The inspiration for a new career direction popped up when Cheng Jie, who gave live-streaming classes to kindergarten children, was chatting with their parents one day in June 2020.
After teaching the children to read in an online class, she asked parents for feedback on her classes. "I'm an adult and I've learned many Chinese characters in your class and I really appreciate it," one message read.
This message was echoed by some other adult learners Cheng hadn't known were watching her classes. Some of them had been following the class for quite some time. Their silence partly came from their inability to type words, and also from their shyness about taking a kindergarten class.
"It was a surprising find as I never expected adults in the class," Cheng told Beijing Review. "I hadn't paid much attention to adults who can't read before, but my lessons for kindergarten kids happened to meet their demand."
The late birds
The people in this shadow are not a small group. Figures from the latest population census of China, whose results were revealed in 2021, showed that illiterate people account for 2.67 percent of the population, or over 30 million people.
Who are they? Cheng revealed adults in her class are aged from 30s to 60s, but the majority are in their 50s. "We might think illiterate people might all be very old," she said. "That is not really true. My class also has people in their 30s."
China began its efforts to popularize nine-year compulsory education nationwide in 1986. After approximately three decades of arduous work, the Ministry of Education announced in 2015 that China had achieved universal compulsory education.
"It means before 2015, there were still some people who had not received or completed their compulsory education," Cheng said. "It was more common among children, especially girls, from poor areas." A survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2019 showed that 75 percent of all illiterate people in China are women.
A 52-year-old student in Cheng's class, who wouldn't give her name, said she never went to school and had worked on the farm from a very young age. "Then I got married and had children," she said. "Now I have difficulties buying things in supermarkets as I can't read the price tags."
Cheng has been designing new classes for these adults ever since that meeting. In 2019, after teaching in kindergartens and elementary schools in Beijing for 10 years, she moved back to her hometown in Dezhou, Shandong Province, and became a self-employed teacher offering online classes.
She learned how to make videos from scratch and make money from selling online classes. "We can't simply use lessons for kids on these adults as they have many differences in learning," Cheng said. "Many adults have strong local dialects that are very difficult to correct. They need to study the pronunciation of standard Chinese first and then move on to learning characters. It requires a lot more effort."
To help some students adjust the position of their tongue and lips for pronunciation, Cheng always needs to connect with them via one-on-one video calls.
In spite of all the difficulties, many of the adult students have achieved remarkable progress. A 32-year-old woman, after eight months of study with Cheng, even passed her driving test, which involved a 100-question exam.
"There are few students from my class that have a driving license," Cheng said. "They are late to learn but they have much stronger motivation to learn, that is, there is a great power to push them forward."
Easier access
Students in their 50s make up the majority in Cheng's class. They are from many backgrounds and still working. Some are chefs, some are construction workers and some run their own businesses.
Their inability to read has made life in modern society more difficult as the world is dominated by smartphones. "These people are more prone to be introverts as they don't want other people to know they can't read, so they choose to be silent."
Cheng has recorded over 300 lessons with each one 15 minutes long, teaching characters and simple math. She also gives live-streaming classes every evening, with more than 200 students joining the class each time.
A bonus of the class is that it has given these adults a platform to make friends and share their experiences. Many share the discrimination and other troubles they've encountered because of being illiterate.
A rural woman in her 40s said she never left her village by herself as she couldn't read the names of bus or railway stations. Some housewives complained their learning did not receive much support from other family members, who either believed the women's only duty is to take care of the family or believed it impossible for women to make any progress at an older age.
Some have given up in the process. Those who made improvements shared their exciting experiences with this new "skill" to encourage each other to keep going.
A 52-year-old woman surnamed Ding is mother to a college student. "My daughter helped me set up a WeChat account but I couldn't read all the information she shared on her Moments," Ding said, referring to the function of WeChat similar to a Facebook wall.
After learning some characters and how to type with the smart phone, she was finally able to send a text message to her daughter last year. Since then, she has started talking with her daughter via text message every day and says these are "the happiest moments" in her life.
There are over 500 students who have made great progress and became very good friends with Cheng over WeChat. One obvious change in these students is that they are more willing to share their life on social media platforms.
On China's major live-streaming platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin, there are now hundreds of accounts specifically teaching adults how to read. Some leading accounts have over 100,000 followers.
"I believe there are more illiterate people in their 70s and 80s, but it is a big challenge for them to use smartphones, not to mention finding our online classes. It's a pity," Cheng said. "Many of my students said learning how to read has opened up a new world for them. Their thirst for knowledge is very impressive and reading has become their favorite thing to do."
Some of Cheng's students have gone on to read Chinese ancient classics like The Analects of Confucius and write poems.
"Some of the poems' lines are so touching, totally beyond the imagination," Cheng said. "In my eyes, they are pearls buried in earth," Cheng said.
(Print Edition Title: Not a Word)
