The interview was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and originally published on 8 April, 2025 in Simplified Chinese characters. This translation was made using AI and then minimally edited for clarity and readability by Jesse Coffino. The original Chinese text can be found here.

Anji Play on the road of reform | Anji Play: An educational reform leading to a sustainable future (Part 1) - Interview with Cheng Xueqin, founder of Anji Play

Interviewed experts | Cheng Xueqin, Education Bureau of Anji County, Zhejiang Province

Text | Staff reporter Cheng Jie

In June, September and November of 2024, a reporting team from this magazine conducted three in-depth investigations into the Anji County region, and then interviewed Ms. Cheng Xueqin, founder of the Anji Play Approach, a dialogue that focused on the conditions and process that led to the development of Anji Play,  its underlying view of children, how to implement this new view of children, and how to continue to deepen the reform of regional early childhood education.

Reporter: As the founder of Anji Play, you have made an indelible contribution to Anji County early childhood education. I'm curious, how did you conceive of play as the starting point for early childhood educational reform in Anji County?

Cheng Xueqin: In the early days of reform, I visited almost all the kindergartens in Anji and took many photos during my investigations. Almost no children had life in their eyes: the children sat among the desks and chairs that had been discarded from primary schools; they attended classes in classrooms that were almost the same as those in primary school; even when they were outside basking in the sun, they practiced their writing with pens and were engaged in constant academic study. There was an absence of play in our kindergartens at that time. If you look at the eyes of the children in these photos, they appear trance-like, or dull, or helpless and worried. And then later, when we provided play for our children, we found that it had no positive effect. Even though we were giving them so-called "opportunities," the children's expressions were still full of awkwardness and helplessness. I have videos where children, when asked whether they like their physical education, and going to class, and studying academic subjects, and they defiantly answer “no.” A 3-year-old child who had only been in kindergarten for half a year called it “fake learning.” How could that not break your heart?

Reporter: As you describe it, in the early stages of reform, the objective conditions of Anji kindergartens were not ideal.

Cheng Xueqin: Yes, Anji is located in a mountainous area of ​​northwest Zhejiang Province. In the 1980s, the level of economic development of the interior regions of Zhejiang Province was not high, it was considered an underdeveloped area. At that time, the state of early childhood education in the county was quite concerning. Although “one kindergarten per village” has been realized, management was not strong. The three-year kindergarten enrollment rate in rural areas was less than 40%, and funding was seriously deficient. The government's early childhood education funding only accounted for 0.89% of the county's total education budget. The operating conditions of the kindergartens were poor and the facilities were outdated. The vast majority of kindergartens were directly connected to primary schools, and academic pushdown was prevalent. There was a lack of educational methods and play materials suitable for young children, which violated the principles of early childhood education. There were also many challenges with our teaching workforce: low levels of academic attainment, low rate of teacher certification, low career satisfaction, and the early childhood educator’s social status and compensation were far inferior to those of primary and secondary school teachers. At that time, the average annual income of our kindergarten teachers was less than 4,000 Yuan, and a significant proportion had a junior high school education or below.

Reporter: Ms. Cheng, with such unfavorable conditions, why did you still lead the teachers to push for reform?

