Yali School

Yali (雅礼) is a secondary school (6th through 12th grades) located in Changsha, Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China. It is a first-tier key school in Hunan's public school system and is one of the most selective schools in the nation. Admission is extremely competitive, based mainly on the score in city-wide or province-wide examinations as well as outstanding talent in music, sports, and the arts. The School is often called Yali Middle School in English.

In 2007, Yali was included in the "Top 100 Schools" list published by the Top One-Hundred Schools website in China. [http://www.top100zx.cn/DetailArticle.aspx?id=1525] It topped the list of the five schools that made to the top 100 from Hunan Province (This list published the schools by province and does not rank them nationally.)

History

Founded in 1906 by Yale-in-China (雅礼协会 now known as the Yale-China Association), Yali School has been known throughout China for its quality instruction, both as an American-owned private school during the first half of the 20th century and as a public school since then. The name Yali 雅礼 (pinyin: Yǎ Lǐ) comes from the Analects of Confucius, meaning elegance of expression (ya 雅) and propriety of conduct (li 礼), and is a transliteration of Yale in early-20th century. Yali's school colors are blue, white (Yale colors) and red (China), as appear on the school uniform.

Founding Years

Brownell Gage, Warren Seabury, Lawrence Thurston, and Arthur Williams, all graduates of Yale College in the 1890s, founded Yale-in-China, and brought the mission to Changsha between the years of 1901 and 1905. In 1906, the mission's preparatory school, or the Yali School, began operations. During the same year, Edward Hume, M.D., commenced the medical work in Changsha. In 1912, Yali's first graduates received degrees.

Continued Success

The campus was dramatically expanded in 1914, and Yali became the most well-known and highly regarded education institution in the Republic of China era. By 1928, Yali started opening up its administrative and leadership roles to Chinese educators. While Yali students were known for their academic performance, they were also well trained athletes, with the school's many athletic teams - soccer, volleyball, track, for example - winning provincial and national tournaments.

World War II Years

In 1938, Yali students and faculty were forced to move to Yuanling in western Hunan to avoid bombing in Changsha during the Japanese invasion of China. Teaching continued in Yuanling for seven years before the School returned to Changsha in 1946.

Early PRC Years

In November 1948, the US government started evacuating Americans in China. Dr. Dwight Rugh became the last Yale-China representative in China. In 1951, Dr. Rugh was brought to the new gym on the Yali campus in a school-wide meeting to condemn "American Capitalist Invaders"; he returned to America via Hong Kong soon after. During the same year, the municipal government of Changsha took over the administration of the Yali School and changed its name to Changsha Number Five Middle School to be integrated into the city's public school system. The School's tie with Yale-China was cut off. During the next few decades, Yali experienced political turbulances that swept much of China.

It should be noted that Dwight Rugh is the father of Betty Jean Rugh (now BJ Elder), who grew up in Changsha and later moved to the United States with her parents. BJ Elder published a book in 2003 titled "The Oriole's Song - An American Girlhood in Wartime China" (see cited sources below), describing her childhood in Changsha on the Yali campus and the various trips she made back to China in the decades following the family's forced departure.

After the Cultural Revolution

In 1980, Yali, known at the time still as Changsha Number Five middle School, returned to operations from a whole decade of chaos. With the new "reform and openning-up" policy instituted by Deng Xiaoping, more freedom to connect with the outside world was realized. Yali alumni from the first half of the 20th Century started working tirelessly between Changsha and New Haven, seeking to re-establish the Yale-China connection. In 1985, the School revived its relationship with the Yale-China Association and was once again known as Yali. The next year, Yale-China bachelors, now known as English Language Instructors ("ELI", also a nickname for Yalies), arrived on campus and resumed teaching responsibilities in the English Department.

