Prom in China

The jobs, duties and expectations of a Peace Corps Volunteer extend far beyond teaching English in the classroom. Along with our daily routine, we are encouraged to share aspects of western culture with our Chinese students. During the course of this year, my sitemates and I have hosted celebrations for Halloween and Christmas. Along with teaching our students the ideas and traditions of western holidays, we have organized educational activities for World AIDS Day, International Women's Day and Global Earth Day.

For our final event of the term, we wanted to throw our students a typical American prom. After spending many years of decorating for dances at both Atwater High and Winton Middle School, planning a prom for our students just seemed right. After talking about details with my sitemates, we decided to go with the Titanic theme "My Heart Will Go On." I am not a fan of the movie, however, the students (both boys and girls) in China are obsessed with this film. I have many female students named "Rose" after the movie's main character.

After all was said and done, over 200 students from the Foreign Language Department arrived to their very first prom complete with decorations, traditional American party music (The Electric Slide, YMCA, The Chicken Dance, Macarena, and The Train), and the crowning of king and queen. This event couldn't have come at a better time for the students. After a very long and depressing week (Monday's earthquake), they needed a few hours to take their mind off of China's recent tragic events.

After the prom had ended, the sweaty students headed back to their dorms with smiles adorning their faces. Jacqueline, one of my top students, was heading out the door, but quickly turned and walked back to where I was standing. I found out Thursday that her aunt had been killed by the quake and most of Mianyang, her hometown, had been destroyed. She said to me, "Mr. Worden, thank you for this event. Tonight is just what I needed." It was then that I realized why I was living in Fuling, China.