practitioners. Above all, the various elements mentioned constitute an integrated system. To be sure, some of these elements are also present in Western education systems. What is unique about Anji Play is that they have been combined in such an easily managed and implemented way that its operation reveals logic and magic to Western educators who witness it.

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

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"I have seen the future of early childhood education and it is Anji Play. Phenomenal learning takes place in Anji—cognitive, social, emotional, creative, scientific—because pressure and conflict have been replaced by love and support. We have known for a long time that children learn best when they are fully engaged with their teachers, their peers, and their environment. They learn best when they feel joy rather than fear or boredom. All of these things are evident in every aspect of Anji Play, all day long, to a degree I have not seen anywhere else." —Dr. Larry Cohen, author of Playful Parenting

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Have you ever stepped back to watch what really goes on when your children play? As psychologist Lawrence J. Cohen points out, play is children's way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That's why "playful parenting" is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play, we join our kids in their world and help them to: 1. Express and understand complex emotions. 2. Breakthrough shyness, anger, and fear. 3. Empower themselves and respect diversity. 4. Play their way through sibling rivalry. 5. Cooperate without power struggles. From eliciting a giggle during a baby's first game of peekaboo to cracking jokes with a teenager while hanging out at the mall, Playful Parenting is a complete guide to using play to raise confident children. Written with love and humour, brimming with good advice and revealing anecdotes, and grounded in the latest research, this book will make you laugh even as it makes you wise in the ways of being an effective, enthusiastic parent.

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

Playful Parenting

Jesse Coffino Mar 21, 2017

This is One City Early Learning Centers in Madison, Wisconsin. Four-year-old Max builds with unflagging enjoyment with simple wood blocks, alternating between horizontal and vertical, building higher and higher. He adds two wheels on top, a crossbeam spanning front and back, and then erects a long wooden plank in front. After thirty minutes an American tank takes vivid form.

In that moment, the joy of success is manifest on Max’s face. He shows a broad, beaming smile, and his mother, seeing the scene, hurries over and hugs Max from behind, moved to tears. “Anji Play” is shorthand for Anji Kindergarten Play Education.

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

How Did “Anji Play” Go Global?

It is an entirely new educational practice developed through the reforms and research of Cheng Xueqin, Deputy Director, Office of Primary Education, Anji County Department of Education, Zhejiang Province, based on the educational ecology of Anji County, in which play is the primary form of education. In 15 years of profound experience, “Anji Play” has not only provided deep change and an entirely new perspective to the world of Chinese early education, but today it has also entered the world, and is currently influencing the development of global early education by bringing joy to children of diverse ethnicities in different countries? What is “Anji Play”? “The playfulness, authenticity and experience of true childhood inherent to natural play.” “Anji Play” is an exceedingly common sounding name, but this kind of play, the kind of play that children like, is the activity that is most self-determined, most in accordance with their natures, and most capable of manifesting the essence of their childhoods, ” Dr. Hua Aihua, Deputy Chair, China National Society of Early Childhood Education, Professor, East China Normal University, Department of Early Education, said during an interview with China Education Daily.

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

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Dr. Hua has spent the last fifty years researching childhood play. Five years ago, when she first encountered “Anji Play, ” “I was delighted to experience the state of play that I had been seeking in vain for so many years.” What was this state of play? Dr. Hua recalled the scene of her first time observing “Anji Play.” At the time, she had come to observe outdoor, self- determined play at Anji County Municipal Kindergarten and Anji County Experimental Kindergarten, what she saw was a deserted, unprepared space. Who would have imaged that when 9:00 have arrived, children would fly out of the school building and move from the areas surrounding the yard the materials that they wanted to play with

ladders big and small, wood boards and blocks, tires, cubes and a multitude of other playthings, no teacher explaining the rules of play, no activities organized by the teacher, children independently forming into groups and entering into a variety of play contexts? In the play, no teacher directed children to do or not do anything. “I was quickly drawn to the profound expressions of the children in this play. I quickly took up my camera to capture their movements only to discover that I hadn’t charged the camera, ” Dr. Hua sighed. The children really knew how to play, creating so many unimaginable ways of playing, “It allowed me to see the long-forgotten playfulness, authenticity, and experience of true childhood inherent to natural play.” In contrast to Dr. Hua’s rational analysis, the response of Chinese early education over the last few years to “Anji Play” has been feverish. Since 2005, innumerable principals, teachers, and educational administrators have flooded Anji and have sought to learn and emulate “Anji Play.” For a moment, many kindergartens across the country lived under the shadow of “Anji.” Those captivated by “Anji Play, ” include educators and child psychologists from a range of countries and regions, who have travelled thousands of miles undaunted to this small county seat located in the North of China’s Zhejiang Province, in search of Anji’s secret to early education. Dr Chelsea Bailey, former director of the Department of Early Childhood Education at New York University, engaged in early

During her first visit to Anji in July 2014, she was deeply captivated: “This is true play. In this play, you can see the child, and feel a joy that comes from within the child.” Dr Renate Zimmer, Professor in Movement and Sports Sciences at the University of Osnabrück and Head of the Institute of Early Childhood Education and Development of Lower Saxony. When she set foot in an Anji kindergarten in 2008, said delightedly, “This is the best kindergarten I have ever seen! So many children and every person can find the thing they want to do. The teachers gravitate towards the children who are most in need of assistance.” Dr Kim Plunkett, Professor of Cognitive Science, Oxford University, specifically arranged to visit Anji, seeing the children playing he gasped in admiration, “Fantastic! The children are moonwalking like Michael Jackson on those barrels.” He suggested his interest in establishing a base for research into childhood development in Anji. The reporter has learned that in addition to the above-mentioned countries, experts and kindergartens from Canada, England, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Nigeria, Korea, and other countries have already become a part of or have expressed an interest in becoming part of “Anji Play.”

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

education research for over 20 years.

Credits: anjiplay.com

Attempting to solve the challenges facing the global development of early childhood education. So then what is “Anji Play” exactly, and why does it have a hope of becoming an international model for early education? Jesse Coffino who plans organizes, and helps implement “Anji Play” outside of China explained to the reporter that growing income inequality and centuries of racism in America have had a negative impact on many children. “Children who live in poverty, who experience intergenerational trauma, and who live in environments of de facto segregation are being forced to learn because people with decision-making authority see this as a strategy to solve unequal outcomes.” Dr. Hua’s observations of developments in American early education confirm the analysis of Jesse Coffino. “The condition I observed in America in 2005 was that rich kids went to pre-k to ‘play’ and poor kids went to pre-k for ‘instruction .’” For that reason, many American educators are seeking a highquality educational concept that seeks to address the educational inequalities that exist in America. When Dr. Bailey and other experts visit Anji, they see the developmental level of children engaged in “Anji Play” and their reactions have been exclamatory. They visit town kindergartens

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

Why is “Anji Play” being welcomed by the world?

