December 13, 2017 marked the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre and the fourth National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims. That day, humanities and social sciences teachers at Kaiwen Academy (Haidian) organized secondary school students in holding a commemorative activity with the theme of “Peace, Love and Hope” at the morning meeting of the school.

School leaders and all secondary school teachers and students attended the commemorative meeting. Artistic performance, documentary films, poetry reading, blessing cards.... Kaiwen teachers and students commemorated massacre victims and prayed for peace in their own way. With tears in their eyes, the students observed a minute’s silence at the quiet venue. Executive Principal Ms. Zhou Zhaoyu, Academic Principal Mr. Wang Shi, and student representatives presented white bouquets at the event to convey their grief.

“This is part of our humanities and social sciences course. We hope that through this activity, our students will remember this period of history, remember those who died for the country, and try harder to revitalize the Chinese nation,” said the humanities and social sciences teacher Liu Xiangchen. “Observing the National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims is not to continue the hatred, but to pray for peace.”

On the day of the event, the students sent postcards they designed to every teacher and student for them to write down their prayers for peace and express their gratitude for happiness. The hundreds of postcards were then pasted on the site into the shapes of P (peace), H (hope), and KWA Loves Nanjing, representing Kaiwen students’ memories of this historical period and their good wishes for the future.

Kaiwen Academy (Haidian) uses the best parts of both Chinese and Western educational philosophies for its humanities and social sciences course. The school attaches great importance to cultivating global citizens with patriotic feelings and international perspectives. With personalized, exploratory, student-centered teaching methods, we conduct interdisciplinary knowledge creation and exploration together with our students.