Pupils learn to cook at the Little Chef training center in Xishan Primary School in Shunde District of Foshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)
NANJING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Rotating a 2-kg wok over a burning flame while swinging a ladle to the beat of pop music, 10-year-old Sun Jiarui makes her way around the kitchen like a veteran chef.
Sun, a fourth-grader at a primary school in the city of Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province, can cook more than 50 types of delicacies, which is no easy feat even for an adult.
Short videos of the young cooking star have gone viral, as netizens marvel at her jaw-dropping cooking skills. She has garnered more than 830,000 followers and 9 million likes on her TikTok-like Douyin account, with her video clips boasting up to 40 million views.
"My daughter just grew up in the kitchen," said Sun Yadong, who is also the owner and chef of a farm restaurant in Wuxi. "She started helping out with chores when she was around four or five, and when she was eight, she asked me to teach her to cook after school."
"It's not bad for her to master some hands-on life skills, so she can better take care of herself when she grows up," Sun Yadong added. He shot a few videos of his daughter's learning process and posted them online, but did not expect them to become smash hits.
"It was out of curiosity at first, but gradually, I fell in love with cooking," said Sun Jiarui. "It gives me a strong sense of accomplishment."
She has also become a teacher of her school's cooking class. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has recently issued a document saying that education on practical labor skills will be incorporated into the curriculum of China's primary and secondary schools from this year's fall semester, aiming to encourage students to participate in daily life labor.
"We have set up a cooking studio at school and Sun Jiarui is one of the instructors," said Li Hua, principal of the school, noting that Sun would teach her classmates to make simple dishes like eggs over easy and stir-fried potato slices.
"It's a great thing for the students to experience the joy of cooking and the fruits of their labor," said Li. "This will ultimately help cultivate their passion for life."
"I hope that the life skill course can offer us more hands-on opportunities, so that we can master more basic life skills and share the burden of our parents," said Sun Jiarui.
Apart from essential skills such as cooking and housekeeping, the MOE program is also designed to enrich their knowledge and skillset in production work and services.
"Through learning and experience, students will develop a respect for labor, the ability to innovate and apply what they learnt in real life, and a sense of social responsibility," the MOE said.
Many netizens also hailed the life skill program and expressed their support for the fresh move.
"This is what schooling is supposed to be like," read a comment by a netizen. ■