and village teaching points to observe and research how “Anji Play” promotes learning and development and are moved and inspired by what they see. In the economically underdeveloped rural Chinese kindergartens, early childhood teachers lack high levels of education and the majority of the children belong to the unique Chinese phenomenon of the “left-behind child”. As a result of these kindergartens, not only are children achieving high levels of development in play, but this has attracted a high level of interest from foreign experts, who are attempting to study, and introduce “Anji Play.” “Our response to a large migrant and left-behind child population in our villages is to allow every child to enjoy equal, universal and universally beneficial, quality early education.” Cheng Xueqin said that this is the root cause of the generation of “Anji Play.” At the beginning of this year, at the 30th Annual Conference of the WestEd Program for Infant and Toddler Care, on the invitation of the event, Cheng Xueqin and President of internationally recognized Reggio Children and Reggio Children Loris Malaguzzi Centre Foundation, Professor Carla Rinaldi took the stage together for dialogue and exchanged with American early educators, “Anji Play” addressing the real issues of children in bad circumstances, and a concept of respect and development of children elicited a strong reaction. One City Early Learning Center, as the first pilot site for “Anji Play” in America with a total initial investment of $2 million,

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

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the school occupies a site of 1243 square feet, it is designed to enroll 110 children. The CEO of One City, Kaleem Caire, plans to open 12 “Anji Play” schools in the next five years, with a goal of enrolling 1, 100 low-income children. In America, libraries and local governments are bringing “Anji Play” to areas for interaction in the library, the development of the ecosystem on a city level will broaden the implications of “Anji Play” itself.

The secret of “Anji Play” going global Return the right of play to children, respect the order and value of self-determined learning. Valuing the play of children is not a new concept. Two hundred years ago it was recognized and affirmed. As a result, the unavoidable reality is that adults have always anticipated using so-called “instruction” in the place of “learning” inherent in and arising from the child. This was once also a difficulty in the development of Anji early education — the teacher’s painstakingly maintained classroom was for strictly teaching children to accept elementary level knowledge, but the teachers daily activities cutting and pasting collages, singing, and dancing tired them to death, the children not only were not happy, but the learning outcomes were not as had been hoped, the relationship between the child and teacher was contradictory and full of conflict. “There must be a problem somewhere, ” Cheng Xueqin said. She, through a large amount of visiting with teachers, parents, came to an important conclusion: play is the form of learning most preferred by children and it is the primary form of activity from which children obtain development and growth. As a result, they discarded unified, prescribed syllabi, turning the role of “teach” in teacher to that of the researcher of the child and develop and produce richly local play materials. This reform, made them finally discover the important secret of the self-

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

Credits: anjiplay.com

determined development that children obtain in play. China National Society of Early Childhood Education President, Nanjing Normal University Professor Dr. Yu Yongping said while being interviewed by the reporter, “Only by truly taking the stance of the child, can you truly appreciate the meaning of the play. “Anji Play” satisfies the innate needs of the child, open, self-determined and rich environments realize the development of the child.” Dr. Bailey has in all visited Anji five times spending months in her investigations. She particularly identifies with the spirit of engagement, risk, joy, reflection, and love in “Anji Play, ” which believes that this can allow children to gain self-determined development, learn how to solve problems themselves, a spirit needed by all the children of the world.

Regarding how to adapt and study the methods of Anji, Dr. Bailey believes that educators, parents, and government leaders should provide their clear understanding of “Anji Play, ” and take part in the work of research into the spirit of “Anji Play” so that Americans can understand why they should adopt and how they should scale “Anji Play.” “We must do this by approaching all of our relationships with respect; with our hearts, minds, ears, and eyes open and ready to listen and learn; with an attitude of collaboration and problemsolving. It is necessary to work closely with communities to understand, implement, and assess a model of “Anji Play” that is both true to Ms. Cheng’s vision and resonant with the lives of families, children, and the larger cultural context.” In these encounters and exchanges, how will Anji protect its progress and value? “If, through its encounter and communion with other world cultures, “Anji Play” is capable of absorbing the essence of these cultures and evolves into a more complete, systematic, harmonious, active, developing and symbiotic curriculum, how could that not be a good thing?” Cheng Xueqin stated. Dr. Yu assesses “Anji Play” as “presenting a self-confident Chinese early education, a kind of confidence that derives from a recognition of the patterns of child development, from a genuine interest in the child and the child’s need for mastery, and from an understanding of the child’s spiritual world.”

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global?

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Education is not race specific, it has no nationality. The history of Chinese early education spans more than one hundred years. In that time, we have always looked to countries outside of China to learn, and have built our curricula based on their view of education and their system of values to educate our own children. The emergence of “Anji Play” has allowed us to view Chinese early education with hope and confidence because it brings the same joy to children throughout the world. (Translated from the original Chinese by Jesse Robert Coffino) Source: https://anjiplay.medium.com/how-did-anji-play-goglobal-18e1e4bca996

True Play Statement The True Play Statement was first made on May 15, 2019, in Anji County, China at the 1st International True Play Conference. After Ms. Cheng Xueqin read the statement in Chinese, and Mr. Jesse Coffino read the statement in English, educators from ten countries, including China, signed the statement as founding members of the True Play Advocacy Alliance. True Play, as defined below, is valued as the primary experience of learning in Anji Play environments. Routines, schedules, reflection, and other activities in Anji Play programs are organized to provide the greatest potential for trust, freedom, and depth in these True Play experiences. True play is deep and uninterrupted engagement in the activity of one’s own choice. True Play is most frequently characterized by observable experiences of risk, joy, and deep engagement. This is the deepest manifestation of learning, growth, and development. True Play flourishes in places of love where the materials, environments, and decision-making attend to the needs and differences of the individual and the group. When given space to reflect, those who experience True Play and those who take part in deep and engaged observation of True Play will create ecologies that prioritize the understanding of learning and development in their respective communities. Educators and policy-makers committed to True Play protect the child’s right to experiences of True Play, and make True Play a priority in their decision-making about education.

Chapter 5 How Did Anji Play Go Global? Credits: anjiplay.com

True Play Advocacy Alliance Professor Feng Xiaoxia (China) Professor Li Jimei (China) Professor Hua Aihua (China) Ms. Cheng Xueqin (China) Ms. Sheng Yi (China) Ms. Zhang Jie (China) Dr. Doris Pui Wah Cheng (HKSAR, China) Mr. Jesse Coffino (U.S.) Ms. Jordy Coldwell Angel (Mexico) Mr. Salvatory Kisude (Tanzania) Dr. Peter Mangione (U.S.) Mr. Gregory Mickells (U.S.) Ms. Safina Mutumba (Uganda) Mr. Jean Christophe Ndikumana (Burundi) Dr. Andreas Roepstorff (Denmark) Ms. Eszter Salamon (Hungary) Dr. Rona Jualla van Oudenhoven (Canada) Dr. Nikolay Veraksa (Russia)

Chapter 6

Who is Your Role Model?