Cheng Xueqin: Faced with what I had learned through my investigations, we reflected: as adults, what is it that we have done to make children lose their spirits? Why is there no light in the eyes of our children? What can we do to make our children truly happy? And if our children were to find themselves going to class and learning in modern, luxurious classrooms, would that bring the light back to their eyes?
I started thinking about my childhood. I was born in a rural area and did not go to kindergarten when I was a child. However, I have all kinds of wonderful memories of childhood play. I am very grateful to my parents for giving me a free childhood. At that time, many rural mothers gave birth to as few as six or seven children and as many as ten children, and together with neighbors it was often one big family with many potential play partners. Before I was 10 years old, my family had two children: me and my older brother. I didn’t have a younger brother until I was 11 years old. My parents were very hands-off with us, what in today’s terms would be described as “unconditional love.”
My earliest memory is that my mother would make crispy rice candy to attract children from the neighborhood to play with me, a group of friends playing hide and seek from my house to theirs, constantly changing places while hiding. Sometimes we hid in the haystacks, and sometimes we hid behind the door of a neighbor's house, under the bed, or in an empty tank under the eaves. There were no adults to disturb us, and that kind of challenge and excitement was fun.
There was a riverbank not far behind my house. A group of us children often played with stones on the riverbank, climbing willow trees to catch cicadas, digging ditches to divert river water, and playing in various ways. I remember we built walls with stones and covered them with willow branches as roofs. After working hard for a long time, we finally succeeded. We excitedly squeezed in. That kind of satisfaction and joy makes me happy just thinking about it now.
When we played, we liked to prank each other and do exciting and difficult things. Our favorite playground was a cement platform for sun-drying grain that belonged to the production team. What I still remember vividly is that a group of us children caught loaches in a ditch, strung them on willow branches, raised them in our hands, and ran around the platform. We also ran along the edge of the cement platform because it was very narrow and not smooth, which posed challenges to our balance and made running very exciting. The more I ran, the more energetic I became, but I accidentally stepped on my foot and fell down. The rough edges of the cement floor were like knives. I didn't feel any pain at first, but later I discovered that two large pieces of flesh were protruding from my big toe and calf. I quickly pressed the protruding flesh back. I didn't dare say anything when I got home, so I quietly found a piece of cloth to bind it, and continued playing the next day. I still have a big scar on my shin.
Every year it made me so happy to travel with my grandfather to stay with my aunt for a while. My uncle had six brothers, and they all built their houses together. There were more than a dozen children about my age. The dozen children played together, running and playing all over the village, and they could play whatever they wanted. I remember we played “bride.” We divided labor and worked together. Some used sweet potato stems, breaking them into small pieces to make earrings and necklaces. Some carried sticks and pretended to carry the dowry. Some used stones as firecrackers, throwing them as they walked and shouted, “the bride is here, bang bang.” Looking back now, our group of friends was like a troupe of actors, and we were very involved in each role. Every time it was time for dinner, my aunt would come and call us home. I remember my aunt jokingly said to me, “If you play wildly like this as a little girl, what are you going to do if no one wants you when you grow up?”
