Sichuan Yingshan: Integration of Art and Education Illuminates the Path of Growth

At Xingzhi Primary School, students in the Fanzhao Jiaozi club follow their teacher's guidance attentively.

"On April 16th, on the playground of Xingzhi Primary School in Yingshan County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, instructor Li Xindong was teaching the children in the school's Sichuan Opera club about the basic steps of Sichuan Opera. In recent years, Yingshan County has been committed to inheriting excellent traditional Chinese culture, deeply exploring local cultural resources, and promoting the deep integration of artistic and educational resources. It has successfully explored an integrated development model of "schools + art troupes, artists' associations, and intangible cultural heritage inheritors."

Offering Diverse Courses to Promote Integration

Li Xindong, a 61-year-old member of the Nanchong Dramatists Association and a former drama and quyi instructor at the county cultural center, is also a member of the Yingshan County Cultural Volunteers Association and a mentor for Sichuan Opera and Fanzhao Jiaozi.

"The students are highly motivated and quickly master the basic steps of Sichuan Opera," Li Xindong said. Sichuan Opera, a traditional Chinese drama known for its unique performance style and rich cultural connotations, relies on basic steps as a fundamental skill for actors to shape character images and present dramatic plots.

"Allowing students to experience the beauty of traditional culture while inheriting local cultural characteristics is a win-win situation," said Yan Fenglei, principal of Xingzhi Primary School. The school offers 25 club courses, including Fanzhao Jiaozi, cyanotype printing, and paper quilling, with 60% of them being intangible cultural heritage (ICH) related. The school holds an art festival every term to showcase the achievements of integrated art and education, highlighting the talents of teachers and students and fostering an atmosphere of inheriting and promoting excellent traditional culture.

The school adheres to the educational goal of "integrating knowledge and art, nurturing students with both virtues," and has always placed great emphasis on art education. It integrates art deeply with education to provide students with artistic nourishment for their growth. The school's clubs have participated in various artistic performances at different levels. The dance program "Golden Jiaozi Kids," inspired by Fanzhao Jiaozi, won first prize and an outstanding creation award at the Third National Primary and Secondary School Art Exhibition. The choir program received second prize at the 2023 Nanchong City Class Choir Competition.

The achievements of Xingzhi Primary School in integrating art and education are just a microcosm of Yingshan County's efforts in this area. Currently, the county has promoted precise matching between six pilot schools, nine associations, seven ICH inheritors, and 73 art teachers with more than ten local schools. They offer over 30 ICH classes and interest groups in Fanzhao Jiaozi, Sichuan Opera, dragon dance, basket painting, paper-cutting, martial arts, calligraphy, and other traditional arts, benefiting more than 20,000 students. Based on their willingness to cooperate, associations regularly visit schools to conduct diverse art teaching activities, allowing students to receive long-term and stable artistic influence.

"Introducing traditional culture into schools not only promotes the two-way flow of artistic and educational resources but also better explores local cultural resources and inherits local cultural characteristics. It accelerates the formation of a new cultural inheritance trend with diverse carriers and forms," said Lei Mingyan, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Yingshan County Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism Bureau. Yingshan County is rich in cultural and tourism resources, with a long history, cultural relics, and unique folk customs. The county plans to fully utilize these resources to provide more practical platforms for school art and education work. It will arrange for art teachers from the county cultural center to provide art guidance and teaching in schools, organize students to visit museums, cultural centers, art galleries, and other cultural venues, and conduct cultural experience activities, allowing students to feel the charm of art in practice.

"Every school in Yingshan has established clubs. We will mobilize art troupes, associations, ICH inheritors, and others from the county to enter campuses regularly to conduct art activity guidance, art education, cultural and artistic teacher training, and practical base construction, continuously promoting fruitful integration of art and education," said Yan Lianghua, chairman of the Yingshan County Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

Focusing on Interests and Strengthening Students' Physical Fitness

On April 15th, during the break activity at Luoshi Primary School in Yingshan County, children were immersed in the atmosphere of Baduanjin, stretching and moving slowly.

In the football interest class, children ran, passed the ball, and shot goals on the football field, showing their vitality and love for football. In the calligraphy interest class, children focused on writing with brushes, each stroke showing their seriousness and perseverance. In the waist drum interest class, children beat their waist drums in unison, and the cheerful drumbeats echoed throughout the campus.

"Not only have the children become stronger and healthier, but they have also learned perseverance and cooperation. They even teach their grandparents Baduanjin at home!" said Guo Liquan, principal of the school. The school's student physical fitness health standard compliance rate has increased to 98%, and the myopia rate has decreased by 15% year-on-year. The school's morning break activity is characterized by "a combination of strength and flexibility," integrating running (endurance), martial arts exercises (strength), and Tai Chi Baduanjin (flexibility) into a "three-dimensional physical training" to help students improve their comprehensive quality. In the afternoon, the school adopts a "1+X" model, with running as the base and optional activities such as football and relaxation exercises, fully respecting students' interests and ensuring that daily exercise requirements are met.