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You may find it strange: this is the most difficult chapter to write in this book. It could have been easy. It appears that all I need to do is to provide a biographical sketch of Ms. Cheng Xueqin, founder of the Anji Play movement. But after a deep dive into her work, I felt that it is not that simple. Her story is so rich and inspiring that I think the readers should take time to go deep into it and absorb as much insight as possible from this amazing journey. A friend of mine has called Ms. Cheng her Role Model. I was intrigued; I would like to know what she meant by Role Model. She said that she adored and admired Ms. Cheng and had learned a tremendous lot from her. 76

My first role model was Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh. He started a movement of micro-finance to alleviate poverty in rural areas and became the first social entrepreneur to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

Credits: KK Tse

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

I admit that many would feel the same. But this is an understanding of Role Model that is somewhat different from mine. Role Model is a common term, but surprisingly there is no commonly agreed definition of the term. I have been in the social innovation field for some twenty years and found that people used this term to mean different things. I came to develop my definition of a Role Model after I found my first Role Model. This is my definition: A Role Model is someone who inspires you so much that you want to exceed his (her) achievements.

During one of his visits to Hong Kong, I was fortunate enough to have met him in person. I told him that he is my Role Model and shared with him my definition. I also said that although my chances of getting a Nobel Peace Prize are close to zero, it did not mean that I could not exceed his achievements. I thought to myself: as long as I continue to do my work in social entrepreneurship education and if someone in the Greater China Region directly or indirectly influenced by me were to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I would consider that I have exceeded Professor Yunus’ achievements. It should be pointed out that being able to exceed the achievement of another person does not imply competition or comparison. It only highlights that you are being inspired to set the highest possible goal for yourself and focus on achieving it. What has this to do with the popular conception of the Role Model? Could be substantial. In my view, the popular notion of the Role Model is not inspiring enough, as it does not inspire you to aim high and act boldly to achieve your goal. With my definition, you would not lightly call someone your Role Model. You are forced to ask yourself: is this person inspiring me to the point that I feel the urge to exceed his (her) achievement? Let’s take a look from another angle. I have a modest reputation in the social innovation field in Hong Kong, and because of this, some people said that I am their Role Model. How do you think I typically respond? In fact, I would ask them about their definition of role models. Of course, hardly any of them has a definition close to mine. In which case I would explain my definition to them. It is apparent that I don’t care how many people consider me their Role Model. But I do treasure those who adopt my definition and 78

Now let’s return to the question of whether or not Ms. Cheng is our Role Model. I hope you would accept my definition and then you decide whether or not Ms. Cheng is your Role Model. For me, she is my Role Model indeed. She inspires me so much that I want to exceed her achievement. I said to myself: if within my lifetime, the Anji Play movement that I helped launch has succeeded to make Anji Play become the basic curriculum blueprint for all kindergartens and primary schools in Hong Kong, I would consider I have exceeded Ms. Cheng’s achievement. Dear readers, if after reading this book you would accept my Role Model definition and consider Ms. Cheng your Role Model, I would like to know how you see yourself exceeding her achievement.

The Origin of Anji Play Anji Play is a comprehensive curriculum and approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin for the public early childhood programs of Anji County, Zhejiang Province, China. In the past ten years, the Anji Play curriculum, approach, and philosophy have become the focus of pilot and demonstration programs in the 79

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

still regard me as their Role Model. For me as a mortal, my greatest wish is to have as many people as possible who want to exceed my achievements.

United States, Europe, and Africa. The Anji Play curriculum and play materials have been adopted at the province level in Zhejiang (soon bringing Anji Play to two million more children), and Anji Play is being practiced in public early childhood programs in all of China’s 34 provinces and administrative regions. In recent months, Anji Play has become a focus of Ministry of Education efforts to expand universal access to public early education in China. In Anji County, Zhejiang Province, China. 14, 000 children, ages 3 to 6, take part in a highly sophisticated curriculum of self-initiated, self-determined play, reflection, and self- expression. Children build bridges with ladders and planks, run across oil drums, and construct their environments with bricks and lumber, and rope. Every day these same children watch videos of their play and discuss their discoveries and intentions and create complex drawings, schematics, and symbolic writing systems. They attend public kindergartens filled with risk, love, joy, engagement, and the deep participation of their families and communities. The approach is called Anji Play. The inventor is Ms. Cheng Xueqin. Anji, China is a verdant, mist-shrouded rural county approximately three hours driving distance from megacity Shanghai. Once known only for its white tea, bamboo products, playing host to the wirefight scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and as the birthplace of ink painter Wu Changshuo, the name Anji has today become synonymous with innovative early childhood education practices in China.

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model? Credits: ajplaychina.com

Anji County is home to 130 public preschools and village teaching sites that serve 14, 000 children ages 3-6. For many years the Anji approach to early childhood education was that of the majority of Chinese schools: get kids to sit quietly at their desks until they were ready to return to the care and supervision of their parents at the end of the day. But Ms. Cheng, whose position put her in charge of those 130 preschools, would soon change the status quo. In 1989 China signed and became a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 31 states, “...parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.” In 1996, in an effort to bring China's pre-k standards in line with the developed world, the Ministry of Education released “Standards for Kindergarten Education.” Article 5, section 25, subsection 6 of these standards states that kindergarten education should treat play as a “foundational activity to be included in every type of educational activity.”

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When she received the new guidelines, the idea that play was fundamental to children's experience and learning deeply resonated with her, and she began to experiment with how to introduce play into classrooms where it was formerly absent. But as she began to experiment, she did not see the joyous discovery of young children at play in her classrooms. What she saw, she described as “false joy, ” the play she observed she termed “false play.” Ms. Cheng observed joy being “ruthlessly stripped” from children in the service of adult ideas about how the play should be directed to serve specific educational and developmental goals.

In an effort to understand why her students weren't playing and why her teachers and administrators were frustrated, that despite their best efforts, the children in their care were not truly happy, Ms. Cheng asked herself a basic question: “What are my deepest memories of play as a child?” And she also began to ask her teachers and administrators the same question. What she found was that their deepest memories of play were defined by risk, self-determination and that their meaningful play took place on a grand scale were big, hard to handle materials became tools and building blocks of imagination and cooperation. And Ms. Cheng said to herself, “if the children in our care have this one unique moment of childhood in their lives, why are we stripping away the joy and discovery that is so essential to it?” So she began to experiment. She began to introduce large, minimally structured materials, and open-ended, minimally-structured environments. She told her teachers to back off and watch, to observe what the kids were doing. And as months turned into years, as she designed and refined the materials and environments in her schools and the protocols for observation and reflection that her teachers engaged in with their students on a daily basis, she made further observations. When children engage in “True Play, ” she noticed, they are realizing specific intentions. Most simply put, they intend to have fun. But when given space, freedom, materials, and important time, these play intentions manifest themselves in high degrees of complexity. So with 10 minutes and a climbing structure, a child might climb up 83

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

“Ms. Cheng asked herself a basic question: ‘What are my deepest memories of play as a child?’”

and down and maybe jump. But with two hours and a range of openended materials, children will organize and create highly complex structures and rules to govern their use.

