Lang Lang revisits childhood pleasures

Lang Lang, United Nations Messenger of Peace and world-renowned pianist, found his long lost childhood pleasures at a kindergarten on the fringe of Beijing.

Sitting in a classroom decorated with children's paintings and handicrafts, the young artist held his breath and stuck the final part of an art project – a pair of lips made of light clay – to a doll assembled with recycled PVC pipes, straws, bottle caps and ping-pong balls. The completion of the joint art project filled the classroom with cheers and laughter of children, who were thrilled to be accompanied by their new friend.

During a half-day visit to Fuli Taoyuan Kindergarten, Lang Lang joined the children in a variety of activities that he rarely had the chance to do when he was a boy, including painting, making a clay figurine, playing football and rolling a hoop.

“I'm so excited. When I was a boy, I attended kindergarten very briefly, because I spent most of the time on piano practice at home,” said Lang Lang. 

The visit to the public kindergarten was part of a UNICEF advocacy campaign for early childhood development (ECD), which is about the ‘whole child' – the physical, social, emotional, cognitive thinking and language progression of each young individual.

 “If I were to relive my childhood, I wish I could spend more time in an interesting kindergarten, which would help me develop an even better view of life,” said Lang Lang, highlighting the importance of early stimulation.

Echoing that thought, Chen Xuefeng, UNICEF China ECD Specialist, explained that scientific evidence has demonstrated that the quality of early childhood is critical in shaping a person's lifetime development and happiness. “Early childhood development contributes significantly to the life of an individual,” she said, adding that it is also important for a society's sustainable development. “ECD can break the cycle of poverty,” she said.

Fuli Taoyuan Kindergarten was established five years ago, after the Government of China's landmark decision on investing in the first few years of all children's lives, targeting universal enrolment of children aged 3 to 6 years into early childhood centres by 2020.

When Zhao Fukui, director of the kindergarten, was assigned to provide early childhood care to children in Fuli Taoyuan, a newly developed community on the outskirts of Beijing, she decided to establish a kindergarten featuring art to cultivate children's independent thinking. The wild imagination of children has since turned the kindergarten into an ‘art gallery' of handicrafts made of recycled waste materials and pulls on the memories of visitors like Lang Lang.

“I did go to kindergarten. But back then, I found it hard to adjust so I cried a lot. If it were as fun as this one, I might not have blubbered,” said Lang Lang.

The UN Messenger of Peace, whose mission is to improve the lives of children around the world through education, voiced a hope for universal access to ECD services. To amplify the message, he joined Cookie Monster and children in the shooting of a public service announcement (PSA) during the visit to the kindergarten. 

Jointly produced by UNICEF and Sesame Workshop, the PSA highlights the importance of early childhood development and advocates that it be made available to all children.

 “A great beginning can make every little kid's life brighter and better,” Lang Lang says in the PSA, which will be released worldwide later in 2015.

“Through the fun interactions between Cookie Monster, Lang Lang and the children, we can effectively deliver the message about ECD to children, teachers and the whole society,” said Shirley Zhu, Vice President, Executive Director China for Sesame Workshop.

Since 2010 and spurred by the central government allocation of $900 million, 72,000 new kindergartens have been built in China, primarily in poverty-stricken regions, rural areas and Western China.

The rapid expansion of early childhood education resources may be providing services to more children but it has triggered a new challenge, added Chen – how to ensure the quality.

“UNICEF and the Government of China have been exploring and piloting the measures to provide teachers the necessary training,” said Chen, stressing that the provision of pre-school education to disadvantaged children, especially those left behind by parents, remains of upmost urgency.

Lang Lang agreed and used his experience in music school as an example, noting that the quality of teaching staff did not always match the advanced infrastructure of schools and that training teachers is more important than training students. “I hope there will be more impetus in the society for accelerated development of teacher training and advanced educational concepts, in addition to infrastructure development,” he said.