Shanghai Shixi High School

Brief Introduction

Shanghai Shixi High School was one of the first experimental model high schools certified by the Shanghai Municipality authorities. Founded in 1870, the school changed its name to "Shixi High School" in 1946. In 1953 it was nominated as one of the first key schools in Shanghai.

The incumbent principal of Shanghai Shixi High School, Mr.Dong Junwu(Chinese:董君武), graduated from East China Normal University with a master degree in Mathematics. The school has a teaching team of 5 professional special grade teachers and 78 Middle special grade teachers. Its research groups, including Chinese, Mathematics, English and Physics, have enjoyed high reputation in Jing'an District. It is also honored as the "Municipal Experimental School on Biology and Life Science Courses".

As a partly boarding school, Shanghai Shixi High School enrolls outstanding junior school students and some students of music or sports talent for their further growth and development. Meanwhile, Shixi Middle School actively participates in some international academic research programs such as "Project Healthy Youth" organized by UNESCO. It has also established relationships with schools in Germany, UK, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, etc.

Partner schools include Dartford Grammar School (England) and St. Peters College (Australia).

In February 2005, eight Chinese students and two staff from the school visited England for 11 days and spent the majority of their time at St. Mary's Catholic High School, Menston. Since 2009 they have also partaken in exchange programs with St Peters College.

In recent years significant achievements by the students from Shanghai Shixi High School have been witnessed in the national university entrance examination. Students have won more than 100 medals in various kinds of municipal, national and international competitions. Prestigious graduates of Shanghai Shixi High School were admitted to world famous universities; namely, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Cambridge University, Rice University, Cornell University, Washington University in St. Louis, Rice University, University of Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, NYU, University of Melbourne and Waseda University.

1870-1946

The origin of Shanghai Shixi High School can be traced back to the "Eurasia School"(Chinese:欧亚侨童学校）founded by Mrs.Catherine V. R. Bonney in 1870, an coeducational secondary school serving the orphans of both European and Asian lineage who had lost their fathers at young age. The founding of Eurasia School is to answer the call of the want of schools for mix-raced children in Shanghai in a news report in 1869. The initial premises of Eurasia School was located on Miller Street(Chinese:密勒路),now Er'mei Road(Chinese:峨眉路). As the charities of Mrs. Bonney were appreciated by locals and foreigners, the school successfully gained support from Sir Thomas Hanbury(1832-1907),an English merchant and philanthropist. Under the generous subsidy from Sir Hanbury,the school expanded its campus and renewed its facilities. In 1882,Sir Hanbury suggested that the school operated by Shanghai Municipal Council, but was rejected by the Council due to unknown reason; nevertheless, the Council granted certain amount of allowance to maintain the operation of the school. It was in 1890, eight years later, that the Council officially took over the school, whose name, by then, was "Hanbury Elementary School"(Chinese:汉璧礼蒙养学堂）, the new school name since the amalgamation of Eurasia School with a newly-built nursery in 1889 during the tenure of Mrs.Lanning, the school principal. One year later, "Hanbury Elementary School" moved to No.15 Bone Road(Chinese:蓬路), now Tang'gu Road(Chinese:塘沽路), with a larger and more diversified matriculation.

It was in 1911 that the Municipal Council decided to expand its territory westward, which later contributed to the paving of Yuyuan Road(Chinese:愚园路), where the present campus is located on. The following year witnessed the transfer of the Hanbury Elementary School to the supervision of the Municipal Council, which, being the sole sponsor of the school thus claiming all responsibilities, formally enroll the faculties as its employees.In 1914, "Hanbury Elementary School" was no longer co-educational after it was divided into separate schools for boys and girls. Hanbury Public School for Boys, as its name indicated, served male students only and was removed from Bone Road, where the former campus was, to No.63 Haskell Road(Chinese:赫司克尔路) in 1917. The School for Girls, in contrast, remained until 1935 when it amalgamated with Shanghai Public School for Girls on Bone Road and moved to Hainan Road. Later, in 1943, it moved again to the main campus of Shanghai Public Schools for Girls(Chinses:西童公学女校) on Yuyuan Road. The new institution, upon its establishment, was named as "The Public & Hanbury School for Girls"(Chinese:公立暨汉璧礼西童女校).