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Moreover, they will seek to eliminate those factors that stifle their play intentions. They will solve conflicts, remove the danger and create order because it makes their play more fun. They will seek to understand what they are doing and they will ask for help if they need it. Time is crucial here. Originally, Ms. Cheng allocated 1 hour of outdoor playtime for her students in the morning, but this gradually expanded two 2 hours as

“When children engage in True Play, they are realizing specific intentions. Most simply put, they intend to have fun. But when given space, freedom, materials and importantly time, these play intentions manifest themselves in high degrees of complexity” Ms. Cheng also observed the difficulty her teachers faced when trying to assess the developmental level of one child in order to provide specific activities and materials that addressed that child at her specific developmental level. When she multiplied that number by 30, she immediately understood the impossibility of designing developmentally appropriate activities for an entire classroom of kids. Instead, she found that when kids are given the freedom of selfdetermined, risky play and open-ended materials, they will challenge themselves at their own developmental level. The teacher’s frustrating task of measuring and designing is eliminated when activities no longer need to be geared to the baseline of developmental appropriateness because the children challenge themselves. This gives teachers the freedom to observe, understand and support the children in their care. It also frequently leads teachers to a deep admiration for the abilities of their students. Admiration, joy, trust, participation, and understanding are ingredients for a relationship of love between child and teacher, the foundation of the bonds of attachment that support a child’s emotional, social, and brain growth.

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

she realized that greater time led to greater complexity, that when children have the time to complete their intentions they stay highly focused and engaged in their projects.

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Teachers have an important role in the learning and discovery that takes place in the kindergartens of Anji. But they are not guides, they do not structure play towards specific goals, and they do not view children as unsophisticated thinkers that need to be directed towards achievement. Teachers in Anji observe and take part in the play, but they do not intervene. They understand that children choose to resolve their own conflicts, manage and regulate their own risk and develop rules and order to get the most fun out of their play. They trust children. “The teachers and parents of Anji understand that the most effective learning takes place when a child owns her own experiences and discoveries”

They protested vociferously about time being wasted that could better be used in the study, and about the dangers of risk and dirtiness. They wrote letters, they reported Ms. Cheng to high-level officials and they refused to send their kids to school. In response Ms. Cheng had copies of China's national guidelines for childhood development printed, bound, and sent to every household in the county. She asked the parents and grandparents of her students to bring these guidelines to school and observe their children and grandchildren at play. Credits: ajplaychina.com

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

The teachers and parents of Anji also understand that the most effective learning, whether it is social, emotional, STEM, or otherwise, takes place when a child owns her own experiences and discoveries. But it wasn't always so. The parents of Anji were dead set against play in their schools.

The discovery that their four years old were possessed of such high levels of bravery, compassion, and intelligence brought many of the parents to tears. Overnight, once resistant parents had become adamant supporters and took on the role of training incoming parents on the skills of observation and documentation. In 2014 Ms. Cheng received the highest honor awarded for early childhood education in China. She received this award from the President of China. In the 15 years that she has been working to refine her approach, thousands of teachers and administrators from across China have visited her schools to learn from her successes. Elementary school teachers in Anji are finding that the children entering their classrooms are highly engaged, that they have concrete, first-hand experiences that support the abstract concepts they are expected to learn, and that they are adept at cooperation, self-initiated learning, and that they are highly creative. “Anji Play is founded on deeply-rooted trust in our children. It is, at its core, a movement of love, risk, joy, engagement, and reflection. We owe it to our children, to ourselves, to our societies, and to the world to embrace these core principles.” When we consider what we want our babies and toddlers and kids to be in a few years’ time, is it stationary test-takers, adept receivers of standardized knowledge? Or do we want compassionate, joyous, engaged, creative, and curious citizens? As foreign as it might seem, this approach, Anji Play, is founded on deeply-rooted trust in our children. It is, at its core, a movement of love, risk, joy, engagement, and reflection.

(Source: True Play Foundation website)

Credits: ajplaychina.com

Chapter 6 Who is Your Role Model?

We owe it to our children, to ourselves, to our societies, and to the world to embrace these core principles. They are nondenominational, they are not based on wild theories and conjecture, they are not culturally specific. They are fundamental and powerful. The time has come for a movement of 21st century early childhood education.

Chapter 7

Anji Play in Hong Kong

Writing this chapter, I was struck by a strange feeling: an extreme sense of urgency. I was keen to find answers to the following questions: 1 Would kindergartens in Hong Kong embrace Anji Play? 2. If so, what types of kindergartens? 3. How would the teachers be trained? 4. Would they need help from the Anji Early Childhood Education Research Centre in China? 5. I f so, would the teachers go to Anji for training, or the Anji teachers come to Hong Kong to conduct the training? 6. With the pandemic still around, could some of the training be conducted online? And at what cost in terms of quality and impact? 7. When a kindergarten in Hong Kong wants to implement Anji Play, is application required? What kind of charges are involved? 8. Who to apply for? Is there a local representative of Anji Play as such? 9. Would there be some franchise fee? What kind of services will be provided? 10. Is the Hong Kong government supportive of Anji Play? Would they provide financial support to kindergartens implementing the scheme? 11. When a kindergarten in Hong Kong plans to implement Anji Play, does it have to secure the support of the parents? 12. What if the parents oppose to it? 13. What can the kindergartens do to secure parents’ support? 14. Could a kindergarten in Hong Kong implement only part of Anji Play instead of a full adoption?

I consider these intriguing questions, as they reflect three levels of concerns: 1. I f Anji Play is so wonderful, how could we ensure that all kindergartens will implement them as soon as possible? 2. What are the critical success factors? Funding? Teachers training? Parents re-education? 3. C ould Anji Play be made available outside the school environment?

Chapter 7 Anji Play in Hong Kong

15. If so, would it violate the basic principles of Anji Play? 16. Could Anji Play be applied to primary schools? 17. C ould Anji Play facilities be offered outside kindergartens? Could public libraries offer such facilities, as has been done in some overseas countries? 18. What about public parks? 19. If Anji Play is offered outside school environment, would there need to have teachers present?

Fermentation of Anji Play in Hong Kong As a matter of fact, Anji Play is not new to most people in the early childhood education circle. Over the past few years, there have been quite a large number of seminars, talks, visits, etc. on the theme of Anji Play organized by various education bodies. There were quite a few delegations going to Anji to observe Anji Play in action. In June 2016, a delegation of 25 experienced teachers went to Anji to learn about the theory and practice of Anji Play. The delegation was organized by the alumni of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (which subsequently became the Hong Kong Education University). They went to Anji with an open mind and much curiosity. They were also eager to find answers to many intriguing questions surrounding the Anji Play phenomenon. It was undoubtedly a great opportunity to learn. It turned out that what impressed them most was the sharing by the parents of Anji Play children. They spoke from their experience of how their kids were transformed by playful learning, in such as areas as communication, imagination, team work and the like.

