On a chilly winter Friday in early 2013, seven-year-old Zou Yanhu came home from school, looking dejected. Yanhu was a first-grader attending a public primary school in Chengdu, Sichuan’s sprawling capital city. His weekend homework was to write eight textbook essays from memory and complete two exam papers. As he listed the assignments to his mother, An Lan, tears began pouring down his cheeks.
That moment became a catalyst for An, who was already distressed about her only child’s workload at school. “He was so skinny,” she says. “There was so much pressure on him in China.” So the following summer, An sent Yanhu to a camp organized by Nakornpayap International School (NIS), in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, and in 2014, she enrolled him in second grade at the school.
That moment became a catalyst for An, who was already distressed about her only child’s workload at school. “He was so skinny,” she says. “There was so much pressure on him in China.” So the following summer, An sent Yanhu to a camp organized by Nakornpayap International School (NIS), in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, and in 2014, she enrolled him in second grade at the school.
