By Summer Tan | Executive Director
In the classroom of Gaji Middle School, dozens of familiar faces looked up as the eleven of us volunteers walked in—and their eyes lit up at once.
“You really came back!”
A year ago, they were in seventh grade.
That was the first time Shining Star held a drama therapy camp here.
A year later, they’re in eighth grade. And we’re back.
Act One: The Same Class, a Second Encounter
Most of these children are left behind by their parents. Their mothers and fathers work far away, and they see them only a few times a year. So many feelings go unspoken. So many thoughts unheard.
Last year, when they’d just started middle school, we introduced them to drama for the first time. Back then, many couldn’t even read their lines out loud. They kept their heads down during rehearsals, afraid of being seen.
This year, we’ve brought a new drama therapy camp. The themes run deeper—moving from simple emotional expression toward self-identity and exploring the future. The content is richer—with more guided reflections on family, friendship, love, and what lies ahead. The plays have changed too: four new scripts—Lines of Friendship, New Year ‘s Eve Dinner, Love Simulation Exam, and My Future, My Way—each one closer to the adolescence they’re living through. The challenge is much greater than last year.
But this time, no one backs away.
Act Two: They No Longer Ask “Can I?”—They Say “I Will.”
Last year, when the volunteers asked, “Who wants to try this role?” the classroom went as quiet as an exam.
This year, the scripts were barely handed out before hands went up. “I want to play the one waiting for their parents to come home.” “Let me try the kid who wants to be a manga artist.” They’ve started looking for themselves in the lines.
During the read-through of New Year’s Eve Dinner, the boys fell silent at the father’s rebuke to Xiao Zhi (a young teenage boy): “Why have your grades dropped? Your mother and I work ourselves to the bone out there to provide for you—how can you not try harder?”
The volunteer teacher asked around afterward. Turns out, every one of them had lived that scene. “I feel like the father doesn’t understand Xiao Zhi,” one said. Just like their own parents don’t always understand them.
Act Three: The Scripts Have Grown, and So Have They
Last year’s plays were more about “acting out an emotion.” This year’s are about “acting out their own struggles.”
In Love Simulation Exam, the girls talk about what healthy love really looks like—rejecting manipulation, rejecting anything that holds them back from growing.
In My Future, My Way, the boys argue: “Is studying actually useful?” What should they really do with their lives? These are conversations they didn’t dare to have last year.
In New Year’s Eve Dinner, the boys step into the roles of stern fathers and anxious mothers, speaking aloud the hidden thoughts of parents from the parents’ own perspective.
This year, they shouted those lines onstage. Rehearsing Lines of Friendship, one girl kept shrinking from a particular line: “Maybe friendship has many faces. I miss you, my friend!” She tried again and again, each time quieter. Finally, the volunteer director didn’t ask her to repeat it. She asked: “Do you believe those words?” The girl bit her lip. Thought for a long time. Then lifted her head. “Yes. I do.” This time, everyone in the room heard her.
Curtain Call: Small as the Light Is, It Can Brighten a Night Path
At graduation, each child received a small night-light. The volunteer said: “It’s not very bright. But it’s enough to see the ground in front of you. Wherever you go from here, remember how you looked standing on that stage tonight.”
On a reflection sticky note, one girl wrote: “I didn’t know I could bring a character to life like that, and speak so loudly onstage.”
Another boy wrote: “I didn’t know I could do better than last time.”
And one more note, just five characters long: “I’ll be here next year too.”
The drama camp is over. But the things that were lit on that stage won’t go out. Next year, if they are still here, we will come back.
For no other reason than to tell these children: Your life is not a script written by someone else’s mouth. You write it yourself.
By Summer Tan | Executive Director
By Summer Tan & Steven Sun | Executive Director & Shining Star Intern
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