Ashuomujia Leads Students in Dancing the Shuffle Dance. Photo by Hongxing News (Except for special labels, all pictures in this article are by Xu Hui, a journalist from The Paper. Photo)
Ashuomujia has been serving as the principal of Hongmo Central Primary School (abbreviated as “Hongmo Primary School”) in Xide County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan for over three months. In his new school, he continues to promote his unique educational approach, which includes “shuffle dance” (also known as ghost step dance), Yi ethnic group classics, Chinese classics, and popular music and dance.
In 2020, Ashuomujia, who was then the principal of Zeyue Central Primary School in Xide County, gained online fame and attracted widespread attention for leading over 400 primary school students in dancing the ghost step dance. Four years later, at 49 years old, Ashuomujia has been transferred to serve as the principal of Hongmo Primary School, embarking on a new journey.
The internet-famous principal Ashuomujia has been transferred to serve as the principal of Hongmo Primary School.
On November 9, Ashuomujia told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) that Hongmo Primary School is larger than the previous Zeyue Central Primary School, with more students and good physical fitness. Therefore, he not only plans to continue promoting his previous unique educational approach here but also aims to tap into students’ potential in football and basketball, forming school teams.
Ashuomujia advocates for “combining sports with education, harmony in diversity, and joyful learning.”
Born in a remote township in Xide County, Ashuomujia couldn’t leave school due to his love for basketball when many of his peers dropped out midway. He persevered and was eventually admitted to Liangshan Ethnic Normal School. He said that nowadays, many children here have parents who work outside, leading to a lack of supervision and a tendency to be lazy. He aims to have more things that children like in school to attract them to persist and learn more knowledge and culture.
From ghost step dance to football, the internet-famous principal embarks on a new journey.
Ashuomujia’s top priority is to quickly transform a 5-a-side football training field with a roof within Hongmo Primary School.
Ashuomujia wants to rebuild a 5-a-side football field with a roof here but is still worried about funding.
“I want to build a steel roof over the field so that children can play there regardless of hot weather, rain, or snow, just like in urban gymnasiums,” he told The Paper. He is trying various ways to raise funds and hasn’t found a solution yet, but he won’t give up.
“Children in Liangshan are not only hardworking but also can sing as soon as they can speak and dance as soon as they can walk. They have good physical fitness,” Ashuomujia proudly said. The larger number of students in Hongmo Primary School means that more talented “seedlings” can be discovered.
Ashuomujia has successful experience in improving teaching through sports and other unique projects.
Ashuomujia with students.
As previously reported by The Paper, in September 2018, Ashuomujia became the principal of Zeyue Central Primary School, which is not far from the county town. At that time, there were only over 100 students, and together with the kindergarten children, there were only about 200 people. When he first arrived at the school, the school’s academic atmosphere and teaching were quite average. During large recess activities, students were quite lazy when doing radio calisthenics. Therefore, Ashuomujia wanted to create a unique large recess that keeps up with the times.
At that time, Ashuomujia thought that the shuffle dance was lively and had a large amount of movement. If the movements were standardized, dancing for four or five minutes was equivalent to running a thousand meters. Therefore, in October 2018, he self-studied shuffle dance online and then started to promote it in the school during after-school hours. It took about a semester for all the children to learn it.
The whole school dancing the shuffle dance completely changed the spiritual outlook of the school. Ashuomujia continued to explore and led the children to play basketball, winning several championships. Additionally, he expanded some course activities related to ethnic culture, such as reciting Chinese classics, Yi classics, “Three Character Classic”, and Yi medical scriptures, allowing Yi children to understand and inherit their ethnic culture.
Children are curious about the AI smart learning machine provided by the teacher.
After two years of Ashuomujia’s efforts, the school’s teaching quality “increased several times,” and many parents who had sent their children to study in the city transferred them back. When Ashuomujia gained fame in 2020, the number of students at Zeyue Central Primary School increased from the initial 100 to over 400.
Four years later, Ashuomujia was transferred to Hongmo Primary School, where he hopes to continue bringing changes to the school.
Ashuomujia leads students in dancing the shuffle dance. Photo by Hongxing News.
Only by loving school can children walk out of the mountains.
When school started in September this year, Ashuomujia brought 15 footballs to Hongmo Primary School. He placed the footballs on the playground for the children to play with freely. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t play; they could just move around and even use them as basketballs if they wanted.
When Ashuomujia arrived at the new school, he brought 15 footballs and placed them on the playground, quickly attracting the children’s attention.
“Hongmo Primary School now has over 600 students, and I believe there will be more students in the future,” Ashuomujia said. He not only aims to cultivate and select more sports “seedlings” but also plans to nurture and cultivate children’s talents in music and art. However, there are still difficulties in implementing this plan.
Many children can’t play football, but they like it.
The first challenge is the lack of instructors. Ashuomujia told The Paper that there are over 30 teachers in the school, but there are no full-time teachers for sports, music, and art. After he arrived, he hired a retired soldier as a physical education and training teacher. He can personally lead basketball and dance activities. The vice principal, Jialong, who can play the guitar, serves as the music instructor, teaching the children to sing through the broadcast every day. The school has a piano, but unfortunately, no one can play it yet. What is most lacking is an art instructor, and currently, there is no teacher who can even serve as a part-time instructor.
Without a full-time music teacher, Vice Principal Jialong also serves as the school’s music instructor.
However, Ashuomujia is not worried. He said that he will first start with the projects that have the conditions and can be implemented. He personally leads the shuffle dance every night, teaching boarding students and day students who live nearby first. During daytime recess, these students return to their classes to dance, leading the whole class. At noon, the vice principal teaches the children to sing while holding a guitar through the broadcast, while Ashuomujia leads the recitation of the “Three Character Classic” and Yi classics.
In the evening, Ashuomujia teaches the children to dance the shuffle dance on the playground.
However, Ashuomujia is now more focused on basketball and football projects. He believes that these sports not only exercise the body and make students love school but also help discover and cultivate good sports talents. “These children have too much energy, good endurance, and strong explosive power,” he said.
Ashuomujia was born in a remote village in Xide County in the 1970s. He said that when he was young, his academic performance was average, and many of his peers dropped out midway. He was able to persist because he could play basketball in school. Even when he dropped out of school for a semester during junior high, he ultimately chose to return to school to continue his studies. At that time, there was only one basketball in the whole school. When the upper grade students played, the lower grade students could only watch from the side and didn’t dare to grab it. Later, he wrapped pieces of cloth into a ball and used it as a basketball. After being admitted to the normal school, the first thing he did was to give a basketball to the primary school in his village and asked his father to let him use a piece of land at home to build a basketball court for the children to exercise.
Ashuomujia later became a math teacher, and the first gift he gave to his students was still a basketball. Now as a principal, he considers things more comprehensively. Starting from Zeyue Central Primary School, he was the first to promote campus football throughout the county.
Ashuomujia believes that compared to basketball, which has higher popularity and easier-to-achieve venue requirements, establishing a football field and forming a team in the Daliangshan area, combined with these children’s natural physical advantages, can quickly yield results.
Taking up a new position in a new school, Ashuomujia now faces more children and hopes to make a greater impact.