Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07SHANGHAI586
2007-09-10 03:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Shanghai
Cable title:  

BUILDING VALUES IN BACKWATER SCHOOLS--ONE NGO'S APPROACH

Tags:  PINR PGOV KIRF CH 
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FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6247
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 6709
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SHANGHAI 000586 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/10/2057
TAGS: PINR PGOV KIRF CH
SUBJECT: BUILDING VALUES IN BACKWATER SCHOOLS--ONE NGO'S APPROACH

SHANGHAI 00000586 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: Christopher Beede, Pol/Econ Section Chief, U.S.
Consulate, Shanghai, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 SHANGHAI 000586

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/10/2057
TAGS: PINR PGOV KIRF CH
SUBJECT: BUILDING VALUES IN BACKWATER SCHOOLS--ONE NGO'S APPROACH

SHANGHAI 00000586 001.2 OF 004


CLASSIFIED BY: Christopher Beede, Pol/Econ Section Chief, U.S.
Consulate, Shanghai, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) Summary: The Changjiang Civilian Education Foundation
(CCEF) is a homegrown NGO that is trying to build values and
teach self-sufficiency to poor students in backwater towns in
Anhui Province. CCEF runs two schools aimed at poor deserving
students. The first is an elementary school and the second is a
vocational carpentry school for high-school aged children. The
schools provide not only scholastic or skills education, but
also teach students morals, ethics, and self-sufficiency. CCEF
was created by Chinese entrepreneur Sage Nie (Shengzhe). Nie is
responsible for the vast majority of the foundation's funding
and is President of Tecsun, a Suzhou-based construction company
that hires many of the vocational school's graduates. Nie, an
avowed Christian who built a chapel for workers at Tecsun
headquarters, does not shy away from introducing Christian ideas
to the students. Local authorities cooperate with the schools
and the program has become so popular that local governments in
other impoverished areas have urged CCEF to set up schools in
their towns. End summary.


2. (U) On July 24, Poloff accompanied a team from CCEF, led by
the foundation's Deputy Secretary Echo Yu (Meng) to CCEF's two
schools in rural Anhui near the tourist area of Huangshan
(Yellow Mountain): the Tecsun Xiuning Pingmin Primary School;
and the Tecsun Luban (Xiuning) Technical School of Carpentry,
named after the mythical Chinese carpenter Lu Ban. Despite
their relative proximately to Huangshan, the schools were
located in areas and served families from places where tourist
revenues have not managed to trickle down.


3. (U) CCEF is an NGO established and funded primarily by
wealthy entrepreneur Sage Nie (Shengzhe),Managing Director of
Tecsun (Suzhou) Homes, a construction company that builds
modular wood-frame homes based on U.S. design. According to
CCEF literature, the foundation was approved by the Jiangsu
Civil Affairs Office in 2005 and has as its goal providing

quality holistic education to students from "poor but diligent
and honest families." Despite the fact that the foundation does
all of its work in Anhui Province's Huangshan
municipality--Nie's hometown--it is registered with the Jiangsu
provincial government; Nie and his company reside in Suzhou,
also in the more affluent Jiangsu Province.

--------------
Educating Complete Citizens, not Just Workers
--------------


4. (U) The elementary school is located in Landu Village and
currently has about 100 students and five teachers. The school
is only entering its third year of operation and had not yet
turned out any graduates. The carpentry school was established
in 2003 and taught 15 and 16 year old young men--no girls
allowed--traditional carpentry techniques using traditional
tools. The walls at both schools were covered with quotations
from Nie exhorting students to wash their dishes and their hands
and reminding them that diligent carpenters are just as good as
average professors. The first item of business for incoming
students to either school was a two day course on the basics of
hygiene and self sufficiency--how to bathe, how to use toilet
paper, how to wash dishes and hands, how to clean up after a
meal, etc.


