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6 Thursday March 18, 2010 Thursday March 18, 2010 11

COMMUNITY

By Vera Penêda

We all have our ideas about exotic people from far away lands.

“Chinese people have dark hair and are yellow skinned. Euro-peans are hospitable, roman-tic, and very handsome, their haircut is different than ours and they have very blue eyes,” said Zhang Ziye, 11, who portrayed Chinese and European people in her drawings. “Europe is a country as big as China,” said

Yang Kepey, who’s 7 and a half years old.

Both Zhang and Ye are among a dozen Chinese stu-dents, between 7 and 12 years old, from three Beijing public schools, who participated in the animation workshop “Inches from the Ground: Children Imagine Europe” at the Cer-vantes Institute in Beijing the last two Sundays.

The international endeavor, sponsored by the current Span-ish EU Presidency, aims to

explore the perception that chil-dren in three different parts of the world have of the old conti-nent and its people. Peaceful and talkative with big noses, that’s how Chinese children painted Europeans. Chinese teachers at the workshop said they’d like to import European teaching techniques to give a new breath to Chinese educational system.

Beijing was the last stage of the project that took place in three countries in an attempt to specifically discover what

children in the European border (Morocco), inside the European Union (Poland) and far away from Europe (China) have to say about Europe and Europeans. A book and a DVD will reveal the conclusions of the three-step project in May.

Thinking EuropeSchool can be fun on Sun-

days, especially when the lesson requires drawing, talking and speaking your mind. “Chinese think Europeans all look the

same. But my cousin who lives in England says Europeans think the other way around: that Chi-nese people all look the same,” said Ye Tang, 12.

For Li Zetong, 8, hair marks the difference: “Europeans have lots of hairstyles,” she explained while she was using water paint to draw her conclusions. “I told my cousin to be careful because his nose will grow up if he goes on living in England,” Tang added. Physical differences are the ones to catch the eye of

children. What the world as seen

a couple of inches from the ground usually lacks in scientific accuracy, tends to make up with a truthful and uninhibited way of observing and verbalizing. Young observers also manage to be spot on when it comes to perceiving social habits and traditions.

“The way European people think is quite interesting. They always sit on a chair and think slowly until they find the solu-

tion. Chinese people always do it more easily and if they can’t find a solution, they simply stop thinking about it and go their way,” Zhang said. “If you know, then you know. If you don’t, you don’t have to feel ashamed about it,” he concluded.

Looking at the concept of a crowd, children drew Europe-ans as a rather diverse group of people, distinguished by differ-ent hair color and clothes, while a Chinese crowd was depicted as much more numerous and homogenous. Europeans were looking out of the picture, while the Chinese had their backs turned to the viewer. ”Euro-pean people always walk on the left and Chinese people walk right. Except older people who sometimes walk backwards to improve their blood pressure,” the young painters explained.

”I like pizza,” said Li Zetong, 8, when she has to identify European food. “I’d like to go to Switzerland,” she added, with a good sense of geography but a shrug to explain why she wants to visit the country. “Once I tried to eat meat with a spoon and it was really difficult,” Kepey said.

When conversation brings Spanish paella, French cheese and Swiss chocolate to the table, Yao Haocheng, 10, said: “Now I really have to go to Europe,” but “I’ll need a translator,” he observed.

Different lessonsSuggesting that the project

could have a real application and broader scope than the one that has been initially set, Chinese teachers who participated in the activities hinted that they’d like to import some European teach-ing techniques to the Chinese education system. “This project is a very good way to promote the knowledge about Europe and the world,” said Han Dongsh-eng, one of the teachers.

“This is a completely distinct educational method. Children learn about Europe in a relaxed environment, just by talking and drawing the differences between China and Europe,” the teacher explained.

“In China we urge students to study, we have to put knowledge into their heads and prepare them for school exams. In Eu-

rope, teachers are there to explore the student’s potential and they can do that creatively, through arts and cul-tural activities, which promote autonomous thinking,” Xu Dongsheng, another teacher, said.