The origin of Shanghai Public Schools(Chinese:西童公学) derived from The Shanghai Public School(Chinese:上海公学), founded in 1886 by Free Masons, which changed its Chinese name to "西童公学", literally meaning "the school for westerners". Shanghai Public School was separated into schools for both genders in 1914, with the School for Boys(Chinese:西童公学男校) on No.28 Bone Road and latter No.200 North Sichuan Road(Chinese:四川北路), and its girl division on Yuyuan Road. It was noteworthy that the School for Girls(Chinese:西童公学女校) opened another two branch campus, respectively on Bone Road since 1924 and Gongping Road(Chinese:公平路)since 1926 that later moved to No.17 Yulin Road. The former branch was incorporated into Hanbury School for Girls in 1935, as was mentioned ditto.

In July, 1923, The Public School for Girls started to build its main campus on what is now the cite of Shixi High School, and its primary address was 18B Yuyuan Road. The address was altered to No.70 Yuyuan Road the following year, which by now is No.404 Yuyuan Road. The Public School for Girls merged with Hanbury School for Girls in 1935, and then moved to No.10 Hainan Road(Chinese:海南路). Following the outbreak of the Pacific War, in 1942, Japanese army took over Shanghai International Settlement. It was then that every foreign school north of Suzhou River was forced to into West Shanghai, and, that "The Public & Hanbury School for Boys"(Chinese:公立暨汉璧礼西童男校) was relocated to No.10 Tifong Road(Chinese:地丰路) , now Urumqi Road(Chinese:乌鲁木齐路), where by then was the cite of the "Public School for Boys in West City"(Chinese:西区西童公学), founded in 1924 as the junior division of the Public School for Boys.

In 1943, the Japanese army confiscated the campus of both schools on Yuyan Road, using it as the concentration camp for westerners. During the time of Japanese occupation, the Public School for Boys was split into primary and secondary sections, and moved respectively to No.851 Yuyuan Road and No.178 Jufu Road(Chinese:巨福路). Likewise, the School for Girls was forced to share the campus of the primary section. The concentration camps was dismissed in 1945 as the WWII went to the end; therefore, both schools were able to move back to their former campus. In 1946, the Nationalist Government ordered to merge both schools and the name "Shixi High School"(Chinese:市西中学) was officially granted as Mr.Zhao Chuanjia(Chinese:赵传家), M.Ed. of Colorado State University, assumed the position of the school principal.

1946-present

Following its establishment in 1946, Shixi High School was initially designed as an English public school. It was in 1949, when Shanghai was taken over by PLA and People's Government of Shanghai transformed the school system into what is now applied. In 1953, Shanghai Shixi High School was appointed by People's Government as one of the first key high schools in Shanghai, which is now renamed experimental model high school. Shanghai Shixi High School was awarded the honor of "Advanced Unit of Education" in 1980. In 1991 and 1998, respectively, the school came to be the experiment base of dual education reforms of Shanghai. Shixi High School continues to voyage in the arena of education reform in 21st Century.Noteworthily, in the year of 2012, the school finished the expansion and refurbishment of its campus, enhancing the infrastructure and unveiling the "Thinking Plaza"(Chinese:思维广场), which is a cutting-edge platform of education renovation. In 2011,Shixi High School celebrated its 65th anniversary of naming. The first two school scholarships,"Doctrina"(Chinese:好学奖)and "Labore"(Chinese:力行奖) were initialized. Former US President, Jimmy Carter, held a talk to students during his visit to the campus.The Alumni Committee was founded in 2015 when it held its first convocation.Education Development Fund of Shixi High School was set up in July, 2015. On 6 October 2016, Shixi High School will celebrate its 70th anniversary of naming.

School Emblem

The School Emblem, known as the School Coat of Arms, of Shanghai Shixi High School is a rectangular shield Gules, with two monograms "S" Argent tangled to form an "X", which represents the acronyms of the school. The highly stylized initials, in the meantime, symbolize flame, sapling and sea gull, which respectively stand for the zeal and devotion of faculty, the educational idea of the school as well as high purposes and dauntlessness of Shixi students. The school Emblem is a token used so widely that all school uniforms, documents and souvenirs shall have it born on them.

Alma Mater

The Alma Mater of Shanghai Shixi High School, commonly dubbed the "Alma Mater", was composed in 1946 by Wang Lifang. The original tune was by an American composer, E.L. Ashford. The lyrics were written by the faculty and student body in 1940s and one sentence in the lyrics was altered in 1980s to remove its touch of the colonial background of the school. The Alma Mater is tempo di marcia and is of religious genre. This march is typically performed right after the National Anthem of China.

School Color

Though crimson was once upon a time the representative color for Shixi, currently Shixi Navy is much more widely acknowledged as the school color. The shade of color is unique thus it is only applied in limited area. Where Shixi Navy is most commonly seen is perhaps on the uniforms of male student before Class of 2017. It is noteworthy that since Class of 2018, with the renovation of Shixi uniforms, the color is also on girls' garments. One of the unoffcial Wechat public pages of Shixi also bears the name of Shixi Navy, and particularly serves the sports faculty of the school.