In my childhood, in addition to this limitless play with my friends, I also often found myself lost in play by myself. For example, when I saw my mother using curlytop knotweed to make yeast for sweet fermented rice, I was very curious and eager to try doing it myself. I picked sesame flowers that my mother had planted, pounded them with stones, mixed them with mud, and made them into little balls. I dug a hole in the ground, spread grass inside the hole, placed the balls on the grass, and then covered the hole. After a few days, I could actually smell the fermentation, and I felt a sense of accomplishment, and my mother didn't even scold me.
I spent half a day luring ants out of their holes in the bamboo forest behind the house. I used various methods to lure ants out of their holes, using small bugs, earthworms, etc. as bait; I observed how the ants went back to call for reinforcements to carry food; I also observed different members of the ant team, including large black ants, ants with long wings, etc.; I observed the ants talking with their antennae, and followed the long line of ants to find their home. That feeling of excitement and success occupies the entire brain.
I would often look for small holes in the dirt walls of the pigsty at home, because wild bees lived in them, which were mostly black. I would squat by the wall and observe how the wild bees came in and out. I used thin bamboo branches to dig out the wild bees in the holes, and then packed them into matchboxes, just like finding treasure. Sometimes, I would look for a funnel-shaped whirlpool in the sand in the corner, and found a bug at the bottom of the whirlpool that had formed the whirlpool shape by crawling backwards. We called it "bone thief" and teased it in various ways, and finally caught it, which was fun.
When I thought about it later, I realized almost all of my fond memories of childhood were related to play, but what about for other people? So, I started to conduct interviews with colleagues, peers, and even government leaders, asking them to recall play from their childhoods that had left a deep impression. Many people talked about their play, and all of their stories were very interesting. A friend of mine talked about "stealing" watermelons when he was a child, and he explained the technique very clearly. My colleague Section Chief Jiang recalled that when he was a child, he climbed a tree and fell. He felt that his neck had "retracted" from the fall, and his friends helped him "pull it out" and continue playing. My husband said that when he was a child, his family was poor and he would often cut firewood and pull weeds after school. But what children really work? They would use their farm tools like hoes and hatchets to do various “bone-breaking” (meaning all kinds of naughty and mischievous) things to have fun on their own. He once said proudly: "Now that I think about it, we were really good at it. For example, when we were cutting firewood, we often played in the pond in the saddle of the mountain. Each of us would throw a hatchet into the pond with a bang, then jump in, and fumble in the turbid water to retrieve the blade without cutting ourselves. At the time, it felt like exciting and difficult play. One of the thrills was that it was an important tool in the house. If we couldn’t find it, we would be beaten when we got home. "
My husband also recalled that when he was a child, his parents would almost always ask him to work when he got home from school. The job that the boys were most happy to do was to get together with seven or eight friends and pull a two-wheeled cart to go pull weeds, because it was a raucous moment when they could unleash their playful natures. They ran to the road three or four miles away from home, connected their carts together, and rushed down the hill like a train, using the momentum to rush up the opposing hillside. Sitting on the "locomotive" and controlling the direction was the most challenging. When they couldn’t control the direction, they would jump off the car and experience the excitement of their risk-taking. Time would seem to pass quickly, and so before their work was supposed to be done, they would hurriedly pull out some weeds. In order to make the fruits of their labor appear bigger, they learned to shake the weeds again and again before putting it in their carts and taking it home, so that their parents would not be dissatisfied and keep them from going out next time. Their play was really addictive. When he spoke, his eyes shone with a sense of accomplishment.