Today

Since 1986, Yali has reinvented itself again as a leading institution of secondary education in China. While following a standard curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education, it expanded its education philosophy to include extracurriculars and specialty education to offer students opportunities to engage themselves in campus life in and outside the classroom. The School has received numerous provincial and national recognitions for its excellence in providing high quality education to young minds. In 1992, it became formally recognized as one of the first Provincial Key Schools in Changsha, establishing it as a premier institution in China's public school system. At the same time, with its long history of international engagement, Yali has reached out to institutions in many other countries and established sister school relationships internationally. In 2001, the School received a delegation from Yale University led by Yale's president, Richard Levin, in celebration of both the Centennial of Yale-China Association as well as the Tercentennial of Yale University. In 2006, Yali celebrated its own Centennial, bringing back alumni/ae and former teachers from all parts of the world.

Campuses

Yali currently has two campuses: a day school located near city-center (on Laodong Road between Furong Ave and Shaoshan Ave) and a boarding school campus located in the southern suburbs. However, as the city's school board continues with the reforms of the school system under the instruction from the Hunan Provincial Education Bureau, the boarding school section is likely to become an independent private school, tentatively named "South Yali School (南雅中学)", as it is located south of the main day school campus.

Curricula & Extracurricula

Academics

Due to its high academic rigor and strict selection policy, Yali graduates score among the highest in China's college entrance examinations and are accepted by the country's finest universities. Its high-quality English education has given some of its graduates near-fluency in the English language; every year, some graduates from the school are accepted by prestigious North American institutions such as Yale University and Princeton University after highly competitive selection processes held by these universities in China for their extremely limited international recruitment. In recent years, graduates have also gone on to universities in other English-speaking countries such as the UK, Australia, and Canada.

For all students, Chinese, Math, English, and physical education are required. Aside from these compulsory subjects, other curricular requirements include:
*7th Grade: Art, Biology, Chinese History, Geography, Music, Politics
*8th Grade: Art, Biology, Chinese History, Geography, Music, Physics, Politics
*9th Grade: Art, Chemistry, Geography, Music, Physics, Politics, World History
*10th Grade: Art, History, Physics, Biology, Politics, Chemistry, Geography, Music
*11th Grade: Art, History, Physics, Biology, Politics, Chemistry, Geography, Music
*12th Grade: History, Politics, and Geography for students focusing on the Art, and Physics, Chemistry, and Biology for students focusing on the Sciences. This final year is mostly a preparatory year for the national college matriculation examinations.

All science classes have required lab sessions.

In addition, courses are also offered in computer science, graphic design, mechanics and robots, research-oriented seminars, among others.

pecialty Education

Yali's strength in science education, and in particular, informatics and computer science, has produced several gold medals among its students in contests like the International Olympiad in Informatics. The School has also started a research-oriented seminar program for students to carry out group projects in the social sciences, the arts, and community engagement.

ports

As a tradition, athletics programs are popular among students and like at the old Yali in the early 20th century, physical vigor is emphasized. In all six grades, students participate in many leisure and competitive sports teams. The School has an annual Yali Cup soccer game; each class unit in the same grade organizes its own teams and compete with other teams. With soccer and basketball being the most popular sports, the men's soccer team and women's basketball team have repeatedly won provincial tournaments and are placed high in national rankings. Physical education is required for students in all grades.

Clubs

Yali students participate actively in a wide range of extracurricular activities, including student newspaper, magazine, student union, radio station, TV station, orchestra, band, traditional dance, among others.

Sister schools

* St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, USA
* Foote School, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
* Yukata School, Kagoshima, Japan
* Nanhua Senior Vocational Supplementary High School [http://www.nhwsh.tp.edu.tw/] , Taipei, Taiwan

External links

* [http://www.yali.hn.cn/ Yali School]
* [http://www.yalechina.org/ Yale-China Association]

ources

*Yali Alumni Association, "雅礼大事记 (Major Events of Yali)", "雅礼简报 (Yali Brief)" (alumni newspaper), 30 Sept., 2006.
*Nancy E. Chapman with Jessica C. Plumb, "The Yale-China Association - A Centennial History". Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2001.
*BJ Elder, "The Oriole's Song - An American Girlhood in Wartime China". Norwalk: EastBridge, 2003.