Both laoshi point out a “huge population problem” that hin-ders a direct adaptation of such programs to the Chinese school system. “We have a different culture and a different reality in China. There’s a population of 300 million students so we teach within a complicated set of rules. It is important that teachers learn different competencies,” they added.

“The idea is that children can express themselves freely,” said Tito Alba, from the Spanish col-lective of audiovisual artists PDA – Pequeños Dibujos Animados (Little Animated Doodles), the company that runs the project, according to the recreational and didactic approach that under-lines the audiovisual process to make an animated movie.

With new technologies as a starting point, kids were invited to answer the question “Who are European people?” to deliver a vision, lightly explored of the European imagery in the 21st century. “Kids draw, tell their sto-ries and they learn how to give life to their vision, participating and learning about the creative process behind an animated film and a book,” Alba added.

“They [the Chinese children] are hard working and creative kids. They draw really well and I’m surprised with the original ideas they give,” Alba said. “They view Europe as a very far-off place and as a big country. They talk about Europeans as peaceful and nice people, with big noses,” the animator said.

While Chinese kids focused on physical traits to distinguish themselves from Europeans and Polish children portrayed life in Europe, Moroccan children stepped into the territory of illegal immigration, due to their contact with people who lived it.

The final movie and book, that will be presented in Lion, Spain, in May, will premiere in Europe and China and should be run in international festivals.

verapeneda@globaltimes.com.cn

BEIJING818

By Jim Boyce

Sad enough to see one of the city’s most suc-cessful cocktail bars, Q, suffer from owner squabbling for months but now one of its most successful restaurants is experiencing the same. Kro’s Nest pizza, notably its Work-ers Stadium branch, has drawn customer complaints about everything from increasingly poor service to declining ingredient quality, al-though things looked poised for a turnaround late last year when former Element Fresh chef Jeffrey Powell consulted on a range of new pies. The underlying culprit has been and remains friction among the owners over brand direction. And while rumors abound that the face of Kro’s, Olav Kristoffer Bauer – who counts a pair of Tube Station outlets among his achievements – is leaving Beijing to do an MBA, he says not so... at least not until he gets the Nest back in order.

It didn’t survive as a club (Mingle) or a wine bar (Boutique), so now the basement below Luga’s Villa will try life with a sports theme. Deja vu? That wouldn’t be surprising given that two months ago the guys behind the former Stumble Inn announced plans to open something similar in the same space – just before the guys behind Luga’s stepped in and made a deal with the landlord to grab it. In terms of nomenclature, the new bar will be part of Luga’s Villa, though given that ex-Blue Frog manager Lee Mitchell is assisting with the project, perhaps Leega’s would be a nice twist. Also of note: a new deck will be added out front.

While eateries as diverse as Maison Boulud, Da Dong, Hatsune, Haidilao, Element Fresh, and Lan took home multiple awards in The Beijinger’s annual restaurants awards, perhaps a special one should go to emcees Dominic Hill-Johnson of Plastered T-shirts and Ai Wan of China Doll fame for some lively commen-tary during the afternoon. After announcing the award for best Middle Eastern restaurant, for example, they had this exchange:

“Dominic, can you do a belly dance?”“No, I’ve only had three Stellas so far.”“You English people – you’re so stiff!”“Well, I’m not stiff yet.”Things did turn awkward when representa-

tives from both SALT and Mosto were on the stage and Ai Wan mistakenly suggested Gaby Alves of SALT had helped start Mosto. In fact, the place opened after head chef Daniel Urda-neta left SALT on bad terms. “Now they are on the same stage together!” she said, which in-spired one attendee to comment, “And thank-fully without any cutlery.” But in the “all’s well that ends well” file, when the two restaurants were again joint winners in another category, Urdaneta and Salt Chef Ana Esteves walked to the stage holding hands.

The author writes a nightlife blog at

www.beijingboyce.com

Out with the old?

Chinese kids talk Europe

Children participate in the animation workshop at the Cervantes Institute. Photos: Courtesy of the Cervantes Institute in Beijing

Photo: Huan Chu

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