Reporter: Ms. Cheng, your childhood is so enviable to those born in the 80s, 90s and 00s. Was it just the memory of childhood play that made you and the teachers insist on reform and strive to "return the right of play to children"?

Cheng Xueqin: It wasn’t only driven by memory, but as our research followed this path, we had more of a basis for our reflections on the present and discovered more. We found that adults do not respect children at all, that they do not trust children, and have long forgotten the best experiences of their own childhoods. They are always distant and self-righteous, forcing children to do things arranged by adults in a step-by-step manner, expecting them to passively accept the adult’s ideas. We deprive children of their right to play at what gives them joy. Children are forced to adapt to adults, and so their eyes have lost their luster.
We also found that our memories of play shared some common characteristics, and that thinking about these characteristics might reveal the answers we were looking for.
Outdoors——Most of the fondly remembered play took place outdoors in natural and wild environments.
Sufficient time——The more time there is, the richer the forms of play, the more innovations, and the more complex problems they can solve.
Adventure——It’s fun to have a little adventure and challenge. Why do children like to take the wrong path? It’s because the trails are challenging and exciting. People are born with an adventurous spirit, and evolutionary psychology also tells us that as soon as a child is born, they have the instinct to take risks in play. As soon as early humans were born, they were surrounded by danger. They not only had to detect and identify danger quickly, but also respond to danger correctly—whether through self-protection, seeking help from others, or escaping to avoid danger. Therefore, risk-taking, this survival instinct, is deeply ingrained in our genes. Norwegian Professor Ellen Sandseter also believes that children naturally need to engage in risk and feel excitement. Children are initially frightened by the stimulation of unconventional adventures, but they later learn new skills to overcome their fears.
Simplicity——The materials used for play were not designed according to adult ideas of play. As long as children feel a need, anything can be used in their play. Of course, materials that were simple, movable, and can be manipulated at will were the most popular.
Free and undisturbed——This is the most important thing. The most unforgettable childhood play took place without adults present. The reason why children can boldly experiment or take risks, stay curious, and constantly discover and solve problems is because they know clearly that they don’t have to worry about adult interruptions. When there is psychological safety, children don't need adults telling them what to do. When there are no instructions from adults, children will realize, "I can make decisions" and "I can solve it." Children can decide what to play, how to play, and who to play with. Active learning happens when they feel free to express and implement their ideas in play.
Engagement and joy——When children are deeply involved in complex, spontaneous problem solving and peer interactions, and are completely immersed in play with peers of their own choice, this meaningful investment brings children deep happiness, that is, the joy of success. This is one of the quintessential features of those unforgettable memories of childhood play. Dr. Hu Hailan of Zhejiang University and his scientific research team conducted research on the "winner effect" and concluded that small success contributes to big success, that is, "success is the mother of success." After in-depth research, Dr. Hu Hailan's team discovered the biological mechanism of this phenomenon: a certain neural pathway in the cerebral cortex plays an important role in the "winner effect." After a victory, the degree of synaptic connectivity in this neural circuit is significantly strengthened, affecting subsequent performance. Successful experiences can change the body's internal mechanisms to create a state more conducive to repeated success. Children with internal motivation will continue to feel the joy of progress and a sense of accomplishment. This way you won't rely on external motivation or be obsessed with getting happiness from comparing yourself to others. Being able to always feel a sense of accomplishment brought by success is the key to greater success. Professor Ian Robertson, an Irish clinical psychologist and neuroscientist, once said: "The winner effect is widely applicable to all species, including humans. As long as you can win, even if the opponent is weak at the moment, the victory itself can make it easier for you to win against a strong opponent in the future." In short, people with rich play experiences in childhood will be particularly independent and confident when they grow up. Even if they encounter difficulties and encounter other people's incomprehension, they can resolutely insist on doing what they think is right.
It is precisely because of our deep reflection on childhood memories and our understanding of the latest brain science and psychological research that we were able to understand from the bottom of our hearts the profound significance of "giving children the right of play".

