Reaching Out on Radio in China
In his seven years in Jilin City, China, Father Brian Barrons has reached thousands of students through English classes he teaches and many more thousands through a weekly radio program. His work can spread even further, with your help.
When Liu Xue Fei read a book written by a Maryknoll priest teaching English in China, she invited him for an interview on the radio program she hosts. The encounter evolved into what is now a popular weekly morning radio show in northeast China's Jilin City. The program, named after a Confucian saying—"Is it not a delight to have a friend come from afar!"—teams Xue Fei and Father Brian Barrons discussing a wide range of issues.
Barrons, a native of Lansing, Mich., who spent 14 years as a missioner in Tanzania in eastern Africa before going to China in 1999, speaks fluent Mandarin and goes on the program under his Chinese name, Wang Peng. Most of the topics come from current events or are suggested by listeners or Barrons’ students at Jilin's Beihua University.
"We have talked about education, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, sports or Western ways compared to Chinese life and culture," says the 48-year-old trim, athletic missioner. "I talk about my experience and what I have learned in both Africa and the United States, and Xue Fei explains the conditions as she sees them here in China."
Xue Fei says, "It is interesting for our listeners to know that many of the challenges we face here also confront the people of America and Africa." She adds that Barrons' personality contributes to the popularity of the program. "His sense of humor is special," she says, "and his love and concern for the people of Jilin City, and especially for his students, come across clearly."
Barrons, whose biggest fear in coming to China at the age of 42 was learning Chinese, finds the radio program both challenging and rewarding. He tells of entering a taxi and giving directions to the driver, who was surprised to hear the foreigner speaking Chinese. As he drove, the cabby turned off the car radio to converse with his passenger. When Barrons was leaving the taxi, the driver said, "You speak Chinese almost as well as Wang Peng!"
In addition to cab drivers, the priest gets a lot of unsolicited reviews from neighbors and students. "For the most part the comments are not about my language ability, but rather about the show's topic," Barrons says. "I like that because it means the topics have meaning for them."
Barrons teaches at Beihua University, which has 24,000 students on four city campuses, and also tutors young students who aspire to pass a demanding English test in order to enter the university. He teaches four courses—English literature, American literature, English short stories and Western culture and politics—two each semester in 20 class hours weekly to a total of 400 students.
After teaching for four years and realizing that most classical English stories used in class were far removed from his students' everyday life, Barrons wrote "I Love Jilin City," an English language textbook. Now in its sixth printing, the book has difficult words and phrases underlined and explained in Chinese.
Education is not a new venture for the missioner. During his tenure as pastor of Mugumu parish on the edge of Tanzania's famous Serengeti National Park, Barrons built and directed the district’s first technical secondary school. The 200 teenage boys and girls specialized in carpentry, masonry, tailoring and secretarial skills—talents that would make them more readily employable after graduation.
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