Wang Weiyang, 13, looked at a stack of calligraphy writings he had just finished.

Starting to learn the traditional art at 6, the junior student said: "I like it, but I am not satisfied with my works today."

Every Saturday, hundreds of children like Wang go to the Beijing Children's Palace to learn something different from what they study in school.

During the past 50 years, more than 100,000 teenagers have taken extra-curricular classes in this former royal garden located behind Jingshan Park, where they learn dancing, singing, football, painting, calligraphy, photography or other activities.

This year, children like Wang Weiyang have a major opportunity to show their creativity and understanding of life.

Wide invitation

By the end of the year, youngsters under the ages of 18 are welcome to send their works of art to the Beijing 2008 National Painting, Calligraphy and Photograph Exhibition for Teenagers, which is sponsored by the Publicity Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

"The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is also a festival for children," said Tao Xiping, president of the organizing committee of the exhibition. "They should have access to express their thoughts, and display their artistic talents."

The invitation to the exhibition is extended to children worldwide.

The consultants for the exhibition said they were expecting some brilliant and imaginative art and photography works coming from children, especially from Chinese youth.

They have ample reasons for these expectations - many of the participants have been taking painting, calligraphy and photography courses as part of their extra-curricular work.

According to a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in July, 2002, 66 percent of parents from six cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan and Guangzhou surveyed had their children enrolled in after-school courses, and 63 percent of the children took art classes to learn painting and calligraphy.

The fervor to learn art and photography is rising, especially with the continuing economic and social development in China.

Photography, a major category in the coming exhibition, was not something children could try their hands on more than 20 years ago.

It was once a luxury to own a camera, let alone take specific classes about photography. Now in Beijing, tens of thousands of teenagers are learning photography in after-school classes, according to Wang Wenlan, the lead consultant to the organizing committee for the photography category in the coming children's art and photo exhibition for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

There is even a photography school in Beijing offering training for interested teenagers.

Wang, vice-chairman of the Chinese Photographers' Association, also recalled that extra-curricular classes were reserved for only an elite few more than 20 years ago.

Wang studied at the Beijing Children's Palace in the 1960s. Now also director of the Photography Department of China Daily, Wang describes himself as "the beneficiary of after-school education."

"I used to attend the drawing classes. Nevertheless, most students who were lucky to be there appeared to be the top ones in the class," he recalled.

Today, almost every child has access to extra-curricular classes, Wang said.

In the past, the Beijing Children's Palace enrolled about 5,000 students a year.

"Now the number has doubled," said Zhao Wei, vice-office director of the palace, "though most families have only one child."

Such remarkable growth is most obvious in the painting courses. In South China's Guangdong Province, some painting classes have to teach 300 children in one big hall.

In the past, official institutions like the children's palaces monopolized the extra-curricular programs. Today, these institutions could no longer meet the still-growing needs for more spaces.

Private art schools

Art schools, especially fine art classes which are run by individuals, thrive with the support of the government.

Still in its early phase, the existence of private art schools not only offers the chance to develop the interests of children who fail the exams for official institutions, but provides job opportunities for young graduates from art colleges.

Following the surge of enthusiasm toward children's art education after school, a new education market has taken center stage in China.

"The prosperity of such a new market results from people's cultural pursuits, after our material needs have been greatly satisfied," said Yang Jingzhi, a retired professor of the Capital Normal University in Beijing.

With enough to eat and wear, the whole society finds it important to rejuvenate a culture which has endured for 5,000 years.

In her opinion, such a social climate, which needs to be cultivated especially among today's teenagers, makes it possible for the prosperity of the extra-curricular educational market, and further encourages individuals to invest in this new industry.

The sense of increasing peer competition also helps nurture the market.

"The competition is getting more and more fierce," said Zhao Wei from the Beijing Children's Palace. "Parents want their children to be outstanding, so that their children could prosper in this changing world."

In the past, parents whose children were able to get into extra-curricular classes often hoped that their children would start career training earlier in life. Today, the classes are more for helping to build the all-round capabilities of children.

"One way to ensure survival in fierce competition is to upgrade the general quality of the children," Zhao said. "We provide them with such opportunities."

More freedom

In a dancing class, Lin Mo was rehearsing with 14 other classmates. Outside the hall stood a couple of parents, who discussed which girl was the best performer.

"She started dancing at 4 and has kept practicing for six years," Lin Mo's mother, surnamed Yan, said as she fixed her eyes on her daughter while knitting.

Like many parents, she takes her daughter to the three-hour class every Saturday morning.

"She likes dancing and singing, and she enjoys the class. I do not expect her to be a professional dancer in the future, I just think dancing would help make her well-rounded," she said.

Many parents and teachers no longer believe that they could help choose their children's future careers, and realize that they should give their children more freedom.

Take the painting class for example. In the past, teachers usually started with basic drawing skills and a model for children to copy. The children's works were often dull, and restricted to old stereotypes.

"We once forced our children to accept adult's thoughts, and totally ignored the fact that children need imagination, not uninteresting theories," said Professor Yang Jingzhi.

Also Director of the China Teenagers Art Training Center, Yang has divided her drawing class into three phases.

"I have never given them a model, and I do not teach them basic skills until they are in the advanced class," she said.

During 20 years of research Yang has done on teenagers' after-school art education, she is still amazed by the creativity of youngsters.

"Whenever I give speeches, I do ask teachers and parents not to discourage those thoughts they look down upon. That's what children see, how they frame the world," she said.

"I am pleased that more and more teachers are improving their methods and giving imagination back to the children," Yang said.

As more and more parents put emphasis on helping their children gain more practical abilities, such as improved observation, memory, creativity and social skills, their children gain through another world full of colors and music, Yang said.

Children decide what they want to learn, and parents help them learn how to be responsible for their own choices.

"My 5-year-old son is learning piano. Definitely, he would get bored of repeated practice," said Wang Wenlan, a father who faces the same problem many parents have to deal with.

"I would ask him to persist, to know that tenacity will do him good in whatever job he is going to take."

Yang is most satisfied that many children have learned more than the practical skills.

She recalled that one day, the 7-year-old boy who'd been taking classes with her for three years pointed at his mother's dresses and said: "Mom, the colors of your clothes don't match," Yang quoted the boy.

"Maybe he won't be a painter when he grows up, but the boy has got to know the beauty and interests in life," Yang said. "And that should be the real meaning of the art education."

(China Daily September 26, 2003)