I want to lead the kids ... but get an even better lesson back

My name-card collection bursts out of several boxes and runs the gamut of professions and personalities.

This is thanks to the Chinese custom of exchanging cards with nearly everyone you meet, no matter how fleetingly.

But the card I cherish most was given to me by Yang Zhouxing. It came into my possession while I was speaking to a class of middle school students in rural Sichuan's Pingwu county, a quake-affected area where the youngsters, who studied in makeshift classrooms, had never glimpsed a foreign face.

The quake destroyed classrooms in nearly all of Pingwu's 146 schools, killing 344 students and 13 teachers. In total, 31,079 pupils and 2,631 instructors were affected in the county, according to Pingwu's education bureau.

Many of the children at the middle school we visited lost family, friends and their homes.

But their spirit of hope had not only survived but also shined brightly, in a surprising and inspiring way.

They talked of dreams - to become doctors, translators, singers, world travelers.

In an in-class activity we did with the students, the overwhelming majority wrote that they believed they would realize their ambitions through persistence.

Senior level 2 student Xue Chen summed up the students' ethos: "We must keep moving and never give up!"

Shortly after I gave my first talk on cross-cultural exchange, it was stormed by swarms of students who practically climbed over one another to thrust their notebooks toward me, asking for my autograph.

I'd become accustomed to the extra attention foreigners receive outside of metropolitan or tourist areas - or so I'd thought. Being asked to scrawl my John Hancock across notebooks and textbooks - that was a new one for me.

One of the kids asked for my phone number, address, e-mail, MSN and QQ.

I retrieved my stack of name-cards from my wallet and slipped one into his hand.

This detonated an explosion of fingers, and, in seconds, the students had confiscated the entire stack. They stared at these prizes with wide-eyed grins, as if the cards were winning lottery tickets.

I smiled, too.

The bell clanged, heralding the end of class, and students stampeded from the makeshift buildings.

As the kids funneled out of the structure where I had been speaking, the boy to whom I'd handed the first card approached me and sheepishly announced he had something he wanted to give me.

He had carefully printed his name, Yang, mobile number and QQ in blue ink on a rectangular scrap of cardboard.

Yang presented me the card with both hands.

"This is my card," he said, flashing a toothy grin that dipped when he bowed slightly while hoisting the gift toward me.

Yang and his classmates had been dazzled at seeing a foreigner. I am still astonished at seeing their perseverance of spirit.

I have no doubt they all can realize their dreams - they've already shown their abilities to surmount challenges and demonstrated the can-do attitudes that lead to success and happiness.

On days when I feel discouraged and frustrated, and I catch sight of Yang's card on my desk, my thoughts drift back to him and his classmates.

And I remember the lesson they've taught me - to keep moving and never give up.

(China Daily 11/11/2008 page20)