Reporter: We are so shocked by your findings. I have also reflected on my own memories. Speaking as  part of the generation born in the 1980s, I can say our childhood was not fun.

Cheng Xueqin: Haha, I found an interesting phenomenon. People born before the 1970s have unforgettable and rich play memories. On the contrary, young people born in the 80s, 90s, and even 00s have very few childhood play memories. Especially those born in cities and towns after the 1980s and 1990s remember almost no exciting play in their childhood.
Today, society has changed. Residential buildings are everywhere, and even farmers have moved into the buildings. Children are trapped in high-rise buildings, surrounded by reinforced concrete, playing with electronic products all day long. Children should return to nature. This is the way of heaven. But today’s children no longer like to be in contact with nature. When traveling, they ask the tour guide if they can stay in their hotel and watch TV, and play games on mobile phones. From primary school students to junior high school students, they are reluctant to go out. The less they are exposed to nature, the less they want to go.
Now consider our schools, all covered with plastic tracks. It's like putting a tiger into a cage. Without a suitable environment, the tiger will turn into a large "cat" and lose its nature. The same goes for people. When they are locked up in these man-made environments, their nature has been wiped out. Children are born to love to play, but now they feel like learning machines. How can we do this to our children? The current situation is really worrying.

Reporter: It is precisely because you have re-established a basic concept of play and changed the traditional view of play that you and the teachers of Anji County are insistent on returning the right of play to children.

Cheng Xueqin: It’s not so much a basic belief in play as it is a basic belief in children that needs to be established first. The view of children is very important. I do a lot of interviews, and when I ask: Do you believe in children? Some respondents will answer that they believe in them. When I ask again: Do you believe that children will take the initiative to learn? Do you believe that children are active, capable learners? Do you believe that every child is an active, capable learner? Do you believe it all the time? Fewer and fewer people answer that they believe, and in the end almost no one really believes it.
When I ask "What makes you doubt?" I find that behind this disbelief are various adult anxieties. Some fear that children have no sense of safety, and that if you believe in children, then they will get hurt; some fear that children only know how to "play silly", and that if you believe in children, then they won’t learn anything; some fear that children playing their own way will cause uneven development in the five major areas; some fear that if children have fun, they will become chaotic and out of control; some fear that if children engage in repetitive “low-level” play, there will be no higher development; some fear that naughty children will only play in chaotic ways and will not form a sense of rules; some fear that children with poor abilities are incapable of play and will simply be idle and wander around; some fear that if children have too much time for play, they will not be able to sit still when they get into elementary school. Most fascinating to me was a well-known expert in developmental psychology who was actually full of fear of children playing with movable ladders. He pointed at the child who was playing with the double ladder and said to me: "This is absolutely impossible. The four legs of the ladder must be bolted down, otherwise the child will go crazy, push the ladder and hurt his companions!" Just imagine, driven by so many fears, what adults do to their children.
Professor Liu Xiaodong of East China Normal University once said something that I always share: "A new view of children will lead to a new view of education, a new view of education will lead to a new education for children, and a new education for children will cultivate new children. New children will grow into new people, and new people will build a new nation, a new country, and a new society." Therefore, our view of children is so important. If we regard children as passive and incompetent recipients, we will dominate children's learning, and we will not cultivate creative children. If we regard children as creative and proactive learners, and use this view of children to guide our view of education, we will let go, with children exploring in the front and teachers observing and accompanying them in the back. Then I believe that we will be cultivating creative talent.

