Iredell-Statesville Schools School & Family Magazine February/March 2016 | Page 6

STAND HIGH - SEE FAR

A partnership for cultural exchange
Tower Bridge International - Iredell-Statesville Schools

The Chinese calendar ticked over in
a sense from the Year of Sheep to the Year
of Monkey in early January. If you attended
the New Year Celebration at Statesville High
School on February 6, 2016, arranged by
visiting exchange students, Tower Bridge
International and Iredell-Statesville Schools,
you would clearly know that this event is cause
for celebration, marking both the Lunar New
Year and the mid-point in a three week visit by
more than 150 students from Beijing. Visiting
students attend Beijing #4 High School, Beijing
#12 High School, Shanghai Middle School and
a student group known as the Young Eagles.
Highlighting the celebration was a piano
performance by Huang Bo of a revered Chinese
composition called “The Music at Sunset,” in
which the 15-year-old appeared to be flawless
and seemed to transcend his youth.
“Practice, practice, practice,” Bo said
humbly during a brief interview after his eightminute solo.
Student Zhang Jia Qe said he has very
few friends who can boast of having a sibling.
Only one of those among the children who
attended Lake Norman High School during their
stay had a brother or sister and Jia Qe said he
was not sure if any of the others did.
“We have the one-child policy,” he said
but added that a fee of 30,000 U.S. dollars
to the government for a second child. Also,
according to information released in 2007,
4 Iredell-Statesville School & Family

rural areas of China also make exceptions -- in
a way that may rile American and particularly
feminist sensibilities -- if the first child is a girl.
“But most people I know have just one
child,” said Jia Qe.
Another of the visiting students was
Qu Fei Yang who went by “Dianna” during her
time with I-SS, mostly at Lake Norman High
School. She borrowed her “nom de I-SS” from
the famed British princess who was killed in a
car accident three years before Fei Yang -- in
China, the family name appears at the front -was born.
“She was beautiful but mostly she was
kind and caring,” she said of Princess Dianna.
“And I would like to be like her if I can.”
Almost as an afterthought, Fei Yang
offered a brief story of her real name, which is
more telling and poi