Photo courtesy of Lynbrook High School
Lynbrook music students stand in front of the Shanghai TV Tower. The group just returned from a 10-day tour of mainland China, where students gave many performances, including one at the Great Wall.
Lynbrook High takes grand tour of China
Music students overcome minor obstacles, enjoy trip
By Scott Steinberg
The music students from Lynbrook High School in Cupertino arrived at San Francisco-Oakland International Airport at 10 a.m., April 11, adult chaperones in tow, ready to embark on a 10-day tour of mainland China. The trip had been meticulously planned by Lynbrook Musical Director Dr. John Felder and his cavalcade of ambitious parent volunteers, with the professional guidance of World Projects of Berkeley.
There was a tour photographer, a webmaster, designated water bottle handouts, a so-called "war room" ... What could go wrong?
Then came the five-hour plane delay.
It was an abrupt initiation into World Travel 101, but "the students dealt with it better than most adults," said Joe Hamilton, Fremont Union High School District superintendent. "There was no grumbling. They got down on the floor, pulled out a pack of cards and waited it out."
After weathering the flight delay, the Lynbrook tour encountered an unforeseen dilemma at customs in Beijing.
"Whenever we go on tour, we make tour sweatshirts," said Felder. "So we made China 2002 sweatshirts with a very nice graphic and a map of China, marking the cities where we were going.
The map did not include Taiwan, which troubled the Chinese customs agents.
"It held us up at least an hour," Felder said. "We agreed not to wear the shirts so no one would be offended. We also had to agree to not even take them out of our suitcases."
But these students were not browbeaten by the bureaucracy, nor defeated by the early logistical mishaps of long-distance travel. There was a plan at hand--to actuate a profound cultural exchange between themselves and Chinese student musicians.
The jazz band, wind ensemble and orchestra mustered powerful performances at the renowned Children's Palace in Beijing. Then the palace students played with Lynbrook.
The experience was very emotional for Michael Jin, a 17-year-old Lynbrook junior, first-chair violin and the orchestra's concertmaster. Jin has family in Beijing, whom he visits every summer.
"About 18 relatives came to the concert [in Beijing]," he said. "It was quite emotional to be performing for them in their city. The experience matured me, gave me a new perspective of the world and my world."
The ensuing experiences came rapid-fire for the students--a trek to the Great Wall, where the marching band and color guard performed, a trip to the Forbidden City, more exchange concerts, the long haul to Xi'an, concerts, concerts, concerts, the awe-inspiring timelessness of the Terra Cotta Warriors, a memorable performance at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music, played to a standing-room-only crowd of 700 ...
"I told the kids they were angels," Felder said. "They were fine representatives of their parents, of their school and of the U.S."
Felder arranged meetings with Chinese students, which he called one of the most meaningful aspects of the trip.
"We were all thrilled by how anxious young Chinese people were to make contact," he said.
"The trip let [the students] focus on being their best selves, on taking themselves seriously as musicians," Felder added. "A lot of times we don't take ourselves so seriously. This was a chance, and it affected how they acted; what they cared about. And it brought a powerful focus to their music."
A year and a half ago, a Chinese governor invited Felder to bring some of his students to China. To Felder and enthusiastic parent-volunteers, the idea was right, but the timing was wrong.
A China 2002 Tour parent committee was formed, spearheaded by Chairwoman Becky Wilhelmsen. The committee priced touring companies and scouted for the best venues, airfares and sights (including the restaurant of 100 dumplings in Xi'an, where an unsuspecting tourist can sample the ever-beguiling walnut dumpling).
The committee selected World Projects of Berkeley as the school's tour planner, and settled on a price of $1,600 per student to travel. Through fundraising, the committee awarded 14 students full or partial scholarships totaling $20,000.
The way Lynbrook viola player Shirley Lee spoke of the China tour, it sounded like she would have paid everyone's bill in order to go. Despite the smog of Beijing and the bustle of Xi'an, "the trip was just so good," she said. "We got to see how musicians are the same everywhere. I didn't feel any pressure playing in China. People weren't like, 'Oh, you missed a note,' [although] we did. ... They weren't perfect performances, but the trip was."
And yet for the students and chaperones, the only culture shock seemed to be the lack thereof. Lynbrook, a school of 1,700, has a population that is 60 percent Asian, but many of the students, Asian or not, had never been to China.
Once there, they didn't encounter an autocratic Chinese government, stifling the will of the people-an image that has become the mainstay of page three of the New York Times.
Felder called the openness and democratic feeling of the Chinese people "an eye-opener." And the 17-year-old Lee was overwhelmed to the point of giddiness by the modernity of Shanghai.
"To the end, the trip was so well-planned," she said. "[In Shanghai], we took a cruise on the river at night. There were lasers in the sky. It was raining slightly. You know after you're drenched, how free you feel. We felt that."
For Superintendent Hamilton, the trip was a collage of positive experiences.
"The performances were fabulous, but the greatest aspect was the person-to-person diplomacy," he said. "Before the trip, all that most of us had to go on with China were stereotypes. But then there was a growing interest, an involvement in interacting with the Chinese youth. And now there is an interest that didn't exist before in things that are of China. These are amazing students we have. Part of it is due to their parents; part of it is due to Dr. Felder."
Cupertino, California Since 1947
