Pass & Return

An Interview w/ Prof. Jing Wang
by Jonathan Treylux

"My philosophy can be translated into a Chinese proverb: Ignite yourself to bring light to the others."

- Jing Wang

Hargrave Arcade's return event on Sept. 21 will be benefiting Pass Love Charity Foundation (PLCF), building quality libraries in rural areas of China to increase literacy among impoverished children!

Inspired by this year's International Peace Day theme: Education for Peace, I thought of Ms. Jing Wang, an MIT professor I met a few years ago via an online charity effort. She introduced me to her philanthro-scene, including PLCF, as well as a network of grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China.

Jing was gear to let me interview her and to further articulate why PLCF is our Cause of the Month for September.

Please tell us about yourself.

Jing: I wear many hats – an MIT professor specializing in new media research; the founder and organizer of a social media literacy project “NGO2.0”; the director of the Institute for Civic Communication in a Chinese university, the Chair of the Advisory Board for Creative Commons China mainland, etc.

I grew up in Taiwan, came to the States as a graduate student, and have lived here for forty years. You can say I am a veteran academic and a fully committed researcher. But starting in 2009, a new passion changed my course. Because of my involvement with Creative Commons China, I developed a strong interest in using social media to address the problem of the digital divide in China. Soon after, I launched NGO2.0 in China. By working with teams of volunteers in China (among them techies, designers, university teachers and students), we train grassroots NGOs in the underdeveloped regions of China, teaching them how to use social media to collaborate with each other, to brand themselves to the outside world, and to manage their projects efficiently. What we will do next is to transform those NGOs from the classroom learners of new media technology to actors who will use technology to make social impact. I love this project, the volunteers, and the NGOs we are working with.

Academia is a very insulated world, a self-sufficient industry in itself. In the first part of my career, like all young professors, I focused my time on research and publication. And research in my field means developing a competency in social and cultural studies theories. It can be a suffocating practice when theorists began theorizing for theory’s sake. That’s what happened in lots of academic disciplines. For me, theory and its relevance to social reality is not the main issue. The main issue is whether a theorist can practice what she preached. So activist work like NGO2.0 brought me out of a cocoon, reconnected me to the underprivileged and to a community of idealists whose work made the world a better place to live. Strange to say, my involvement in activism helped me regain my passion in teaching. I particularly like teaching undergraduates.

My philosophy can be translated into a Chinese proverb: Ignite yourself to bring light to the others.

How did you get involved with Pass Love Charity Foundation and why are you such a strong supporter?

Jing: Pass Love Charity Foundation caught my attention because its founders and I are like-minded activists. They set up the Dandelion Village Library Program with the goal of helping impoverished children in rural China receiving fair education, and to encourage these children to pass love forward and help improve the lives of others in their communities. Since the start of the Dandelion Library project in 2008, they have built 51 libraries in rural schools and have made long-lasting positive impact on the lives of tens of thousands of children. I first heard of PLCF in 2009 because during that year they won a $25,000 award in the Chase Bank Facebook Charitable Giving Contest.

They made a video documenting the core team traveling to a remote area in Yunnan province to build a new library from scratch. I watched the video many times and each time I was deeply moved by the undaunted spirit of the volunteers and the humble desire of deprived children for books.

I became a strong supporter of PLCF after I got acquainted with its founders and learned more about how the Dandelion Project was run. That was 2010, I turned to them to set up a fund under its name with the goal of raising money on Facebook for an NGO in Guangxi Province. During the brief period of two months, I witnessed the compassion, perfectionism, and professionalism PLCF’s Founder Ms. Keming Du brought to her work (she was the female volunteer featured in the video).

I was impressed by how meticulous and systematic they are in identifying and selecting each library site and picking a collection of 3,000+ high-quality, engaging, and educative books for primaries grades. They get input of reading experts and early childhood educators, screen each candidate school with scrutiny through an application process, on-site visits, and interviews. They also establish sibling libraries with close proximity to each other to form neighborhood Dandelion ecosystems. They have an online platform (www.en.PassLove.org) that showcases student work, shares best practices, and tracks library usage.

It was obvious that when they started this Library Program, the founders intended to build a sustainable and scalable model. They were very successful at that. This is another reason why I am supportive of their endeavor. They do not simply build and leave. Each library is typically operated with three teachers from the local school serving as librarians, along with student volunteers. In summer and winter breaks, they recruit and train college students as reading ambassadors. Ongoing teacher training focuses on reading strategies and best practices in reading instruction. It’s a seamlessly integrated whole package that turned Dandelion Library into a brand name in the Chinese NGO sector.

For those donors who stress transparency, Dandelion publishes regular reports that include qualitative and quantitative analyses, library usage statistics, students’ activities associated with the library, and the assessment of the impact of book reading on the students’ daily lives.

Before

After

What can we do personally to encourage positive relationships globally, especially between China and America?

Jing: I would say building connections from the bottom up, like what you and your friends are doing: Helping a Chinese NGO raise funds on a US social platform and making an appeal to a mixed crowds of Americans, Chinese, and Asian American Facebook users. I think it’s cool, it’s innovative. Our destinies and our futures are intertwined – that’s the message.

What is your favorite video game?

Jing: I don’t play video games regularly. I was once a Second Life navigator. The one that I spent some time on is a Chinese game that serves as a social commentary on the struggle of Chinese stubborn nail home owners (homes belonging to people (sometimes called "stubborn nails") against developers and collusive governmental officials.(game no longer available here)

Thank you so much, Jing, for your time and efforts helping the underprivileged. I hope our return event can contribute to your flow.