San Marino School Offers Cultural Bridge

At 8:50 a.m. every Saturday in San Marino, students rise on command in their classrooms and bow in unison to their teacher. “Lao shi hao!” they say together. “Greetings, teacher!”

The students take their seats and listen to their weekly lesson on ethical values, then settle in for three hours of language drilling and memorization.

This is the Chinese School of San Marino--a place where the dynamic interplay between assimilation and cultural heritage occupies center stage, and a place where the interplay has begun to take on a unique twist.

Here, Confucius meets Uncle Sam.

And, slowly but surely now, vice versa.

Last October, for the second consecutive year, the school held a 10-week adult beginning language course for the community’s white residents. The school plans to offer the second part of the course this fall.

In attendance last year was a virtual Who’s Who of San Marino community leaders, including a City Council member, the fire chief, the police chief and several merchants.

“As a public servant, you really want to serve and understand the city that pays your salary,” said Police Chief Frank Wills, who struggled through the school’s adult course last year and now says that he would like the entire Police Department to attend.

Although the power structure of this affluent city of 13,000 remains white, more than a third of San Marino’s residents are Asian; of those, more than 90% are Chinese. Asians are even more concentrated in San Marino’s school system, constituting more than 50% of the student population.

With just under 1,000 students and more than 100 on the waiting list, the Chinese School is on its way to becoming the largest educational institution in San Marino, exceeding even the public high school in size. About 88% of its students live in the town.

“I bring them because I want them to learn Chinese,” said Jolen Ho of San Marino, the mother of two girls, ages 8 and 10. Both her children have missed out on Saturday morning cartoons since their preschool days in order to attend Chinese classes.

“I hate it,” giggled Joanne Ho, before her mother cut her off.

“I don’t think they hate it,” said Jolen Ho. “They just kind of tolerate it.”

Ho hopes her daughters will one day be able to speak fluently and read at a level where they can understand Chinese newspapers--a daunting goal, considering that by most estimates it takes a vocabulary of 5,000 characters to be able to read one. Moreover, Ho is fighting a battle every day against “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” the Spice Girls and even “Sesame Street,” all parts of a mainstream culture that Chinese American parents say bit by bit turns their children into “bananas”--yellow on the outside but white on the inside.

Ho’s is the traditional Chinese school story.

About 83,000 students study Chinese in 634 so-called heritage community schools across the United States, according to a survey conducted two years ago by the National Council of Assns. of Chinese Language Schools.

California, with its burgeoning Pacific Rim population, has by far the largest number of Chinese schools in the country--223--and is the home of what is quite possibly the best: the Chinese School of San Marino, according to Theresa Chao, executive director of the national association.

The San Marino school began in 1980, with just 80 students in four classes.

Today, the school is the largest of its kind in Southern California, where more than 20,000 children are enrolled in Chinese schools.

The school operates Monday through Saturday in three buildings leased from the San Marino Unified School District. Most students attend only on Saturdays, but the daily after-school classes are an attractive option for working parents in need of child care.

Over the years, the school has evolved into a full-fledged professional operation complete with an active PTA, a seven-member school board, teaching assistants in every classroom, its own carefully developed textbooks, a paid principal, a summer school program and a national reputation for academic excellence.

Ethnic language schools have long functioned as a vehicle for immigrant communities to turn inward. Staffed mainly by parent volunteers and meeting mostly on weekends in rented school buildings, the learning centers collectively contain the hopes of an entire generation of parents who desperately want their children to remember the rich language and culture of their heritage.

Recently in San Marino, however, the Chinese school has begun to serve another important function--as a bridge enabling others in the community to begin to acquaint themselves with the culture and language of the immigrant community.

The adult classes began after several community leaders approached the Chinese Club of San Marino, expressing an interest. The 18-year-old club, which established the school, has played an increasingly important role as a liaison between white and Asian residents.

“For a lot of the civic leaders, when they have to deal with so many Chinese in the community, it becomes very handy when they understand very simple aspects of Chinese language and culture,” said K.C. You, club president.

Along with learning rudimentary language skills, members of the class were introduced to various aspects of Chinese culture. For example, students had the opportunity to partake of the Chinese tradition of tea-drinking and sampled tea leaves that sold for $200 an ounce.

“I thought only certain illegal drugs had leaves that expensive,” Wills said.

Wills plans to call on his Chinese skills in his role as this year’s emcee for the Chinese Club of San Marino’s Mid-Autumn Festival. The $60-a-plate event, attended by more than 1,000 community residents and civic leaders, features a 10-course Chinese meal.

Greg Thyberg of San Marino enrolled the younger of his two sons, ages 6 and 10, in the Chinese school a year ago. Soon after, he enrolled his other son. They are among 10 to 15 non-Chinese students who attend the school, according to school Principal Chuning Hsu.

“To me, it’s like loading computer software,” said Thyberg, who heard of the school through a flier sent home to elementary school parents. “If they could learn this language now, it could be helpful for when they’re older, especially because they are Caucasian.”

For Thyberg, it took a speech he heard several years ago by former President George Bush on the importance of the Pacific Rim in the next millennium to convince him of the practical benefits of learning Chinese. Others, however, focus on the situation at home. “Our Asian population is the newest, and is certainly giving many benefits to our community and bringing with them a wealth of enrichment to our community,” said Liz Gross, whose daughter Kathryn, 12, attends Chinese school. “The community has to reach back.”