Teachers develop affection for motherland

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-06-16 20:43

HONG KONG -- This year is the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland. Within these 10 years, a year-long teaching experience in the mainland has become one of the most unforgettable things to local middle schoolteacher Tam Wai Yan.

"The impact has been all too great on me, my heart has become closer to the motherland," said Tam in a recent interview with Xinhua. She was one of the nine fresh graduates who spent one whole year teaching in an impoverished region in Hunan province in 2005.

Being brought up in a bustling city, Tam lack a clear picture of the mainland until she went teaching there. "Before going to Hunan, it was like looking at the needy people of the mainland through a telescope," Tam said, adding she has developed a stronger affection for the motherland, "I miss the life there and also my students."

Through teaching and visiting students' families, Tam and her partners have brought Hong Kong's advanced teaching skills to Hunan and a strong affection has been built up between students and teachers. The team's efforts won the praise as being "One of the Caring Teachers in 2005" in an activity organized by a website on the Chinese mainland.

"I've gained more than I've paid, it's a very unique experience that I could never have in Hong Kong," Tam said, adding that the experience has allowed her to better understand village life in the mainland which made her even more determined to do something for the motherland.

Tam said the year-long teaching experience has become a treasure to herself and that she is happy to share it with her students in Hong Kong. "A teacher should have a patriotic sentiment so as to pass it to his or her students," she said.

Also participated in the teaching program was Lam Sau Li who acted as leader of the team of nine. It has been a year since Lam left Hunan and she often gets letters from her mainland students talking about their life and changes at school.

"Sometimes I wept when reading through the lines," Lam said. The students do not have much pocket money but they saved money so as to make expensive long calls to her, she said.

Lam, now working as a teacher in a private institute, paid a visit to her students in Hunan during the past Easter vacation.

"They were so happy when seeing me again," she said. Some teammates go back once they have got time and the visits have become a driving force for them at work, she said.

"It has been an unforgettable year for all of us," Lam said. She felt that something concrete should be done in order to help needy people change their situations in the country, she said.

Talking about changes of Hong Kong in these 10 years, Lam said before Hong Kong's return to the motherland, many people worried about the future of Hong Kong. But as time past, with the support of the central government and the mainland, the city has become more stable and prosperous in face of all those challenges. People are now much more confident, she said.

People in Hong Kong are having more chances to know about the mainland after Hong Kong's return, Lam said, and that has helped strength their sense of identity of being Chinese.

"Before I went teaching in the mainland, I called myself Hong Kong Chinese, but now, I tell people that I'm Chinese," she said.