On 30 April, the Same Class for Teachers and Students of Shanghai Theater Academy (STA) was held via STA’s official website and STA’s online teaching platform on Chaoxing. Xie Wei, Party Secretary of STA, delivered an enlarged cloud-based class entitled Achieve Butterfly Transformation under the Major Test of Epidemic Outbreak and Shine in the Anti-epidemic Struggle to all teachers and students of STA.
At the beginning of the class, Party Secretary Xie Wei disclosed that as early as 19 January this year, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission issued a notice on the screening of COVID-19 infection cases, and STA became highly alerted immediately after receiving this notice. With any delay, STA tracked the whereabouts of teachers and students and finding out the situation of students staying in the dormitory, checked the hidden risks of dormitory safety, investigated the risk points of the campus in combination with the key work of winter vacation such as student recruitment and so on and worked out the solutions, arranged the prevention and control materials such as masks and thermometers, and set up the anti-epidemic leading group and establish a thorough organizational network system. In response to the epidemic, all members of STA, from the Party committee of the school to the basic-level Party organizations, from the functional departments to the secondary colleges and departments, from the management team to ordinary staff, from counselors, head teachers to logistics support personnel, almost gave up the whole winter vacation, and worked hard tirelessly with the wish that “it is the happiest thing for STA if all teachers and students are safe”. It is gratifying that up to now, all teachers and students of the school are safe and healthy, which is the best news for STA.
The performance of the STAers in the test of epidemic outbreak can be summed up as follows:
Give full play to the community spirit, help each other, and take on responsibilities with the greatest love; give full play to the profession and major-related expertise, participate in the fight against the epidemic wholeheartedly and with art as the tool; give full play to the innovative spirit, and break through difficulties by way of reform and exploration.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, teachers and students of STA have made voluntary donations for many times, donated masks and other materials for hospitals, and actively worked at the front line of epidemic prevention and control as volunteers, thus writing down STAers’ feelings of family and country with practical actions. Listening to the voice of the land and joining the classroom of the society, STAers have always used art to firmly establish presence in this battle without smoke of gunpowder, and used words, voice and painting to pay homage to the brave men and women at the battlefront of epidemic prevention and gather together the strong power of solidarity to fight the epidemic. Up to now, the teachers and students of STA have created more than 260 works of different kinds. With practical actions, they have carried out artistic creation on the land of China and during the work of epidemic prevention and control, and have fulfilled the original aspiration of the literary and artistic workers. For art courses which reply on “oral teaching that inspires true understanding within” as the main teaching mode, it is very difficult to move from offline to online. In the first week of online classes, 1308 classes were delivered, with 463 teachers and 19537 students. Such large-scale online teaching has tested not only the use of teaching technology, but also the fundamental change of teaching methods and teaching concepts.
This epidemic outbreak is a major public health emergency that has occurred in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China with the fastest spreading speed, the widest range of infections and the greatest difficulty in prevention and control. How to find the certainty in the uncertainty and how to stick to an independent and rational thinking in the complex field of public opinion is particularly important.
Party Secretary Xie Wei put forward three points of view:
We should learn the lessons from the disharmonious relationship between human and nature exposed by the epidemic outbreak; draw nutrition from the scientific spirit demonstrated in the test of epidemic outbreak; draw strength from the advantages of our system shown in the major test of epidemic outbreak.
China's speed, efficiency and sense of responsibility in this major test of epidemic outbreak have impressed the world and won the support and high recognition of the vast majority of countries in the world. This test of the epidemic outbreak has reconfirmed the advantage of China’s system which is able to concentrate resources on issues of priority, reconfirmed the “hardcore” leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and its strong ability to organize, mobilize and coordinate, and reconfirmed the great solidarity of the Chinese people who are united like a fortress and are all of one mind. It has demonstrated that it is a significant advantage of our system to be able to concentrate resources on issues of priority, and has demonstrated the fundamental standpoint of our system is to centre on the people.
In a word, this test of epidemic outbreak has given each of us a chance to reflect rationally. We should stand in awe of nature after reflecting on the relationship between human being and nature, advocate science after reflecting on the contest between truth and rumor, and continuously strive for building a more perfect socialist system with Chinese characteristics after seeing the great advantages shown by China’s governance.
Party Secretary Xie Wei expressed his hope to all the teachers and students of STA:
It is hoped that the students will let their dreams of youth fly in the lively practice of realizing the Chinese dream; that the teachers will cast the soul of education in adhering to establishing values and cultivating people and, at the same time, make timely review and refinement of the successful experience of online teaching on this occasion; that all teachers and students of STA will turn the great power accumulated in the major text of epidemic outbreak into a strong driving force for STA’s development in the next stage.
2020 is an extraordinary year. This year we need to focus on epidemic prevention and control on one hand and business development on the other. This year is the concluding year of the 13th Five Year Plan and the planning year of the 14th Five Year Plan. It is also the year when external evaluation and inspection co-exists with internal fit-out governance. Whether the established tasks for this year can be successfully completed is crucial to the development of the school in the next five years and even longer. All teachers and students must care about and support the fifth round of discipline evaluation and major-specific degree assessment of the Ministry of Education as well as the university classification evaluation of Shanghai, care about planning and compilation of the 14th Five Year Plan of the school, and pay attention to the daily basic work.
Rainbow comes after storm. After the major test of epidemic outbreak, we will embrace a revived and more stable China. It is also beyond any doubt that through the efforts of STAers of our generation we will also embrace a more splendid and more glorious STA.
