Harmony • Youth Night School: Taizhou Nurtures Fertile Ground for Youth Growth

In recent years, the Taizhou Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League has prioritized the development of "Harmony • Youth Night School" as a crucial means to connect with and serve young people. Adhering to the principles of "quality first, public welfare and universal access, and proximity based on demand," it has extensively integrated resources from all sides, actively building an ecosystem for youth enrichment and social interaction, and vigorously promoting the construction of Taizhou as a youth-development friendly city.

Under the night sky, the activity room in Wuyang Community, Lubei Subdistrict, Luqiao District, is brightly lit, with a body shaping fitness class in full swing. More than ten young trainees are diligently practicing each movement under the guidance of a professional coach.

This shaping class not only helps participants achieve a healthy physique but has also become a new way for young people in the community to relax and socialize in the evenings, gaining popularity. "It's close to home and the cost is low. A private lesson costs two or three hundred yuan, but this whole course is only 199 yuan – a great deal," said trainee Wu Mengya.

Since April (2025), Wuyang Community has utilized the "Harmony Night School" public welfare project as a platform to offer interest courses covering all age groups. Course offerings are demand-driven, with residents "placing orders" through接力 (sign-up chains) in WeChat groups; a class can start once 10 to 15 people are gathered. Since its inception, Wuyang Community has introduced diverse courses such as adult calligraphy, badminton, guitar, classical dance, and jazz dance, ensuring "activities every week, with something different every day." Some popular courses have already rolled over into their second or third sessions.

"Whatever courses the residents want, we connect them with the resources. Or for any courses people are interested in, we will continue to offer them," explained Shao Zhanya, Party Branch Secretary and Director of the Neighborhood Committee of Wuyang Community, Lubei Subdistrict, Luqiao District.

To enhance the appeal and influence of the Youth Night School, various districts across the city prioritize demand, iterating course offerings based on trainee feedback.

"Pay attention to using the knife tip, and use your hands to shape the fish fillet into a U-shape." In the Western cuisine training classroom at Xin Rong Ji College, Taizhou Vocational & Technical College, over twenty young trainees are learning to make pan-seared sea bass with asparagus and tomato sauce. This Western cuisine class was specifically "ordered" by the trainees themselves.

"With nothing much to do alone at home, I came to learn," said Xiao Jin, a night school trainee new to Western cooking, who found the lesson so engaging she wanted more.

By inquiring about the needs of youth, the content offering is optimized. The Jiaojiang District Committee of the Communist Youth League, in collaboration with Xin Rong Ji College at Taizhou Vocational & Technical College, has jointly launched an on-demand teaching model. As long as a course initiator gathers a certain number of trainees, they can specifically invite an instructor to teach the class.

"The teaching staff is very diverse, including 2 Zhejiang Provincial Technical Experts and 3 Ph.D.s," said Zhang Mengxin, Vice Dean of Xin Rong Ji College. "Through this training, we aim to cultivate young people's ability to appreciate fine food, their hands-on practical skills, as well as their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship."

In accordance with the construction requirements for Taizhou's "Harmony Night Schools," the city has currently assembled a team of 283 high-quality, professional instructors, including members of the Political Consultative Conference, People's Congress deputies, members of the Youth Federation, and skilled artisans. Adhering to the principle of "wherever the youth are, there the Youth Night School shall be," Taizhou's Youth Night Schools now fully cover all 9 counties (cities, districts), with a cumulative total of 185 teaching sites established. This has essentially formed a 15-minute accessible learning circle, making it the norm to "work during the day, learn skills at night" or "work upstairs, learn skills downstairs."

"We have locations in industrial parks, youth districts, and elsewhere, all reachable within 15 minutes," stated Cao Yaping, Secretary of the Jiaojiang District Committee of the Communist Youth League. "Through the Youth Night School platform, we aim not only to foster interest-based communication but, more importantly, to enhance skills and social abilities."

Serving youth development contributes to urban progress. To date, Taizhou Youth Night Schools have offered a total of 512 courses, serving 27,892 young people in 2024. Moving forward, various districts will focus on three directions—innovating school-running mechanisms, adhering to a demand-oriented approach, and expanding functional attributes—to allow night schools to illuminate and enrich the lives of young people.

Translator：Jiayang Lin