5. (C) Yu said that these basic skills were often lacking due
to several factors. First, children in the countryside were no
longer being raised by their parents--the vast majority of whom
had left for work in the cities--leaving children with
grandparents who were more inclined to spoil than to discipline.
Second, China's "One Child Policy" had led to the "little
emperor" syndrome, where children were not expected to lift a
finger for their own subsistence. Third, twenty-five years of
reforms had trained a generation to worship money, while there
was a simultaneous break down in the public social safety net.
Parents (or guardians) insisted that children do nothing but
study so they can get good jobs, make a lot of money, and
support them in their old age. Fourth, there was a general lack
of religion or belief systems to guide people. Yu said that the
Cultural Revolution had done much to destroy the vestiges of
religion and traditional social mores and fostered an attitude
of looking out solely for oneself. Yu said it was not uncommon,
for instance, to hear parents point to people who tried to wait
their turn in line and say to their children: "Look at that fool
waiting in line! He will never get to the front. Don't be like
that!"


6. (C) Nie and CCEF viewed moral and social education as

SHANGHAI 00000586 002.2 OF 004


equally important to academic and skills-based training.
Students were taught early on that manual labor was honorable.
At the elementary school, for instance, the children had a
garden where they learned to grow vegetables that were used to
supplement their diet. Nie, an avowed Christian, was only too
happy to encourage Christian values through the foundation.
Students learned that they were part of a larger picture,
inseparable from the rest of humanity. They were also taught a
sense of gratitude and interdependence. For instance, the
lyrics of a song which every student of the carpentry school
memorized read: "We thank our God for his love. We thank our
parents for our lives. We thank our company for our
occupations. We thank our classmates for their concern for us."

--------------
Filling a Critical Need in the Countryside
--------------


7. (C) CCEF selected students on a needs basis. Yu said that
despite government promises of free education in the countryside
under the "New Socialist Countryside" program, it still cost
upwards of 4,000 RMB per year per child for public education,
including tuition, fees, books, and room and board. Yu said she
had no idea where funds from the central government that were
supposed to subsidize education went; she only knew that they
were not making it to the schools and the students. She
estimated that it would be 20-30 years before any real progress
along the lines of free government-provided public education was
really implemented. According to CCEF literature, the
foundation is the first of its kind to support public education
in low-income rural areas.


8. (C) Students who were selected for CCEF schools received
completely free education, including room and board. Potential
students were nominated by the Xiuning County government who
received recommendations from local governments under its
jurisdiction. Nominees were supposed to meet certain criteria
for family income but local government officials often nominated
their own children or those of their cronies. To ensure that
the program was used to benefit only the deserving, CCEF sent
out teams of teachers and school administrators to visit the
homes of every candidate and gain a first-hand understanding of
the families' economic situations. Poverty alone was not enough
of a reason to gain admission to CCEF schools, however.
Families were also evaluated as to the reasons for their poverty
and their attitudes toward work. If the parents or grandparents
were seen as lazy or indolent the students were rejected on the
grounds that they had already been predisposed from a young age
towards sloth and would not be able to adapt to the school's
expectations of industry and labor.


9. (C) Currently, CCEF only operated the two schools, although
other localities throughout China were trying to encourage it to
expand its operations. Yu said that Nie was reluctant to
increase the number of schools too quickly, fearing a loss of
control over the curriculum and a loss of the vision he had
created. He preferred to build the schools up slowly, one at a
time, with a focus on each individual child. Once the pattern
was mature, Yu said, they would open more elementary schools. A
local government in Yan'an and another place in Shanxi Province
had already offered up prime campus locations in an attempt to
woo CCEF.

--------------
"Where the Chickens Don't Defecate"
--------------


10. (U) During his visit, Poloff had the opportunity to
accompany a team of CCEF interviewers on a visit in two remote
mountain villages to conduct home assessment interviews. Poloff
was the first foreigner ever to travel to the villages. The
team drove first to Baiji Township, a small settlement with a
few farms, a hospital, and a government office building over an
hour's drive away from Huangshan municipality along a newly
paved, single lane, winding road. The group did not pass a
single vehicle on the way to Baiji. From there, the team hiked
three miles through the mountains to the small village of
Yanchi. Yanchi was home to about 50 families and had a
population of about 200 people and an average monthly income of
1,000 RMB (approximately USD 131) for families where the parents
were working outside the village. For families who could not
find outside employment, the monthly income was significantly
lower. Bamboo and tea were the main cash crops. Corn was also
raised in abundance, but much of it went to feed pigs;
traditional smoked hams were one of the few value-added
specialties produced in the area.


