Joys of the Teaching Career
Bing Xin

I was a teacher for only ten years. In 1926, on my returnto China after finishing studies in the United States, I began to teach at myalma mater Yenching University, Peiping, as a lecturer in Chinese. The deansand teachers of the Department of Chinese then were mostly my former teachers.Other faculties and departments also had no lack of my former teachers. I maywell say that practically all the teaching staff of the University were myseniors. Therefore, at a faculty meeting, I always chose a seat at anunobservable corner of the room. Everybody jokingly called me "faculty baby". Iwas then on the right side of 26.

It was, however, a different story when I was with mystudents. They and I were good friends. When I taught freshman Chinese as a requiredcourse, I used a textbook of classical prose. The freshmen were mostly youngboys and girls aged between 17 and 20. Freshman Chinese was taught in fiveclasses, each consisting of 30 to 40 students hailing from various places ofChina. Those from Fujian and Guangdong had difficulty in understanding theheavily accented speech of teachers like Ma Jian (Dean), Zhou Zuoren, ShenYinmo, Gu Shui and Guo Shaoyu who all came from places south of the YangtseRiver. Consequently, some of these students were transferred to my classthrough the arrangements of the Dean's Office. Looking down from the rostrum, Iwas delighted by a multitude of rosy-faced naïve young students smiling andstaring curiously at me — the little teacher. Their smiles were by no meansunfamiliar to me, being similar to those I often saw on the faces of my youngerbrothers and younger female cousins. Often, when I opened the roll-call bookand asked them each to give their own names, I corrected their accents one byone. Thus, between laughter and chat, we came to know each other better andwere soon on friendly terms. The first composition they did was "MyAutobiography". I let them write on this subject because, firstly, everybodyalways had got something to say on it and, secondly, it would afford me a goodopportunity to understand each student's family background, habit, disposition,etc. I only put marks but never gave comments on the papers after reading them.Instead I laid emphasis on holding outside-class individual talks with themlasting not more than 30 minutes. They would tell me how they had done thecomposition, and I would express my opinion on it. And we would both feelpleased with the frank exchange of views.

I also offered a course on advanced writing, which was anelective for students above the freshman level. It gave them trailing indifferent genres of literary writing, such as fiction, poetry, correspondenceand sometimes translations. For the end-of-term examination, I had them eachhand in a self-edited magazine specializing in any subjects, such as fine arts,sports, etc. and complete with well designed from cover, aim of itspublication, photos, etc. Students of the same class could solicitcontributions or photos from each other, or from students of other classes.They called it an interesting try. The magazines they handed it by the end ofthe term were very lively and encouraging, each having its content quite inline with its title.

In recalling my past career as a teacher, I always thinkfondly of the intimate friendship between the students and me. In those days,teachers and students all lived on campus, which greatly facilitated ourafter-school contact. We often went boating on the Weiming Lake, or haddiscussions about various things on the marble boat by the island in the middleof the Lake, or had heart-to-heart private talks about, for instance, jobselections or marriage. At this moment the images of quite a few couples, suchas Zheng Linzhuang and Wu Ruiwu, Lin Yaohua and Rao Yusu, etc. suddenly appearin my mind's eye. I attended some of their wedding ceremonies in my capacity asa go-between. Sometimes, preparatory to making a match, I had the parents ofboth parties meet each other at a dinner I gave. All that took place over halfa century ago, and now, alas, more than half of them have gone to another worldbefore me. I feel very had about it indeed.

It's time for me to stop writing now. I've not beentalking solely about "students respecting teachers" or "teachers cherishingstudents" because, to my mind, teachers and students should be friends withmutual respect and love.