Students both young and old celebrate 90 years
Print Edition
MORE than 2,000 teachers and students, past and present, last month celebrated the 90th anniversary of the founding of Jiading County Middle School, the forerunner of today’s Jiading No. 1 High School.
Among those present was 87-year-old Qian Menglong who recalled that the classical Chinese atmosphere as well as his Chinese teacher and history teacher had greatly influenced him.
Another former student, Pan Zhihao, now deputy director of the University of Shanghai’s High-tech Park Administration, said his Chinese teacher, the father of Shanghai Sports anchorman Tang Meng, helped students to learn to think independently.
Xu Jia, who is now a writer, said her days at the school were some of the best times with teachers never demanding extreme efforts in the pursuit of academic achievements but encouraging students to use their talents well.
Current headmaster Guan Wenjie told reporters that the school aimed to create a suitable and quiet environment for students to nurture their skills and complete their personalities. In such an environment, teachers will also improve their skills and moralities.
The school listens to the opinions of students and teachers to develop a self-evaluation index for the school’s development and reform.
Early years in wartime
The year the school was founded was the year that China stood at a crossroads when warlords battled each other for power and Chinese and Western cultures clashed.
In August that year, Jiading’s local education and social elite, led by Yan Zijia, organized the founding of the Jiading County Middle School.
The following year, it merged with Jiading County Girl’s Middle School.
Later that year, Chen Fengzhang, then just 24, took the position of headmaster of the school, two years after his graduation from Datong University in English language and literature.
The school offered classes in Chinese, English, history, geography, mathematics, zoology, physics, chemistry, sports, drawing and music.
After the Japanese invasion of northeastern China in 1931, the school launched a civics class to raise students’ national consciousness and awareness of their social responsibilities. Teachers and students all got involved in patriotic movements.
As the Japanese invading force expanded their occupation, the school was forced to halt operations several times until 1941 when Chen founded the privately-owned Qinye Middle School with the help of a group led by Pan Zhixing.
Qinye Middle School successfully evaded the control of the Japanese occupation force and their Chinese collaborator government since Qinye was privately owned. Qinye served as the substitute of Jiading County Middle School during these difficult times.
High school expansion
To meet students’ needs, Qinye offered a senior high education, making it the first complete high school in Jiading’s history. After the war of resistance against Japanese Aggression ended in August 1945, Jiading County Middle School resumed operations and it was upgraded into Jiading’s first complete public high school — Jiading County High School — and Qinye High School closed.
From August 1945 to May 1949 when the People’s Liberation Army of the Chinese Communist Party liberated Jiading from the Kuomintang rule, the management of Jiading County High School still strived to expand the school and improve education quality.
During this period, the Communist Party of China’s Jiading County High School branch was founded as the first grassroots Party branch in urban schools in Jiading.
After the founding of the New China, the school developed rapidly and was renamed Jiading County No. 1 School in 1956.
In 1958, Jiading County was handed over from Jiangsu Province to Shanghai Municipality and in the same year, Jiading No.1 High School became one of the first batch of Shanghai’s key high schools. In 1985, the school’s middle school section ceased operation and the school became a sole senior high school.
In 2005, Jiading No. 1 High School became the first batch of experimental demonstration high schools in Shanghai.
The schools’ former students include five major generals in the People’s Liberation Army, a number of senior experts who receive subsidies directly from central government, two former senior officials and James Si-cheng Chao, founder of the Foremost Group, a New York-based shipping, trading and finance enterprise.
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