It was an ordinary morning in SCLS campus. Students of DDMS received letters from their pen friends of Punahou School， Hawaii, USA. They couldn’t wait to see what their friends afar wrote.
Punahou School has been SCLS’s sister school for almost 10 years. The two schools’ connection goes back to late 19th century when Dr. Sun Yat-sen attended Punahou School. Students of both schools used to visit each other as part of exchange programs. But this year, they couldn’t make the visit due to the epidemic. So they decided to write letters to each other. Because of the current restrictions on international mail delivery, they sent E-mails instead of traditional letters.
The E-mails were printed out, put into envelopes and distributed to students by SCLS teachers. Before the letters opened, the students had no idea who their pen friend is. They opened the envelope curiously, read the words, and discussed excitedly about their friend’s gender, hobby, etc. It’s so cool and exciting.
Nowadays, in place of handwritten letter, SNS has become the most common way to communicate with people. However we found the students from both countries developed great passion for traditional letter writing in this way.
‘I prefer to write a letter to my friend rather than talk on Wechat. We are at the same age and like-mined. By reading my friend’s words I feel that we’ve already met and known each other. I will be more serious about how to describe my country and school to my USA friend when writing with a pen.’-Class 7.1 Liu Yinkai
‘I prefer writing on paper, because I believe feelings can be well expressed through handwriting. Next time I will continue writing on paper and attach my photo with it.’-Class 7.1 Chen Feiyun
In the letters, students of Punahou School introduced their school, family and hobbies in detail and asked our students lots of things about Chinese life and culture. SCLS students have been messengers of Chinese cultures over the past years. They shared our culture and helped the USA students know more about China.
Chen Feiyun wrote two full pages to her pen friend Zara. She introduced herself and SCLS. She also wrote down some names of Shanghai’s gourmet food in Chinese in order to help Zara with her Chinese and know more about Shanghai.
This year’s epidemic has not only changed the way of students’ exchange program, but also made our students realize all human beings are a Community of a Shared Future. Lo K., a Punahou School student mentioned he kept wearing masks and staying away from the crowd. In the reply, Liu Yinkai wrote he couldn’t go back to school but he was happy to spend more time helping his mother with housework and studying his favorite subject. Despite the differences of cultural background and lifestyle, the children have shared a lot, from common hobbies to global issues.
Much love and care is included in the letters. When the students write to each other, the friendship between two schools continues and the cultural understanding is strengthened through the young ambassadors of two countries.
As Madam Soong Ching Ling said,‘We’ve already found a bridge that can smooth out differences of races, religions and political parties. This bridge is our children.’ We sincerely hope the students from SCLS and Punahou School could have a reunion in the near future after this hard time.
May the friendship last forever!
May the world full of love and peace!
