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Girls’ school evoked modern curriculum, teaching
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YANG Jiang’s article “Me and Morning Star Girls’ School” widely circulated on Chinese social media when the celebrated author died in May at age 105.
Yang and her sisters studied at the Christian school in the 1920s, and the century-old Morning Star Building described in the article still stands in the heart of Xujiahui.
“The school was founded in 1904 to accept non-Catholic girls, which attracted many Chinese families with daughters,” says Fudan University Professor Li Tiangang. “There was another Christian school for girls in Xujiahui — Tsung-Te Girls’ School — but that enrolled only nuns.”
According to the book “Zikawei in History,” Morning Star Girls’ School was founded to teach ordinary young girls general knowledge and develop their virtue. In the beginning, foreign language, music and art teachers were all nuns, but they were later supplemented by graduates from the Aurora College for Women.
In 1916, the school erected the grand Morning Star Building. The 1,569-square-meter structure is fronted with Corinthian columns and patterned ceramic tiles, which writer Yang remembered fondly in her memoir.
“The colonnade fronting our classroom was so long that it passed along more than 10 classrooms from east to west,” she wrote. “Beneath the colonnade was a big garden. There was a spacious yard surrounded by big trees, lawns and another long, wide colonnade. The yard had a swing and a seesaw … We had classes on the ground floor in the daytime and sleep upstairs at night …”
Thanks to a 2008 restoration, the colonnade and the façade of the building display the grandeur of the school’s past for modern-day society.
“Most of the patterned ground tiles in the colonnade are original,” says Jiao Tong University Professor Cao Yongcang, chief architect of the restoration. “After studying historical photos of the 1920s, we painstakingly revived walls made of red and gray bricks, which had been covered by cement mortar in the 1980s.”
He says the building is decorated with the pattern of stars here and there — a symbol of the school’s name.
Morning Star Girls’ School and Tsung-Te Girls’ School were merged in 1969 and renamed Shanghai No. 4 High School. Though it is spread among three campuses around Xujiahui, every student spent at least one whole year studying in the Morning Star Building.
“It was always used for teaching,” says Du Yumin, president of the school. “With this building, the heritage of our school’s tradition is so visible.”
She says the building is “magical,” in a sense.
“It’s warm in winter and cool in summer,” says Du. “Every classroom has four small holes in the walls above the windows, which bring in light and air but keep out rain and winter frost. We don’t know why. We have no air conditioners in the classrooms, and they are still comfortable in the summer.”
Despite a splendid history, the school has kept abreast of the times, she says.
“Xujiahui has become a commercial hub, so we initiated business courses such as money management, which is unusual in middle school education,” Du says.
The school has always reflecting the times. Nearly a century ago, when Xujiahui was a hub of religion, science and culture, courses at the school focused on language, virtue and the arts. It was known as the city’s strictest Christian school for girls, even stricter than St Mary’s Hall or the McTyeire School, both in today’s Changning District.
According to a 1929 report in the magazine Juan Tong Zhi, girls at the school wore long Chinese coats with short skirts. If someone’s dress was “too tight,” the nuns would enlarge it for her. The magazine also published a photo of the school’s dining room, with wooden cabinets along the window that were used to store foodstuffs sent from the girls’ homes.
The report noted that every dormitory housed up to 70 girls.
“It was rare and precious,” the report said of the school’s strict rules. “Therefore, many celebrities sent their beloved daughters there.”
Another report, in the pictorial magazine China Photographing Academy, described a reception for parents in 1926.
“Mozart’s opera ‘Magic Flute’ was performed in French,” the report said. “The Western music was accompanied by Chinese chimes, wooden knockers and drums, which was special. A traditional Chinese band played the classic melody ‘Plum Blossom in Three Movements’.”
Tuition at the school was relatively expensive, and there were extra charges for courses like English, French and painting. Morning Star girls were typically from prominent, wealthy families.
Author Yang Jiang’s father was a lawyer who chose the school for his three daughters because of its high-quality education. Yang later married Qian Zhongshu (1910-98), one of the greatest 20th-century scholars in China. She herself was also a productive writer and translator, renowned for her clean yet lively writing style. Her translation of “Don Quixote of La Mancha” is still regarded as the best Chinese version of the Spanish classic.
After turning 100, Yang became a wanghong, or “Internet celebrity.” Her smart, straight talking glistened with pearls of wisdom that were popular on Chinese social media.
After her death, many people paid tribute to Yang by posting photos, quotations and her article of the Morning Star Girls’ School online.
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