The development of international understanding projects is crucial for driving forward the practice of International Understanding Education. Therefore, on 17 January 2021, under the guidance of our secondary school teachers and parent volunteers, Grade 7 students were taken to “Sanxingdui to undertake their international understanding ‘Research Project’. Sanxingdui is the site of the ancient Shu culture which had laid dormant for thousands of years until its discovery shocked the world. Using a special learning handbook students set out on a journey to experience, learn, and investigate the site as part of their International Understanding Education.
Comparison of Ancient Shu Culture and World Cultures
The students first undertook an assignment on Feynman Guo’s history in the main museum. They were required to learn more about each of the stages in the history of Sanxingdui culture and to explore the corresponding stages in the history of other ancient world civilisations. In their exploration, the students also needed to consider whether there were ruins of other ancient cities in Chengdu from the same period as Sanxingdui.
After returning to school, the students compared Chinese history and culture with foreign history and culture. They analysed the differences and similarities between Chinese and foreign history and culture, established their pride in Chinese culture, and learned more about ancient cultures in foreign countries.
The students then followed instructions in Anna Deng’s geography question to locate the stratigraphic column and the functional map of the ancient city.
In the museum, students were also required to find exhibits that featured images similar to the “Fusang tree” and “Goumang” that are mentioned in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The “Bronze Sacred Tree” unearthed in Sanxingdui, is an iconic example.
Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Hall
After the end of the study programme in the museum, teachers and students then visited the Sanxingdui Cultural Relics Protection and Restoration Hall. The students’ first task there was to find and record the six steps of how to preserve and restore damaged artifacts. The students watched a video on restoration and saw an actual restoration workshop, they also tried-out virtual restoration in the exhibition hall. After returning to school, Judy Yang, who teaches ethics and rule of law, led a discussion on why and how we protect relics across the world.
Exploring Bronze and Excavated Artifacts
Art teacher, Megan Mace, taught students how to paint a wide variety of different excavated artifacts with artistic characteristics. They included bronze masks, gold masks, and jade artifacts. She also helped students to learn the names, ages, and uses of these artifacts. The assignment from Maybell Yang, one of our English teachers, was to write summaries, in Chinese and English, that featured information on the artifacts that interested the students. These included the pottery, bronze, gold, jade, and other excavated artifacts. The Sanxingdui Museum has an immense collection and students discussed the “Qianliyan” and “Shunfeng’er” bronze head masks found there with great enthusiasm. This was the purpose of our students’ research, to learn by doing, to intensify their understanding of a subject and to truly expand the depth and breadth of their knowledge.
Home-school Collaboration Power Student Growth
The research activity also received strong support from parents. One of our students, Mr Dong said “This kind of experience-based learning is very important. Many students go to museums only to listen to the lecturers, yet many students never really pay attention to them. This time, the students from Malvern College Chengdu came prepared with different learning tasks and they explored and experienced the assignments by themselves, which was far more important than just listening to lectures.” The parent of a student surnamed Tian also said, “As parents, we support joint home-school collaboration and we hope that there will be more opportunities in the future for parents to make use of their own high-quality resources for supporting students’ learning and growing together with their children.”
Ms Jennifer Pun said “Our joint home-school collaboration allows parents and teachers to come together and to cultivate students’ patriotism and international perspectives. We created a new milestone of high-quality education with the understanding and support of parents. Students learned about the splendours of the ancient Shu civilisation through immersive experiences and the visit enhanced their understanding of Chinese culture and national pride. They engaged in interdisciplinary international understanding education activities in inquiry-based learning. They explored and analysed the common traits and differences between ancient civilisations in China and other parts of the world in terms of their age, period, heritage, and culture. They developed good habits for the conservation of cultural heritage and explored and studied the conservation and restoration of cultural relics around the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