11. (U) The group first visited the Wang family, who could
trace their roots in Yanchi back at least 300 years to the Ming
Dynasty. The father worked in Hangzhou doing odd jobs as a

SHANGHAI 00000586 003.2 OF 004


construction worker and sent back about 10,000 RMB per year.
The family earned an additional 200 RMB from tea and another 800
RMB from bamboo. The couple had three children, two of whom
were in school. Since the grandparents were all deceased, the
wife stayed at home with the children. The middle child, a five
year old boy, had recently returned from Hangzhou with his
father where he had been attending kindergarten. Their oldest
daughter was already in high school. After interviewing the
family, CCEF team recommended that the son be accepted for
enrollment in the primary school.


12. (SBU) The second family recommended by the county
government appeared to be better off than the Wangs. The house
was somewhat nicer, and the wife was evasive about answering
questions about the family income, simply stating that "it's the
same as everyone else." After some digging, it finally came out
that this was the family of the village head and the team
rejected the family's application for their son.


13. (U) From Yanchi, the group climbed another two miles
through the mountains to reach the small village of Xiangshan.
The village was home to about 100 families and a population of
roughly 300-400 people. As in Yanchi and other remote villages,
the vast majority of working-age able-bodied men and women had
fled the villages for work in nearby urban centers. Average
annual income was roughly the same as in Yanchi.


14. (U) In Xiangshan, the team visited the Xiang family. The
grandparents were raising their grandson while the child's
parents worked elsewhere. The grandfather had recently had an
operation on his head that he said had drained the entire
financial resources of his family. He complained that his son
and daughter-in-law sent back some money every month for their
child, but nothing for him and his aging wife; a situation he
blamed on his daughter-in-law. Xiang said that he was able to
make about 1,000 RMB per year selling tea but that he relied
primarily on subsistence agriculture. The team decided that it
would need to conduct more interviews before reaching a decision.


15. (U) Yu later explained that people who went to the cities
often found that the higher cost of living consumed the bulk of
their correspondingly higher incomes. If they were lucky enough
to find good paying jobs, they would usually try to send money
back, but only if their salaries would permit it. Also,
agricultural opportunities in Xiangshan and Yanchi were not
always equitable, Yu said. Some families had significant land
holdings plentiful with bamboo. These families could earn
upwards of 10,000 RMB per year from selling bamboo, while others
did not have any bamboo holdings.


16. (U) Yu said that these villages were probably remote by
design. She explained that it was not uncommon during periods
of upheaval in Chinese history--such as dynastic changes--for
people to flee major population centers and head for the hills;
perhaps fleeing and hiding from the invading armies, or forced
into the hills due to natural disasters, or, perhaps, because
they were running from the law. In any event, it was certain
that invading armies or court investigators would have had a
difficult time seeking out these tiny villages secreted away in
the vast stretches of rugged mountainous terrain.

--------------
Tecsun: Treat People as People
--------------


17. (U) On August 7, Poloff visited Yu at Tecsun's headquarters
compound in the Suzhou Industrial Zone to examine the corporate
side of the education initiative. Yu, who also works for
Tecsun, said that the schools shared both a strategic vision and
a symbiotic relationship with Nie's company. Although Tecsun
technically did not provide funding for the schools--most
funding came from Nie himself through his foundation--Tecsun
hired all of the carpentry school graduates. According to Yu,
the long-range strategy was to have the male students from the
elementary school who did not test into high school enter the
carpentry school, from whence they would move into the company.
While students were free to choose their employment, thus far,
all of the 99 graduates to date had opted for employment with
Tecsun.


