On the cool evening of May 29, 2024, a full house gathered at the Silver Unicorn bookstore for a book signing event. The author’s name was Wendy Chen and her debut book, “Their Divine Fires”, tells the story of three generations of Chinese women from her family across one hundred years of revolutions, both political and personal. Wendy grew up in Acton and her father, Harry Chen, was one of the founders of Acton Chinese Language School (ACLS), and the first principal.
ACLS has been operating for more than two decades, since its founding in 2003. For Harry and his successors, the primary mission remains the same: to teach and preserve the Chinese language and culture for younger generations of Chinese.
Chinese language and culture have a unique role in creating bonding for Chinese across five continents, providing them a source of value, identity and inspiration. Although Chinese heritage community language schools have existed in the US since 1886, they have proliferated rapidly in the 21th century.
In our community, the size and influence of ACLS has grown quickly. At its beginning, it had 30 teachers and staff, offering 13 Chinese language classes, 14 cultural classes, and one club, with a total of 216 students. During the period preceding the pandemic, ACLS evolved to have a dedicated team of approximately 100 teaching staff, supported by over 70 volunteers. The school expanded its offerings to around 30 language classes, 18 cultural classes, and 6 clubs, serving a student body ranging from 600 to 700.
ACLS holds language classes for two hours and culture classes for an hour on Sundays at the RJ Grey Junior High. The ages of students enrolled range from pre-K to high school. Many of the students already possess some ability in oral Chinese, even if there is tremendous variation in that ability. Most ACLS graduates take AP Chinese in Acton-Boxborough Regional High school.
The board of ACLS is composed of parents and residents of Acton and surrounding towns. They have a progressive goal to build a community based language school to complement out- of -school education. They are always aware of the community that has supported and sustained them in every stage of the development of the school, for example Families with Children from China, a regional organization that supports adoptees from China and their families, the Acton-Boxborough school district, the Acton-Boxborough Cultural Council, and the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee.
“We can’t have been running this organization all by ourselves without them,” said the current principal, Ally Li. She emphasized that serving the community is one of their missions. ACLS advocates cultural diversity in the community, building connections between the Chinese community and others, and facilitating fundraisers for various charities. Danny’s Place reached out to ACLS this year for a Lunar New Year celebration activity, and their volunteers brought a meaningful fun time to over 20 kids with crafts, storytelling, and games.
It has been 21 years and thousands of Sundays for the parent volunteers who have been dedicating their time to ACLS since they moved to Acton and neighboring towns. For them, rain or snow, the doors need to be opened and closed on time and the order needs to be maintained from the parking lot to each classroom.
Some early members have passed away, including two principals, Harry Chen and Lindong Li, and two teachers, Lining Wu and Jin Yue, leaving a legacy for the rest to carry on. It is the belief in collective work and perseverance – “constant dripping wears away a stone”(“水滴石穿” (shuǐ dī shí chuān)) – that keeps the ball rolling.
The annual Lunar New Year celebration is always a huge amount of preparation work, and a whole community event. Hundreds of Chinese families participate in the festival, immersing in the beauty and sounds of the Chinese culture, to feel a sense of home at the moment.
Despite the progress ACLS has made in recent years, its road has not been without bumps. This experience is similar to that of Chinese heritage community language schools elsewhere in the U.S. The issue of learner motivation has always been a challenge to the teachers and parents. Many of the students attending Chinese school do so only under pressure from their parents. The additional homework deprives them of their weekend time.
Sudbury resident and former TV News host in China, Xiaomei, caught the family tension created by Chinese school homework and turned it into a mini-play which was performed on the stage of this year’s Chinese School’s New Year Gala. In this original play, the parents sighed in rhythmic beats: “When learning is not on the agenda, mother and child are as harmonious as can be; but once learning enters the conversation, it’s like a circus in the house.”（不谈学习母慈子孝，一谈学习鸡飞狗跳）A more literal translation is: “As long as studies are not mentioned, mother is loving and son is filial; but once homework is brought up, chickens fly and dogs jump.” The play aroused waves of laughter and applause from the audience, kids and parents alike. Xiaomei taught the Language Arts Performance class at ACLS for many years.
Franny Osman, our former selectman and current Acton Exchange editor, had a very positive experience at ACLS. “I got to improve my language skills and also get to see the variety of activities that go on there on Sundays, from ping pong to dance classes to art to language. There was something for all ages. And it was so organized! I hope to take another class soon.” So maybe more of us can peek into their classrooms and find a seat there for an afternoon of cultural enrichment activity.
When Wendy Chen presented her eloquent translation work, “The Magpie: The Complete Poems of Li Qingzhao (1084-1151)” from classical Chinese to English readers, she said the project began when she was a teenager and became interested in reclaiming English translation of Chinese texts as a space where Chinese and Chinese American voices can be heard and appreciated. Though she didn’t explicitly give the credit to the Chinese school her father helped to start, we can believe that the seeds the Chinese Language School plants in many teenagers will one day sprout and produce fruit bountifully, enriching our lives as a melting pot community.
Dani Feng covers news about local Asian communities for the Acton Exchange. She was an editor of a publishing press in Beijing before she came to the U.S. and she has a longtime interest in following the Chinese diaspora’s political and cultural development in the Boston area. She is currently working on research for two books of overseas Chinese immigration stories.