Chapter 7 Anji Play in Hong Kong Credits: The Hong Kong Institute of Education Past Student's Association of Early Childhood Teacher Education

The visiting delegation was also able to observe the kids in Anji Play and felt the silent presence of the teachers, as well as sitting in the afternoon reflection sessions. All these prove the power of first hand witnessing of an education revolution in progress. A kid’s dad said his kid has learnt about teamwork and division of labor and appreciated the importance of self-discipline. He was very happy about it. A kid’s mother observed that her kid has to take off her jacket, bring the water bottle and make a lot of preparation before playing. This helps her to enhance her ability in self-management and perform tasks in an orderly manner. Such is the benefit of Anji Play. Needless to say, the visit was an eye-opener for the Hong Kong delegation. The personal appreciation of Anji Play’s principles and practice enable them to spread the word about the power of Anji Play on their return to Hong Kong. The following is video report in China mainland news on another Hong Kong delegation visiting Anji: video report

鳳凰網視頻報導：香港幼稚园教育專家考察安吉游戲

https://v.ifeng.com/ c/7ginWQnnGlV

May, 2019 represented another milestone in the development of Anji Play in Hong Kong. May 12-15, 2019 witnessed another 40-person strong delegation to Anji led by the Hong Kong Association of Professional Exchanges for Early Childhood Education, among them were curriculum development officer of the Hong Kong Education Bureau, scholars from teachers training institutions, principals and senior teachers from local kindergartens, parent representatives, etc. Their itinerary in Anji included attending The First International True Play Conference. The First International True Play Conference was the first of its kind, bringing together experts and scholars in the early childhood education field to Anji for exchanges on the significance and value of Anji Play. There were numerous presentations and small group discussions, enabling a rare collective exploration of a subject with international implications. May 25, 2019 was even more significant. A delegation led by Ms Cheng Xieqin, founder of Anji Play, came to Hong Kong to conduct a series of talks and workshops.

Chapter 7 Anji Play in Hong Kong

Another Milestone

Credits: ajplaychina.com

The Hong Kong talks were organized into two main tracks, one for early childhood educators with the theme of “Anji Play: Experience and Practice”, and the other for parents with the theme of “Anji Play: Parents’ role”. The workshops were attended by over 210 kindergartens and early childhood education institutions with a total of over 1,000 participants.

Chapter 7 Anji Play in Hong Kong Credits: Association of Hong Kong Kindergarten Education Professional Exchange

The Official View: Hong Kong Education Bureau Although there is as yet an official policy towards the adoption of Anji Play in local kindergartens, the Hong Kong Government’s Education Bureau appears to be very supportive to the idea. In the 2017 Kindergarten Curriculum Guidelines issued by the Bureau, “Learning through Play” was the central theme. Despite the absence of direct reference to Anji Play, the document highlighted the following: 1. Play is proven to be the most effective route for young kids to learn. 2. Play is being considered as the ideal mode for developing young kids' personal and emotional development. 3. When young kids make use of their language, numeric literacy, various senses and previously acquired experience to play, the process enables them to develop their creative thoughts, selfdevelopment, and adaption to the environment. 4. Young kids love to play, and play with others. In the process they learn to cooperate, and adopt various imagined roles, giving them pleasure, excitement and sense of achievement and engagement. 5. In addition, learning through play enables the development of the kids’ various muscular strengths, enhancement of hand-eye coordination, control of body motion, as well as releasing their emotions, building self-confidence and promoting interpersonal development. All these indicate that the Education Bureau is well informed and supportive to adopting a learning through play approach in early childhood education. 100

Chapter 7 Anji Play in Hong Kong Credits: Education Bureau of Hong Kong

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Anji Play Pilot Scheme With the endorsement of the Education Bureau there is now an Anji Play Pilot Scheme in Hong Kong. 20 local kindergartens have been screen and accepted to join a 3-year pilot program with direct support from the Anji Early Childhood Education Research Centre in Anji. The latter will be providing teacher training for the participating kindergartens. Most of the training will be conducted in Hong Kong, while a small group of teachers from each of the kindergartens will be sent to Anji for intensive training. Another special feature of this pilot scheme is that each participating kindergarten is required to send two parents to go to Anji each year for observation of Anji Play in action. This is considered to be an effective way to educate the parents as the returning parents will be require to share their observations and insights with other parents. The scheme was scheduled to commence in January 2020. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire scheme has to be delayed. As of March 2021, there is no definite dates for its commencement. Even when the scheme could be re-started within 2021, there are still some unanswered questions, such as: 1. Would teacher training be effective enough?

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All in all, I am keen to see that Anji Play will be available to the largest number of kids, especially those who are from low-income families. In the next chapter, an attempt will be made to link the Anji Play movement to the Children’s Bamboo Park.

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2. How to overcome strong skepticism from the parents, given what we have discussed in Chapter 3 of this book? 3. T he pilot scheme is 3-year and there are 20 participating kindergartens. How long will it take to be adopted by all kindergartens? 4. Will kindergartens in Hong Kong fully embrace the Anji Play approach? Or they intend to have other curriculum in parallel? 5. Will there be a corresponding reform of early childhood education in Hong Kong, so that more Anji Play teachers will be nurtured? 6. As it would be quite a while before a general adoption of Anji Play among Hong Kong kindergartens, should we consider using other facilities to promote the Anji Play experience?

Bo Stjerne-Thomson, Global Head of Research at the LEGO Foundation notes, “[the Anji Play] approach embodies the true potential of how children learn through play, and in our comparative research, also a strong articulation of how children develop the social, emotional, physical, creative and cognitive competencies essential to become a lifelong learner with both the individual, ethical and social responsibilities of future citizens… [Cheng] has a unique ability to combine the practical reality of children’s learning with public policy and managerial support, and to integrate this into a curricula scalable not only in China, but across the world.”

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Chapter 8

Waiting for Anji Play or Kickstarting Bamboo?

Let us recap the significance and current status of Anji Play in Hong Kong: • All children (not limited to kindergarten pupils) deserve to have more play time – dismantling the ‘Play is Waste’ mentality • Play could take many forms and Anji Play is just one of them. But the latter encourages children’s own initiatives in play, and let them run wild with their imagination, practice self-discipline and self-reflection, which are noticeably absent in most other forms of play • Since Anji Play’s inception in Anji County some twenty years ago, a lot of experience and refinements have been accumulated. We could learn from these and use them as our references; there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ • In Hong Kong, the Education Bureau is supportive in introducing Anji Play in local kindergartens. Unfortunately, the 3-year pilot program is yet to be commenced owing to the pandemic. Even if this is eventually rolled out, it will be quite some time before other schools will have an opportunity to adopt the model. In short, although there is a good chance that Anji Play may be adopted in Hong Kong, it will not materialize in the foreseeable future. Shall we just wait for Anji Play, or explore other alternatives?