18. (U) Yu said Nie himself came from a rags-to-riches
background. Growing up poor in a small mountain village in
Huangshan, he worked his way through school, eventually
receiving advanced training in the United States. Nie believed
in the value of hard work and was committed to giving people who
demonstrated they deserved it the opportunity to pull themselves
up by their own boot straps.


19. (U) Nie's personal philosophy was: "Treat people like
humans. Making a profit is important, but not as important as

SHANGHAI 00000586 004.2 OF 004


changing lives." That philosophy translated into a corporate
vision that was much the same as his vision for schools: train
people to act like civilized human beings, instill in them a
system of values, and help them find dignity in their
occupation. Like the students in Huangshan, Tecsun workers also
took a basic two-day hygiene and self-sufficiency course.
Everyone then worked as a janitor for two months--scrubbing
toilets, sweeping floors, etc.--regardless of what position for
which they were hired.


20. (U) Yu said that Tecsun made it a point to train workers to
live with dignity. In addition to their competitive salaries,
Tecsun offered a range of benefits. According to Yu, a major
benefit--and one not to be viewed lightly--was that Tecsun
provided real toilet paper. Most construction workers lived in
squalor, sleeping on the ground at the construction site, using
pages from books or whatever they could find for toilet paper.
Yu said that whenever Tecsun began a new housing project, the
first thing it would do was build a temporary dormitory for the
laborers, complete with bathrooms, beds, and dining facilities.
The company had initially provided free meals, but had recently
begun charging workers 3-4 RMB (USD 0.40-0.53) per day in an
effort to combat waste.


21. (U) Occasionally, employees left Tecsun for companies
offering higher wages. However, according to Yu, within a year,
they always came back, begging for their old jobs. Yu explained
that the company would usually take them back, but would make
them wait before allowing them to return, assign them
lower-level jobs, and let them know that they had made a mistake
in leaving, in an effort to "teach them a lesson."


22. (U) Because it expended so much effort on behalf of its
employees, Tecsun was careful in the employees it hired and
placed a great deal of trust in them. New employees were
traditionally found through referrals from existing employees.
After a year on the job, an employee could refer their friends
or relatives. Yu said that unfortunately, most of the referrals
tended to be in their 30s or 40s and were set in their ways, and
found it difficult to adapt to the company's philosophy. Yu
said that Nie's vision for the carpentry school had dovetailed
nicely with his company's need for quality and qualified
employees. Nie was able to mold workers while still in their
teens through the school, providing him with a workforce that
was already accustomed to Tecsun's requirements of honesty,
integrity, hard work, and trust.

--------------
Religion a Key Component
--------------


22. (C) As part of his commitment to moral education and to his
religious beliefs, Nie had also built a small chapel on the
compound. Workers were encouraged--but not required--to attend
Bible study. New converts were sent to a local Protestant
church for baptism. Initially, Nie had invited a local pastor
from an underground church to hold Sunday services. However,
someone tipped-off the Suzhou Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB) in
early 2007 that Tecsun was running an illegal church. Although
the RAB did not visit in person, RAB officials passed word to
Nie that they were displeased. In an effort to avoid a
confrontation, Nie shut down the Sunday services and implemented
a Thursday Bible study group instead. The small chapel was
capable of handling approximately 40 parishioners, although Yu
said only about 10-20 participated each week.

--------------
Comment: A Growing Need for NGOs?
--------------


23. (C) From a positive angle, unlike many NGOs that focus on
alleviating the immediate symptoms of poverty, CCEF has taken
the unique approach of trying to cauterize the wound at the
source through providing not just skills, but values and morals
that will have ripple effects across Chinese society. However,
the situation on the ground also highlights the shortcomings of
the New Socialist Countryside program and the relative impotence
of the Central Government. Despite promises of free education,
the Central Government has thus far been unable to turn its
decrees into action at the local level, at least in places that
are off the beaten path--the very places the New Socialist
Countryside is attempting to assist. Unless the situation
changes, as time goes on, the Central Government will likely
need NGOs such as CCEF to help in providing basic services to
the people.
JARRETT