Agnes Tang, who is a Chinese-American teacher in the MA TESOL program at Wenzhou-Kean University – located in Wenzhou city, in East China's Zhejiang province – has devoted herself to teaching in remote and poor areas in China for nine years.

A group photo of Agnes Tang (left), with students from Tiantang Primary School in Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous region, Southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo/wku.edu.cn]

Tang was born in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and moved to the United States when she was young. Although she lived in the US for more than 30 years, she has always been deeply rooted in China and concerned about its education. Last August, she came to Wenzhou-Kean University to become a teacher.

The university's Mengya Association is a public interest society. The association has carried out five years of summer teaching activities in Southwest China's Guizhou province. In the middle of July this year, 15 members of the association went to Tiantang Primary School, in the province's Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous region, to carry out summer teaching activities.

Three days before the opening of the camp, Tang heard about the project and applied without hesitation, bringing her three graduate students with her. 

"I found that the children in the mountains were just as clever as those in the city. They have a sharper sense of the world around them and with the right education their possibilities are endless," said Tang, who took on the responsibility of English teaching and led the children in the mountains to play various English games.

In fact, this is the ninth year that Tang has been a volunteer teacher in China. During her stay in the US, she met a professor from Soochow University in Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province and they exchanged ideas about education. At that time, the idea of supporting teaching in Suzhou clicked. In 2013, she served as a teacher at a school for migrant workers' children in Mudu, an ancient town in Suzhou.