1915: What kids like

On the Pond by Tang dynasty poet Liu Yuxi (772-842)

Little kid rowing a little boat,
Sneak picking white lilies, returning.
Doesn't know to hide his wake,
Duck weed separates upon arrival.

Liu was quite famous but often offended the court and was banished several times. His poems were influenced by folk songs and musicals. They were often set to music and quite popular in his time. 

1915 - age 14 continued

The next morning, I went to registration. My school was built by a Methodist church. The whole year--tuition and room and board--was forty dollars. Compared to the living standards at that time, this was not very expensive. If you were a Christian, you got a 25% discount. I was not a Christian so I needed to pay the full forty. Now, I was already older than 13 and exceeded the age when people usually graduated from elementary school. But besides Chinese, I didn't know anything, not even the Arabic numbers. Mr Zhang let me enter 3rd grade. Social studies and history and geography and natural sciences, all the text books were written in Chinese and I barely passed these classes. Mr Zhang offered to tutor me for free. After two months of tutoring, I moved up to 4th grade. I brought my text books home at break to show my relatives that I had been attending a new school. 

After summer vacation, I returned to Wuchang and knew how to get there so I didn't need anyone to accompany me. 

As for my studies, I barely passed all the subjects. The most troublesome was arithmetic. We studied fractions, square roots, and analogies. Because of my tutoring, I passed arithmetic and was promoted to 5th grade. 

Another thing is the way I encountered Christianity. Since I was born, I was exposed to Buddhism, and idolatry was my daily life and habit. As for Christianity, aside from the rules set by the school, anything else--like meetings and get togethers--if it wasn't required, I would not participate. I remember that year at mid-autumn festival, the school had a prayer meeting. Everybody, especially the Christians, went. I didn't go because it wasn't required. So I stayed in the dorm. In the hall of the dorm, I was looking at the moon and heard the singing of hymns from the church building. My teacher, Mr Zhang, was on patrol and saw that I didn't go to the prayer meeting. I respected Mr Zhang very much because he never said, "You can save ten dollars by becoming a Christian." He never coerced students to convert. The ten dollars was quite a bit for the financial situation in my home. On the other hand, I did not want to compromise. The church was open to anyone and they did not force anyone to become a believer. They did not discriminate.  

1916 - age 15

During winter break, I went home for New Years. Everybody went to pay respects to our relatives, especially our elders. All the relatives knew I was going to this new school and regarded me with new esteem (gua mu xiang kan). In Huangmei, people had a lot of misconceptions about the Christian church. Most people believed rumors that Westerners would harm us and scared me with their warnings about Westerners' schemes. Fortunately, my mother used to study in Jioujiang and she had uncommon and outstanding judgment. She told me, don't believe these rumors, you just study hard. After winter break, I went back to school and studied very hard. This was a crucial year: if I passed 5th grade, I would be promoted to 6th grade. If I failed, I would have to repeat 5th grade and lose face with my teacher. 

The main territory of the Methodist church missionary endeavors was Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi. For every big local church, they would establish an elementary school. So, within those three provinces, there were over a hundred schools. Most of the students came from poor areas and when they graduated from elementary school, went on to find a job and make a living. But if you wanted to go to middle or high school, there was only one school in Wuchan called Buowen Academy. Every year, Buowen held their entrance exam for new students in October or November. To qualify, you must have graduated from elementary school.

Originally, you had to have graduated from elementary school. Later on, they let 5th and 6th grade kids take the entrance exam. But 5th graders knew they had another chance to pass the following year, so most kids goofed off. But I was different, I wanted to honor and show gratitude to my teacher. Every final exam, I did my best. After the final exam, I went home for summer vacation. 

After summer vacation, I went back to school for 6th grade. I studied every night late. One night in August, Mr Zhang came and said Buowen Academy was cancelling their entrance exam for non-graduates. Instead, they would take 5th and 6th graders' final exams as their entrance exam scores. After the exam committee released the results, I received highest marks and received a six-year scholarship to attend Buowen Academy--all the tuition, room and board. The full year cost 140 silver dollars. Everybody was excited and thankful. Most families could not afford Buowen Academy.

At Buowen Academy, they started the school year in spring, not autumn. I received the scholarship in August and had to wait til spring to start school. I didn't have much work to do during these few months, so I volunteered in the school doing things for the whole school. During holidays, I went to Wuchang's famous tourist sites: Chuwang Tower, Huanghe Stairs, and Baobing Building. I wrote poems about these places that I put in my book of poetry. 

The principal of the elementary school was a pastor from England, sir-named Li, from a wealthy family. Every Saturday, he would use his own money to buy steak and treat the students. But I grew up in the country and didn't eat beef. If I smelled beef, I felt sick. So every weekend, I didn't eat meat. The school chef, Mr Tian, was from a town near my hometown, a neighboring town to Huangmei. So he made me special food and gave it to me for free. 

Principal Li treated the kids every weekend and at Christmas time he and his wife would open up their home for formal Western style dinners. They entertained the whole school, students and teachers, in groups. His wife taught us Western etiquette. I went to the Christmas dinner and they served steak. I was a little a nervous but I followed everyone else's manner of cutting the steak. I just ate it and thought, "not bad". From then on, I ate steak. Later in life, I became a steak aficionado.