Reporter: Believing that children are active learners is the new view of children mentioned in the “Assessment Guide.” But how does it put a new view of children into practice?

Cheng Xueqin: Indeed, the view of children formed by our continuous reflection on practice is consistent with the spirit of the “Assessment Guidelines.” If one’s view of the child is off the mark, how can it be corrected? Just like seeing a doctor, first comes diagnosing the cause, and then writing the prescription.
At that time, I searched for the "cause" through in-depth research. We looked for that truth in every aspect of the life of the child in our kindergartens. At that time, I discovered the truth of the play in our schools was that the teacher had the final say on "what to play, how to play, and with whom to play." The truth in the classroom was that "the teacher decides the questions and the children answer them." That “what did your little eyes see? What did your little eyes hear? What did your little minds think? What do your little mouths want to say?” was all decided by the teacher.
An example will help you see this truth more clearly. I remember that in order to find out the true nature of the various interconnected activities of a day in kindergarten, I chose seven kindergartens of different rankings in Anji County and visited to observe and record all aspects of the day's activities. I found that there were 17 to 21 distinct activity periods in one day. The children were constantly called here and there by the teacher. The teacher used bells, songs, and play to control the children and prevent them from acting out. What surprised me even more was the uniformity of action across the whole school. Take morning exercise for example, as soon as the morning exercise bell rings, whether the child is in the middle of a lesson or using the toilet, the teacher in each class immediately leads them to the playground. One day, I was conducting research in a large class, and I was thinking about the connection between the group learning activities of this large class and how these children would transition to primary school. Unexpectedly, just ten minutes after the class had started, the announcement for morning exercises was made, the teacher rang a small bell and then directed the children to line up to go outside for their exercise. When life in school is highly fragmented, every aspect comes under the control of the teacher, children are expected to act in unison and there ends up being a lot of passive waiting. Teachers are constantly raising their voices to keep the children in line and implement discipline, to the point that a sore throat has become a common occupational hazard, and the anxiety of controlling children leads teachers to physical and mental exhaustion! It turns out that in kindergarten, a child's mind, eyes, mouth, hands, and even the space and time at their disposal were all controlled. The children we saw every day were "fake children" controlled by adults. It turns out that we had made a low-level logical mistake. Our children were controlled and had no chance to show their true selves. Where do teachers get the chance to accurately understand children? Without understanding children accurately, how can teachers develop children in an appropriate way? The premise for teachers to accurately understand each child is that children must have the opportunity to show their true selves.
Therefore, the first necessary condition for the implementation of a new view of children is to liberate children and see children, that is, that children have the opportunity to fully demonstrate their maximum potential, and teachers have the possibility to see the children's abilities. As the saying goes, we can only heal what we see. Is this not also the case when it comes to correcting our view of children? Therefore, we proposed letting go to the greatest degree possible and intervening in the smallest degree possible to liberate children.
After liberating children and removing control over children, we focused on seeing children. And then we used what we actually saw children do to break through the fears in our hearts that kept us from believing in children.
After letting go, we saw that the children clearly knew what to do and what not to do during play, that they had a strong sense of safety. Even babies as young as a few months old know how to protect themselves, so we believed that our children had the ability to protect themselves. When we saw children’s unconstrained play, involving a large number of opportunities to solve complex problems, with deep and complex learning spanning various domains, we believed that children have the ability to actively learn. In “disorderd, chaotic” play we saw that what is thrown into “chaos” is the adult's sense of order, and that behind this "chaos" is a child’s clearly visible play logic, and so we believed that children are born masters of play. When we saw subtle changes in each repetition of a child’s “low level” play,  we saw that children identify their own zone of proximal development, and develop in small steps, and so we believed that children are capable of adjusting the difficulty of their play on their own. Once we understood that children develop their own rules for play in the act of playing, we came to believe that children are capable of setting rules. We found that there are stories behind children’s idle, wandering behavior that we had not taken the time to discover in the past. And we found that children are more likely to settle and find calm once they have had a full opportunity to play…
With the continuous accumulation of "seeing", our new view of children gradually passed through four stages and was successfully implemented. In the first stage, we didn’t know that we lacked a correct view of children. In the second stage, we realized that we could not maintain our current view of children. This stage was challenging because it is difficult to learn without making mistakes. In the third stage, we established an accurate view of children, but it had not yet been integrated into the subconscious, cannot be sustained, and had not formed into a habit. We still needed to concentrate on reinforcing the view through practice. In the fourth stage, an accurate view of children became belief and habit, and entered the subconscious mind. At this stage, this new view of children will be naturally and easily manifested in daily work. Just like an experienced driver stepping on the brakes, they no longer need to think, the foot movements just come naturally.
When the view of the child becomes a belief, the teacher's behavior will become natural and accurate. Transforming beliefs into unconscious behaviors is true educational practice. Our change in our view of children has allowed us to change the traditional model of teaching, a change away from being busy all day long designing top-down knowledge points and activity themes so that children can learn passively, from the teacher's assumptions leading in the front and the children following behind, it gradually changed to the children's active learning leading in the front and the teacher closely following behind. During this process, we were pleasantly surprised to find that teachers’ professional happiness, professional creativity, and ability to interact with, respond to, and support children all showed remarkable improvement. Now, whenever I take a photo in our kindergartens, I see children with light in their eyes, love in their hearts, and fully aglow. It makes the photos come alive.
Facing an unknown future and that requires unknown abilities, every child inherently has unlimited talent and is an active learner. Adults should not seek to create their abilities, but instead create the conditions under which children's true abilities can be discovered. In fact, this corresponds with concepts like “the way follows nature” and “the way is simplicity" advocated by Chinese Daoist sages. In the past, we had acted against the laws of human growth, causing children to lose their vitality; now, we understand that we must respect the laws of nature and the nature of children, and are committed to continuing this path of exploration and understanding.