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Coincidentally, a local group has successfully developed an alternative model that is somewhat different from Anji Play but exhibits many of the characteristics of the later – Children’s Bamboo Park/Playground. Simply put, it is a form of play leveraging bamboo in creating a variety of experiential learning for children of different ages. The play activities fall into two major categories: A. Create and Play The basic format is a Bamboo Scaffolding Workshop, suitable for children above the age of 10, in which the children, teachers and parents could learn together the basic techniques of bamboo scaffolding (surprising this is something that can be mastered within 20 minutes), and then they co-design and co-create toys and facilities which can be enjoyed by children of all ages. Depending on the number of participants, normally three full-day workshops are sufficient to create a bamboo playground within the school complex. We call this Create and Play as the emphasis is creation. But the process of doing it is also refreshing and enjoyable; basically it is a wonderful integration of learning, work, and fun. B. Play and Create The products being created can be displayed inside the school for the enjoyment of all children – this is primarily Play. But we also alert all those who play to notice what could be improved, changed 107

Chapter 8 Waiting for Anji Play or Kickstarting Bamboo?

Children’s Bamboo Park

or modified to make them better. Children as users are encouraged and empowered to upgrade, enhance, or even redesign the toys and facilities in order to bring about the next generation of products. That’s why we call it Play and Create. From our observations from a number of school projects, we found the following features: • Newness – a series of new learning experience • Excitement – mastering the bamboo scaffolding techniques creates a strong sense of excitement • Challenges – every step involves different types of challenges, including, but not limiting to, creativity, communication, team work, leadership, etc. • Growth – through the processes of planning, concept building, design, hands-on practice, overcoming difficulties and obstacles, receiving feedback, and self-reflection, etc., participants’ growth mindset could be significantly enhanced • Environment – participants will appreciate that bamboo is one of the most environmental-friendly materials on earth; working handin-hand with bamboo could inspire everyone’s environmental consciousness, avoid destruction of Mother Nature, develop greater love for the natural environment and change one’s consumption habits

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We are eager to leverage bamboo to create play areas for children. For areas within a school, we call them bamboo playgrounds; for those in a public venue, we call them bamboo parks. We are assisting schools to build bamboo playgrounds. The following videos showcased two recent examples.

Children's Bamboo Park (Co-create with Sudbury Community & ReWirees)

https://youtu.be/ mmRh3v1Gt5s

https://youtu.be/ ya7GjsmCX0A

Children's Bamboo Park – Opening

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Chapter 8 Waiting for Anji Play or Kickstarting Bamboo?

School Bamboo Playground

One was built on the grassland adjacent to the school, the other was built next to the school playground. In both cases, students, teachers and parents went through our Bamboo Scaffolding workshops before they co-design the facilities to be built on site. We equipped them with the designing and building skills and let them have ownership of the products, as any subsequent maintenance, improvement or redevelopment will have to be done by themselves. The Bamboo Playgrounds are different from conventional playgrounds in some significant ways, such as: • The primary material is bamboo, not plastics, metal, or wood • Collective input in design and creation provides a higher level of achievement and fulfilment • The techniques involved are easy to master, with minimal use of tools and no need for professional guidance • The final bamboo products are examined by a qualified bamboo scaffolding professional to safequard robustness and safety Alternative Training and Alternative Learning Experience Apart from bamboo playgrounds, we are also providing different kinds of alternative training to schools to enable students of different ages to master bamboo scaffolding techniques in order to create a variety of every-day products, such as bookshelves, flower or plant scaffoldings, backpack racks, tables and chairs, Christmas trees, etc. – indeed almost anything that the students or teachers think that could be used in the school.

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There is the opportunity to appreciate the contemporary meaning of what the famous Chinese poet So Tung Pau ( 蘇東坡 ) had said about bamboo: “I would rather eat without meat than to live without bamboo”. An unexpected bonus is the fact that when the children are immersed in bamboo workshops and related work, they forget about their mobile phones. Indeed, we are thrilled that the children could find something more exciting to play with than electronic devices.

Concluding remarks We will have to wait for some time before Anji Play will become popular in Hong Kong schools. However, any school could explore building bamboo playgrounds at any time. A bamboo playground does not require a lot of space, and the design could be very flexible to adapt to the physical environment of individual schools. All is needed is the imagination and ingenuity of the students, teachers and parents. Once the playground is built, it could not only serve as a playground but also an experiential classroom for all kinds of lively, hands-on and creative learning experience. 111

Chapter 8 Waiting for Anji Play or Kickstarting Bamboo?

We also leverage the characteristics of bamboo to further environmental education, such as distinguishing and choosing different materials for their environmental friendliness, as well as using tangible bamboo products to strengthen environmental consciousness and to change consumption habits.

At the same time, as most schools no longer have classes for handcraft and woodwork, bamboo scaffolding provides a unique opportunity to let children to work with their hands and minds to create something for themselves. Indeed, ‘Maker Mentality’ should be part of a whole-person education.

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Chapter 9

Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

The title of this book is From Anji Play to Children’s Bamboo Park. Now let’s explore the following: What has Children’s Bamboo Park to do with Anji Play? How the two could go together? Could Anji Play be implemented without Children’s Bamboo Park? Could Children’s Bamboo Park exist without Anji Play? These are interesting and intriguing questions. Let’s begin with why bamboo comes into the picture. The short answer is the Climate Crisis. We want to leverage bamboo to educate children on the imperative of taking actions to address the climate crisis.

Credits: mnshmakov/depositphotos.com

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Anji Play is about educating the children to equip them to tackle the multiple challenges they will face in the entire life. It is about their future. What if there is not a future for them? Children entering kindergarten this year will retire in 2080. Nobody knows what society will be like in 2080. Politically, economically, and socially – society will change beyond recognition between now and 2080. But there is one thing that is quite certain, and that is, if we don’t act now to address the climate crisis, the physical environment of the world will have deteriorated to such a state that civilization may not be possible. If that happens, what kind of future our children will be having? If we do care about the future of our children (and their children), we have to address the climate crisis before it is too late. Indeed, according to some climate scientists, it is already too late. This points to a simple and important conclusion: Whatever education we want to provide our children today, it must encompass the imperative to tackle the climate crisis.

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Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

Our Children’s Future is At Stake

Credits: innervision/depositphotos.com

Bamboo to Fight Climate Crisis Here is the message from the video Combatting Climate Change with Bamboo.

Using Bamboo to Combat Climate Change

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https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=wA-9_ pyaHbU

Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to increase by 1.5 degrees ℃ and increase further by 2 degrees ℃. It stressed the urgent need for solutions, to cut the risks of extreme heat, drought, floods, and poverty.

