Editor’s Note: The Underground Workshop is an open platform for student journalists across Vermont. Profiles in Resilience is an invitational series, seeking submissions through 2021. For more information please contact the workshop’s editor, Ben Heintz, at ben@vtdigger.org.
by Kaitlynn Cherry, Burr and Burton Academy
On March 23, 2020, Qiaochuhan Li sat in her room reading an email. Burr and Burton Academy had announced that its international students would be sent home due to the pandemic.
This was her third year studying in America. Over the course of her high school career, she had developed a strong bond with her band teacher, Neil Freebern. She Zoomed with Freebern after she digested the email. For a couple of hours he comforted her and they talked through the situation.
A few days later, China’s Civil Aviation Regulator announced that China would be cutting flights down to one per week to limit the possible spread of the virus. On April 6, the Chinese Embassy announced that they would be prioritizing primary and secondary school students to register and get plane tickets. With the limited number of flights to China, the price for a ticket increased substantially. Pre-pandemic, a direct flight to Shanghai normally costs $1,000-1,200 at most. Last spring, the same ticket cost $10,000.
Qiaochuhan booked flights but they were repeatedly cancelled. In the confusion, these so-called “ghost flights” still sold tickets even though they were most likely not going to be flying out. Even knowing this, Qiaochuhan continued to book tickets, but none of the flights ran.
It was clear she wouldn’t be getting home anytime soon. She needed a place to stay for the summer. She contacted her friend Dani MacKenzie through Instagram. Dani’s parents are the physicians for Burr and Burton’s international program and Dani’s two older siblings were out of the house, in college. Qiaochuhan stayed in Dani’s eldest sister’s bedroom, which looked out on the green mountains.
Qiaochuhan comes from Ürümqi, Xinjiang, a part of northwest China. Her father is an engineer and her mother is retired. She is an only child who picked up the piano at four years old. At 12 she had to stop playing, as the amount of schoolwork began to pile up.
Her father expressed a distaste for the school system. “He wanted me to do more than just study,” she said, “like music, sports and, you know, other things.”
The decision to come to Burr and Burton came from a recommendation from an old classmate, and it paid off. Qiaochuhan rediscovered her passion for music, winning multiple awards and even deciding to major in music at college.
At Burr and Burton she was able to play with other people, not just by herself. Through the guidance of her band teacher, Neil Freebern, she has been conducting an after school band and also composing. She received the top prize in the piano performance category for Vermont All States for the past two years. She also won a scholarship in the composition category.
“I don’t think I would ever pick up the piano again,” she said, “if I went to school in China.”
But while Qiaochuhan was happy, she also disliked some Americans’ assumptions and thoughts on China. During her first couple years at BBA, she experienced microaggressions, comments and jokes that tended to cross lines. At one point she even had a problem with an adult in the BBA community who claimed that all Asians looked the same, after repeatedly getting her name wrong.
That summer, Qiaochuhan heard the terms “China Virus” and “Kung Flu” on the news, which angered her and made her feel a strong sense of American xenophobia.
Qiaochuhan also witnessed America’s struggle with racial equality. She went to a Black Lives Matter protest with Dani at the roundabout in Manchester, Vermont.
“I told my mom about it and she was mad,” she said. “She was like, ‘Why did you go there?’’ Her parents grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution and thought it would be best for her to stay silent.
It was clear that there were generational differences between Qiaochuhan and her parents. “I feel like racial justice is not only happening in America but it’s happening everywhere in the world,” she said, “and as a person of color, I think it’s important for me or my friends to stand up when these things happen.”
In late August the Chinese Embassy reached out to help Qiachuhan get home again. But Burr and Burton Academy was about to open up and she realized it would not be worth the travel back. The tickets were still expensive and she would have to quarantine for a couple of weeks in a hotel room while continuing to take BBA classes online, fully remote. She decided to remain in Vermont for her senior year. She moved out of Dani’s house and moved in with her English teacher, Cheryl Cornwell.
By early March of 2021, Qiaochuhan hadn’t seen her parents in over a year, and the stress of being a senior in high school was beginning to pile up. She had been applying to colleges and was waiting to make her decision. She missed her mom and wished she was there to help.
“When I had something that didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, I would think, ‘oh if my mom were here,’” she said. “She would do this and that. But she isn’t here.”
In the end she chose to attend Lawrence University, where she will be majoring in piano performance and political science.
She booked a ticket to leave for Shanghai on June 9th. This time around, she made sure her flight wouldn’t be canceled by checking a Chinese government-approved list that showed the flights and airlines they will continue to run.
Throughout the pandemic she felt as if the information given out by the Chinese Government was not clear, which caused her anxiety. Still, she understands the reasoning behind China’s response.
“I think there are definitely things that the Chinese government didn’t do well,” Qiaochuhan said, “but China has 1.4 billion people, and how do you control a pandemic when there’s 1.4 billion people? A lot of them are not rich. How do you deal with it?”
With graduation approaching, she continues to keep up with her 100 days of practice challenge for both piano and occasionally viola. In the end, Qiaochuhan was happy to be able to experience a full year in the States, despite the circumstances.
“You know, there are phases that aren’t the best, but it’s actually not that bad,” she said. “I’ve never gone swimming in a pond or next to a waterfall.”