Reporter: Therefore, updating deeply held concepts such as the concept of the child, the concept of play, and the concept of education has changed the underlying logic of our understanding of early educational practice. And then these changes in early childhood care and education practice further reinforced new views of the child, play, and education, forming a continuous cycle of self-reinforcement. I really have to hand it to Anji!
We all know that the convergence of knowledge and action is the most difficult thing to achieve. You have led the teachers of Anji County in seeking out a path that has changed their view of the child, play, and education that is authentically theirs. Was this road to reform smooth sailing? What twists and turns did you experience along the way?

Cheng Xueqin:  In 2001, “Outline Guidance for Kindergarten Education (Trial)” (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline") was published by the Ministry of Education. Anji was selected as a pilot county by Huzhou Municipality to implement the Outline. We used local resources to develop a series of low-cost, high-quality educational play materials. At the time, we believed that we had found a new direction. In an effort to change our teachers’ outmoded dismissal of the importance of play, beginning in 2002, we held annual homemade toy competitions with the theme of “bamboo.” In 2006, the Ministry of Education hosted the “National Homemade Educational Play Materials Competition,” and Anji County kindergartens won first, second and third prize. Our highly ornamental, well-constructed materials were highly favored by many.
In 2003, Anji County was awarded the title of “National Advanced County for Early Childhood Education.” In 2005, based on our “implementation of the Outline using local resources to create low-cost, high-quality preschool education,” we shared our experience at the "National Meeting for Exchanging Experiences Implementing the Outline” organized by the Ministry of Education and received high praise. We were proud of these honors, but we knew deep down inside that these honors should be taken as encouragement to spur to us, as a reminder that we who had been recognized must stay on top of our work.
Looking back at the design of those play materials, although some were clever and reflected diverse educational goals, it was almost entirely led by adults and did not take into account children's autonomy and creativity. Moreover, too many competitions caused frontline teachers to work overtime designing toys. Back then in Anji, our kindergartens were often brightly lit at night, with teachers and families laboring side by side to help make educational toys. But not long after these carefully designed and produced toys were introduced, the children quickly lost interest in playing with them. As a result, we saw that formalism was making our teachers tired and utilitarianism was allowing us to deceive ourselves. We made teachers work overtime and do a lot of things for the sake of appearances, but it was exhausting for them. Behind all of those honors, we knew that something wasn’t right. Had such a praiseworthy, positive relationship between children’s development, teacher growth, and parent satisfaction truly been realized? Had our “de-primary schooling” reforms really been effective? “Eliminating formalism” is painful. In the inner transformation of breaking with the past and establishing something new, amidst confusion, contradiction, and struggle, we had to have strong resolve so that we could break the old diseases of formalism and utilitarianism in early childhood education. We were trying to reestablish a professional orientation for early childhood education, starting with letting go of play, and regaining a respect for and an understanding of children.
However, in the early stages of letting go, we faced various forms of doubt and rejection. For example, what are you supposed to do if you step back and something happens to the child? How should teachers manage outdoor activities? What materials should be provided to children? If the play space becomes a mess, what should be done about it? How should I respond to parents objecting or spreading rumors? Not only that, the official in charge of safety in our educational bureau expressed their strong concerns to me, “I’ve got my eyes on you, do you understand?”
At the same time, the play reforms we implemented also conflicted with standard models of training and competition. And there were also doubts in the academic world, where there was a belief that teachers lose their dignity by letting their children go without “teaching” in a traditional or even in a play-based way. Parents had an even harder time understanding it. They saw their children playing all day long in school, their clothes and shoes getting dirty, and they were extremely dissatisfied when they saw other children starting to learn multiplication and division, while their own children were "learning nothing." But precisely because I had been observing children in play, I had been listening to and understanding children, and I truly saw every child, we did not waver, we always adhered to our beliefs, we stood firm on the green hills, and continued to verify the value and significance of play for children in practice.

Reporter: Facing the future, do you think the view of children, play and education behind Anji Play are still appropriate?

Cheng Xueqin: The future is here, and the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. The arduous task facing education now is to transform the educational model to meet the needs of the times. On January 14, 2020, the World Economic Forum released a white paper "Schools of the Future: Defining a New Education Model for the Fourth Industrial Revolution." With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, there is a need for a matching educational model.
The white paper also mentioned that in the current educational systems of many countries, direct teaching and memory-based passive learning models that were suitable for the first and second industrial revolutions are still dominant, and do not promote critical thinking and active learning. In the era of the first and second industrial revolutions, in the passive learning model based on direct teaching and memory, teachers brought knowledge to students, and students gained knowledge. In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, in a model that promotes critical thinking and active learning, teachers accompany students towards knowledge. What students gain is more the ability to acquire knowledge, rather than just the outcome of knowledge itself.
In today's era, if we still adhere to the old view of children, regarding children as passive recipients, and adopt a passive learning model based on direct teaching and memory that is suitable for the first and second industrial revolutions, then the children we train will inevitably lack creativity. As Feng Enhong, a well-known Chinese principal, said: "Classrooms all over China have one characteristic: questions come from the teacher's presuppositions. China's education trains people who are not good at original inventions and discoveries. This is because Chinese classrooms only focus on teachers' preset questions and students answering those questions. Students lack the ability to discover valuable questions. It cannot be unrelated! The lack of value in today's classroom is the lack of citizen quality in 20 years."
During our reform, I and the teachers of Anji County continuously asked: are we still using the curriculum of the past to prepare today's children for tomorrow's society? Are we using educational methods that promote critical thinking and take active learning as the leading factors to prepare today's children to adapt to the fourth industrial revolution? If not, then we must stay on top of our work.
The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation requires us and our next generation, and generations of Chinese people to work together to achieve it. As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, we must insist on serving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as an important mission of education. So why not preschool education?
The Chinese nation must stand tall among the nations of the world and contribute Chinese wisdom to the world. Our preschool education, the foundation of basic education, bears the brunt. We must have an education model that adapts to this new era to prepare our future children. The future is here, and the key is not to prevent children from losing at the starting line, but to ensure that children do not run in the wrong direction, otherwise they will only work harder and deviate from the goal. This is crucial.