The year of 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the graduation of the first batch of publicly-funded normal students. In order to carry forward the spirit of great love of teachers and steadily scale up the construction of teachers’ ethics and style, the College of Arts of NENU, based on the story of the outstanding graduate Feng Zhiyuan, created a special stage experimental play “Feng Zhiyuan” which made its debut on the 14th at the Concert Hall of the Ziyou campus of NENU.
Feng Zhiyuan, who graduated in 1953, is a Chinese major of Northeast Normal University. After graduation, he took the initiative to teach in the west. He has been rooted in Ningxia for 42 years. After blindness, he still insisted on teaching and devoted his life to education. He was named the top ten people in the third session of Touching Jilin and the top ten people of Touching Ningxia’s 2005 Person of the Year. The mass media at different levels, both the national and the local alike, have conducted special reports on his deeds. Hu Jintao, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, once gave instructions: Mr. Feng’s deeds are very moving, so we must do a good job of publicity, and arrange for Mr. Feng’s treatment and life. Based on the compilation of the real deeds of Feng Zhiyuan, the stage experimental play “Feng Zhiyuan” selects school-based themes, and through artistic processing, portrays the vivid image of the people’s teacher represented by Feng Zhiyuan, who is “dedicating himself to teaching students, moulding teacher’s ethic throughout his life”. Tracing back to the glorious tradition of Northeast Normal University of “strengthening moral education by teachers, being born and being honored by teachers”, interpreting NENUers’ image of the times of “diligence and innovation, and being worthy of the name of teacher”, and spreading NENU’s voice in the new era of “respecting teachers, valuing education and ethics”. The play was written, directed, and acted by students, and it lasted nearly a year from script creation to rehearsal performance.
Stage experimental play is an experiential teaching method promoted by the College of Arts of NENU since 2007, highlighting the characteristics of the discipline, and educating people with cultural skills. It is a beneficial attempt of experiential teaching and a unique innovation in aesthetic education. Through the in-depth interpretation of experts and scholars and the passionate performance of students, it brings a new experience of literary classics and makes the humanistic feelings eternally inherited. For more than ten years, the College of Arts has successively put 7 Chinese and foreign classic literary works on stage, including “Othello”, “Home”, “The Story of a Golden Lock”, “The Jade King: History of a Chinese Muslim Family”, “Love in a Fallen City”, “Xiao Hong”, and “Song of Youth” , and is well received by the teachers and students of the school and has a wide range of social influences. “Feng Zhiyuan” is the 8th literary experience education work launched by the College of Arts, and it is also a fine project of NENU’s daily ideological and political work in 2021.
This event is one of the series of immersive teacher-ethics education activities created by the College of Arts of NENU. In the next step, a variety of activities will be organized around the theme of “strengthen the teacher’s ability to serve the country and stay true to the original aspiration, be realistic and creative and carry the mission”, highlighting the characteristics of normal university, cultivating the teacher’s ethics culture, guiding teachers and students to develop, study and educate with morality, inspiring students to firm up their professional ideals, taking root in the land of China, and being good teachers with four qualities (that is good teacher with ideals and beliefs, moral sentiments, solid knowledge and a benevolent heart) in the new era.
(From News Center, translated by Wei Jia, revised by Liu Lixin)