Luoshi Primary School adheres to the educational concept of "cultivating virtue through art, strengthening the body through sports, and educating people through culture." It deeply integrates art, sports, and cultural education to create a unique campus brand of "resounding waist drums, flying ropes, and shining footballs." Through diverse break activities, innovative club courses, and public welfare practices, the school has embarked on a new path of quality education that integrates art and education and promotes the comprehensive development of students.

On the same day, at the club class of Yingshan County Hope Middle School, the dragon dance club's "Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl" and "Soaring Through the Clouds" performances, combined with the martial arts club's "Youth of China Fist," amazed the audience with a blend of traditional routines and modern arrangements.

The school offers 29 club courses, with 40% of them being ICH related. Focusing on dragon dance and martial arts, it has built a three-level curriculum system of "basic skills + cultural exploration + practical innovation."

"Through team projects such as dragon dance and martial arts, students' collaboration and stress resistance abilities have significantly improved. In 2024, 91% of the school's students achieved excellent results in the psychological assessment, and parent satisfaction reached 98%," said Yi Bo, principal of Hope Middle School. The school cooperates with the county and city Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism Bureau and ICH inheritors, hiring folk artists as professional teachers to form a professional and efficient club course teacher team with in-school teachers, injecting authentic cultural genes into the courses.

Since the establishment of the martial arts club, students have shown a good spirit on various stages. At the Nanchong City Youth (Student) Martial Arts Routine and Sanda Championship and the 7th Nanchong City Games, students from the school achieved second and third places in the men's 44 kg and 52 kg categories, and third place in the men's 68 kg category in Sanda.

"The courses opened through the integration of art and education not only follow the laws of art education but also incorporate elements of excellent traditional Chinese culture. They exercise children's bodies, enhance their physical fitness, and meet students' cognitive levels and interest characteristics," said Wang Lin, a staff member of the Education and Sports Bureau. The next step will be to promote the integration of art and education from strengthening physical fitness to nurturing talents through competitions, creating a "Yingshan model" of integrated art and education.

Leveraging Individual Strengths to Create Art-Education Brands

On April 17th, the author saw at Huilong Central Primary School in Yingshan County that the 24 solar terms basket paintings created by students were vivid and full of vitality, adding a touch of life to the campus.

Baskets, commonly used in daily life for winnowing rice and sieving bran, have taken on a new artistic life when met with children's paintbrushes and boundless imagination, transforming into unique and fascinating works of art.

"These hand-painted basket paintings carry the warmth of being down-to-earth and are witnesses to the inheritance of folk art," said Cai Ming, principal of the school. The school has established a basket painting club, which has always been committed to cultivating students' love for art and creativity. At the same time, by holding art festivals, the school stimulates students' enthusiasm for creation, closely links creativity with daily life, and thus promotes the vigorous development of their imagination and creativity.

Recently, the second kite festival of Hongguang Primary School in Yingshan County, themed "Flying Dreams in the Clouds with Kites," kicked off under the spring sunshine. Teachers and students of the school used traditional culture as ink and the blue sky as a scroll, jointly writing a magnificent chapter that blends tradition and modernity.

At the event site, children were full of energy, running around, and integrating their dreams and laughter into the spring breeze. Kites of various shapes flew freely in the sky, decorating it like a dream. The fun on the ground and the colorful shadows in the sky complemented each other, forming a spectacular spring scene.

"This kite festival is a spring feast that integrates culture, science, and children's hearts, and it is a celebration of growth for every student at Hongguang Primary School," said Wang Dong, principal of Hongguang Primary School. The kites that the children flew were not only objects in their hands but also their thirst for knowledge, pursuit of beauty, and longing for the future. The school plans to continue to use kites as a traditional cultural element to exercise children's hands-on and thinking abilities, cultivate their aesthetic and innovative spirit, and let them experience the unique charm of traditional culture through participation.

In addition to Huilong Central Primary School and Hongguang Primary School, Yunfeng Experimental Primary School is known for its "Five Beauties Youth" educational feature. Huayu Middle School, Xicheng Experimental Primary School, and Xiaoshui Primary School are football characteristic demonstration schools... A situation where every class has activities and every school has its own characteristics in art-education integration has basically been formed.

"We insist on combining art-education integration with the school's characteristic development and students' individual growth, innovate forms, enrich carriers, and create a number of art-education integration brands with distinct features and significant results," said Zhang Hua, member of the Standing Committee of the Yingshan County Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Publicity. In the next three years, the county plans to enable 60% of schools to form art-education integration models with their own characteristics and significantly improve the excellent rate of students' art literacy assessment. To this end, the county has planned detailed implementation steps, advancing the opening of art-education combination classes, ICH inheritance classes, and ICH interest classes in stages. It has also formulated feasible safeguard measures to provide solid support for the work from aspects such as organizational leadership, team building, venue construction, and faculty allocation, ensuring the orderly progress of the deep integration of art and education. (Zou Gang)