Campus

The campus of Shixi High School, located at the heart of Shanghai, is encompassed in the rich tapestry of the historical downtown area of Shanghai where villas and row houses of '20s and '30s scatter. The buildings on the campus are, with their neoclassical facades dating back to 1920s, incorporated into such a complex. Shixi High School covers an area of 0.04 km^2(appr.10 acres), which entitles itself to be one of the largest campuses in downtown. The western part of what is now Shixi High School used to be the old campus of Shanghai First Normal College(now Shanghai Normal University), and currently accommodates Shixi Middle School, an adjunct yet independent junior school to the high school.

Chuanjia Hall

Chuanjia Hall(Chinese:传家楼), built in 1934, is amongst those buildings first completed before the renaming of school. The four-storey block is coated in crimson, a rather common choice of color for school buildings then. Originally the main building of Public School for Boys in West City, the building was confiscated by the Japanese during WWII as the concentration camp to detain foreigners in Shanghai. It was also the very first building bequeathed to Shixi High School in 1946. The grand-renovation of 2012 restored the Art-Decointerior, the primitive style of the building in 1930s.

Chuanjia Hall is named in honor of the late principal, Mr.Zhao Chuanjia(1897-1993). It is customarily called the Front Hall due to its location on campus. The building now accommodates classrooms for Grade 10, Plaza of Thinking as well as several labs.

Doctrina et Labore（"Haoxue Lixing"）Building

The eight-storey-tall building complex, Doctrina et Labore Building (Chinese:好学力行楼), was not completed until the late 20th century, which was originally painted in crimson to synchronize the style of Chuanjia Hall. However, the edifice turned to have a grey cobblestone covering shortly after its restoration in 2012.

The complex comprises two parts: Doctrina (Chinese:好学楼) and Labore (Chinese:力行楼). The former accommodates classrooms for Grade 11 and 12 and executive branches of school and the latter, oppositely, holds the Main Hall, science labs and computer room. A garden was added to the tower roof after completion. The building was colloquially called Back Hall on campus, a correspondence to Chuanjia Hall.

Arts & Humanities Complex

Constructed in 2012, Arts & Humanities Complex(Chinese:人文艺术楼) is now the newest structure on the campus of Shixi. The complex has a facade shade that is similar to Doctrina et Labore Building since they were refurbished almost simultaneously.

The A & H Complex is now the supporting centre for Arts Faculty, where is typically the hosting place for performances and exhibitions, as well as rehearsals for school chorus. The music hall inside the complex also serves the meetings for alumni Association and student union cessions.

Other Facilities

Shixi High School comprises several auxiliary facilities which are common to high schools, including an underground café, a sports centre (basketball field ang gymnasium) and a swimming pool.Unlike students, faculties dine at a public canteen next to Chuanjia Hall.

The International Division is located in the north of the campus, where stands a complex of buildings serving solely the Division.

Though Shixi High School is virtually not a boarding school, still, a small number of students live on campus, accommodated by a dormitory outside the main campus.

School Publications

Shanghai Shixi High School issues its newspaper, Flying Shixi(Chinese:"飞翔市西") periodically, a journal that is edited and printed by Newspaper Club and occasionally opens a column to public contribution. What the reports and editorials focus are substantially the ongoing events taking place within a month to its publication, and those who contribute to the paper usually write on various campus or personally issues and remarks. The newspaper is supervised by the Committee Secretary of the school.

Along with the newspaper, the Literature Club also publicize a magazine named Frost（Chinese:"携霜"）,but was suspended due to unknown reason after its debut issue.

Principals

Founded in 1946, Shanghai Shixi High School has hitherto gone through six terms of administration. Mr. Zhao Chuanjia, the first principal of the school, also served as the Chancellor of the school from 1984-1993, a honour title that has long been vacant since then.

Famous Alumni

Many celebrities,mostly indigenous to Shanghai, graduate from Shanghai Shixi High School and have thus promoted the legacy of the school. Among those people there are experts in a myriad of fields, administrators of government, a sports radio anchor, presidents of higher education institute and renowned journalists. Mr.Yu Lizhong,from class of '68, is now the president of Shanghai New York University, and formerly the president of East China Normal University. Mr.Cao Jingxing,'66, was once the chief editor of Ming Pao, a Hong Kong based newspaper, and presently hosts a programme at Phoenix Television. Mr.Chen Deming, '57,was the Minister of Commerce from 2007 to 2013 who now assumes the position of the President of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits,ARATS.