A part of the solution may be found in a surprising place – bamboo. There are at least 30 million hectares of bamboo in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Bamboo can be an important carbon sink, storing more carbon than many trees. Bamboo grows very fast and can be harvested regularly, creating a large number of durable products. These products can be long-lasting, recyclable, and can replace a variety of emission-intensive materials, such as plastics, aluminium, steel and concrete. Bamboo is a sustainable source of bio-energy, whether used directly as fuelwood, modified into charcoal for cooking and heating, or converted into gas for thermal and electrical energy. It can, furthermore, help prevent desertification. Bamboo can help communities in different parts of the world adapt to negative impacts of climate change – by providing a sustainable, year-long source of income, and creating flexible, strong, disasterresilient housing. 117

Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

In 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a dire report on the state of our planet.

What a Bamboo ! Bamboo is one of the most sustainable materials in the world. Unlike fossil-based materials,which will be depleted once they are used up, bamboo is a permanently available material for human use. Unlike wood, bamboo grows very rapidly (one species can grow up to a meter in a single day) and can be harvested in 4-5 years, compared to most trees which take 30-50 years,and for some hardwood, over 100 years. Bamboo releases 35% more oxygen than trees. No need for irrigation or pesticides to cultivate bamboo. Apart from traditional uses, the greatest potential of bamboo lies in engineered bamboo, that is, industry-treated and processed bamboo to be used for heavy-duty construction, furniture, interior decoration, panelling,flooring, daily products from utensils to containers, pens and bottles, paper and textiles – basically unlimited applications. Bamboo is light and saves a lot of energy in transportation. Bamboo has a tensile strength that rivals steel. Bamboo scaffolding is a traditional craft with unlimited future possibilities.

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In Chinese traditional culture, the basic qualities of bamboo are said to be the same qualities that every person should aspire to have: upright, stiff as steel, flexible, humble (hollow inside), and demonstrating integrity. There is even a Bamboo U based in the Green School, Bali, Indonesia, which offers a range of practical courses on bamboo uses and applications.

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eaUVA8EtdNU

What School Do You Want?

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Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

‘I would rather eat without meat than dwell without bamboo” – from a famous Chinese poem.

Bamboo Scaffolding Having established that environmental education should form an integral part of early childhood education, and that bamboo could be an iconic material that can be leveraged in the educational effort, the question remains on how it could be effectively implemented. We have stumbled on the idea of bamboo scaffolding which proves to be exciting, powerful and fun. Bamboo scaffolding as used on buildings is visible on almost every corner of Hong Kong. It was a century-old Chinese traditional craft but is now practised only in Hong Kong and Macau. It has been banned mainly for safety reasons in Mainland China and Taiwan.

Credits: Ivan Tsoi

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In the past six months, we have conducted over 15 bamboo scaffolding workshops for participants from corporates, schools, NGOs, and expatriate groups. Within a half-day or full-day workshop, participants could start designing and creating all sorts of products with bamboo as the key material. To be sure, although they are taught the basic skills of bamboo scaffolding, the participants are not asked to do bamboo scaffolding as such (this could best be left to the professionals); instead, they are encouraged to use their imagination to come up with innovative uses of bamboo to create everyday products that could be used immediately. Bamboo Scaffolding Workshops have proven to be exciting, educational, and fun, suitable for individuals of diverse backgrounds, education levels, physical strength, age (from 7 to 8 years old onwards), male or female, and even ‘People of Differences’ (that is, physically challenged, individuals). At the workshops, we could enable the participants to appreciate the value of bamboo as an environmentally sustainable and recyclable material that could contribute significantly to tackling the climate crisis.

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Bamboo scaffolding could cover buildings 50 or 100 stories high. They look imposing, sophisticated, almost mystic, and yet the basic skills for bamboo scaffolding are surprisingly easy to master. One could be taught within 10 minutes and could immediately practice it with amazing results.

In essence, we are using bamboo as the entry point for effecting a mindset change for all who come into contact with it: 1. Responsible Consumption vs Consumerism – consume less, and within the limits of what Mother Nature allows us to do so. 2. Circular Economy vs Throwaway Economy - pursue ‘repair, reuse, recycle’ as far as possible, aim at Zero to Landfill. 3. S ustainable vs Unsustainable Materials – consciously use sustainable materials to substitute for unsustainable materials, for example, use bamboo-based products whenever possible (even if they might appear to be more expensive).

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After we have conducted a number of Bamboo Scaffolding Workshops and found that the participants could indeed design and create useful bamboo products after the training, we stumbled on a wild idea: Why don’t we assemble the bamboo products in one place to show their magic? Great idea indeed. But then the ‘useful products’ will not be used as such when they are just being displayed. Here was how the Children’s Bamboo Park idea was born. When we conduct Bamboo Scaffolding Workshops we ask the participants to design and create bamboo products that could be enjoyed by children. Then we assemble them in a Children’s Bamboo Park (or parks) for children to play with. What is more, the children themselves could contribute to designing and creating the toys themselves. Indeed, it would be great for teenagers between 10 and 20 to take part in the workshops and create bamboo toys and facilities for kids under 10 to play with. A Children’s Bamboo Park could be one stone capturing a number of birds: 1. Creating a Bamboo Park(s) for children to play – Hong Kong children need to play more in the outdoor and stay away from electronic devices. 2. Enabling children of different ages to work with their own hands to create useful objects. Creating opportunities for parents and kids to work and play together. 123

Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

Children’s Bamboo Park

3. E nabling children and all concerned to come into touch with bamboo as a sustainable material. Leveraging bamboo to educate all concerned on the imperative to tackle the climate crisis.

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While we are actively planning for the creation of the first Children’s Bamboo Park, we have been approached by a number of schools to assist them in creating Bamboo Playground on their campuses. Up to April 2021, we have completed one such project, another one is in progress, while a third one in the pipeline to start in April. We expect more to follow.

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Certified Bamboo Playground

The Bamboo Playground in a school context has the following features: Students, teachers, and parents of the school are provided with training in bamboo scaffolding, and they collectively design and create the bamboo playground. They will be equipped to continuously modify, extend, or even rebuild the playground. The safety and workmanship of the bamboo products will be inspected by a professionally qualified bamboo scaffolding practitioner on a regular basis. The playground will be opened for use by underprivileged kids during weekends and school holidays under supervision by qualified personnel. We are in the process of codifying the training and operation of the bamboo playground in order to create a scheme of Certified Bamboo Playground to make it easier for schools to set up such playgrounds.

Relationship with Anji Play We have found that Anji Play and Children’s Bamboo Park share a lot of similarities and could be mutually reinforcing. For example: 1. Both provide a creative environment for children to learn through play. 2. Both use unsophisticated, ‘minimally structured’ materials for children to play with. 3. Both aim at stimulating the creativity and teamwork of the children in play. 126

But there some crucial differences, namely, 1. C hildren’s Bamboo Park leverages bamboo scaffolding to introduce bamboo as an iconic, sustainable material to combat the climate crisis; Anji Play makes no explicit reference to the imperative of tackling the climate crisis. 2. Children’s Bamboo Park could be set up in any open space; Anji Play is primarily for kindergarten settings. 3. Children’s Bamboo Park could serve a variety of age groups; Anji Play has been designed exclusively for kindergartens. 4. Children’s Bamboo Park(s) could be set up here and now without obtaining permission or endorsement of any official authority; kindergartens wishing to adopt Anji Play require securing official support from Anji Early Childhood Education Research Centre, Anji, China. In any case, from the Children’s Bamboo Park perspective, Anji Play is a methodology and approach which can be integrated into Park activities. Indeed, when parents come to take part in Children’s Bamboo Park events, it would be an ideal opportunity to introduce them to Anji Play so that they could better appreciate the value of true play for their children in terms of enjoyment, learning, teamwork and personal development. Children’s Bamboo Park could play a vital role in enabling parents and educators to experience true play themselves, observe how kids 127

Chapter 9 Anji Play and Children's Bamboo Park: a Dream Combination

4. Both do not require instructions and directions from teachers and adults. 5. The two could go together and could reinforce each other.

behave and learn from playful activities, and appreciate their multiple potentials not discovered or valued in the conventional learning environment. Above all, the Children’s Bamboo Park could provide an effective introduction to Anji Play, allowing children and parents alike to have exposure to Anji Play in action. We would welcome all those who are interested in exploring the benefit and potential of Anji Play to obtain a first-hand experience of the Children’s Bamboo Park.

Conclusion Anji X Bamboo = a Brand New World to Learn through Play

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Chapter 10

Bamboo Play Festival

Impact Partners Hong Kong is committed to creating a movement to leverage Anji Play X Bamboo Playground for the purposes of Let Children Play to Learn – with Anji Play and Bamboo Playground Let Children appreciate the power of bamboo in combating the climate crisis – for our children and their children

We are creating a Festival of activities for all to enjoy. You could choose for yourself and your organization what would be best for you.

The Festival Analogy A Festival typically comprises a variety of events and attractions. One could hardly attend all of them. It’s always a matter of choice, and sometimes a division of labour when you have a group of people attending it. We have designed this Bamboo Play Festival for you to gain a feel for the experience, benefits and power of Anji Play and Bamboo Playground.

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A1 Anji Play Appreciation Workshop ‧Introduction to Anji Play: Origin, Benefits, Challenges ‧Target Participants: School teachers and parents ‧Mode / Duration: Zoom / One hour ‧Cost: HK$200/ pax

A2 School-based Anji Play Training ‧ I ntensive, experiential training on Anji Play principles and practice ‧Target Participants: School teachers and principals ‧Mode / Duration: Online-Offline / Total 10 hours ‧Cost: HK$10,000 / group of 20 A3 Anji Play Study Tour to Anji County, China ‧ Intensive guided tour to Anji to learn about Anji Play in action ‧ Target Participants: School principals / Supervisors senior teachers parents ‧Mode / Duration: Physical Tour / 4 days ‧Cost: Approx. HK$8,000 / person inclusive A4 Visit to Kindergarten planning to adopt Anji Play ‧ Appreciating the motive, process, and preparation for Anji Play adoption ‧ Target Participants: School principals, teachers, and parents ‧Mode / Duration: Physical visit / 2.5 hours ‧Cost: HK$5,000 / group of 20

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Event

A5 Anji Play in Bamboo Playground setting ‧ Experiencing how Anji Play could work in a bamboo playground ‧Target Participants: School principals and teachers ‧Mode / Duration: Physical event / 3 hours ‧Cost: HK$10,000 / group of 20~30

A6 Anji Play Teacher Training ‧ Re-educating practicing teachers to become Anji Play teachers ‧Target Participants: Teachers ‧Mode / Duration: Online-Merge-Offline / 30 hours ‧Cost: HK$8,000 / pax A7 Study Group on Anji Play literature ‧ Guided study on English / Chinese materials related to Anji Play ‧Target Participants: teachers parents ‧Mode / Duration: Online-Merge Offline / 10 hours ‧Cost: HK$500 / pax

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B2 Visit to Certified Bamboo Playground ‧ Appreciating how students, teachers and parents joining hands to create the facilities, and what it takes to build one in a school. ‧ Target Participants: School principals, teachers, and parents ‧Mode / Duration: Physical visit/half-day ‧Cost: HK$5,000 / Group of 20

B3 Certified Bamboo Scaffolding Workshop Instructors ‧Intensive training to be certified as Workshop Instructors ‧ Target Participants: Anyone interested in leveraging bamboo scaffolding for educational purposes ‧ Mode / Duration: Physical workshops/ 3 full-day training plus half-day practice, and a project ‧Cost: Approx. HK$3,000/ pax B4 Certified Bamboo Playground Program ‧ Enabling a school to set up a Certified Bamboo Playground at their premises ‧ Target Participants: Schools interested in setting up the Bamboo Playground ‧ Mode / Duration: A series of physical Workshops involving students, teachers and parents /2 to 3 months ‧Cost: Negotiable, depending on size and complexity

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Chapter 10 Bamboo Play Festival

B1 Bamboo Scaffolding Workshop ‧ Mastering the basic skills of bamboo scaffolding, and designing and creating bamboo products. ‧ Target Participants: Anyone interested in leveraging bamboo scaffolding for educational purposes ‧Mode / Duration: Physical event/ Half-day or full-day ‧Cost: HK$500/ pax for half-day, HK$800/ pax for full-day

B5 Bamboo Playground Deep Dive ‧ Enabling the participants to go deep into the relationship of Anji Play and Bamboo Playground, and to create a new and innovative type of learning experience. ‧ Target Participants: Anyone keen to transform the educational experience of our schools ‧ Mode / Duration: A series Of 3 to 5 physical workshops/ I to 2 months ‧ Cost: Free of charge, the prerequisite is having attended at least two of the above events

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The Festival events have no pre-set timing. They will be available on demand. There is no specific sequence that you have to follow (except for B5, which is a Deep Dive). As with most Festivals, you will also meet many like-minded persons in the process of enjoying the events. You may make new friends, discover new insights and networks, explore synergy and collaboration, and have fun.

Welcome to the Festival! If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact our Festival Ambassador: ck.tse@impactpartnershk.com

From Anji Play to Children's Bamboo Park A Dream, A Movement, and A Personal Challenge for the Readers KK Tse Publisher: Impact Partners Hong Kong Editor: Sabina Pan Layout: RGB Colours Workshop Cover: RGB Colours Workshop Production:Cloud Publication First Edition: October 2021 ©2021 by Impact Partners Hong Kong Published in Hong Kong