May 29, 2025
Up Close with Role Models: “Model Workers and Master Craftsmen Entering Campus” Comes to Zhongshan Experimental Middle School
On the afternoon of 29 May, the gymnasium of Zhongshan Experimental Middle School was packed, applause rippling through the crowd. The “Model Workers and Master Craftsmen Entering Campus” event — part of “Youth Chat Bar”, the city’s signature growth-education series — was held there, organised jointly by the Zhongshan Federation of Trade Unions and the Municipal Education and Sports Bureau. Themed “Model Workers Leading the Way, Forging Ahead into the Future”, the event brought model workers and master craftsmen face to face with young students, allowing more than 3,000 teachers and students to feel the appeal of the model worker, labour and craftsman spirits. Through hands-on experiences with cutting-edge technology, it also sparked students’ curiosity about science and technology, pointing them toward a road of serving the nation through science.
Listening Up Close: The Style of the Model Workers
The event opened with a vibrant performance of “Aga Ren”, a Tibetan folk dance, by the school’s Senior-1 Tibetan class. To warm applause, four model workers and master craftsmen from different fields took the stage to share their own stories of dedication and craftsmanship.
Huang Junjie — winner of the Zhongshan May Day Labour Medal and head of the industrial robotics programme at Zhongshan Jianbin Vocational School — told how he moved from a technician in industry to a teacher at a vocational school. On stage, he guided Qin Yu, a student of Class 4, Senior 1, to write the words “serving the nation through science and technology” with the robotic arm, demonstrating the charm of automation.
Wang Bing — National Model Worker and Chief Engineer of TCB Bearing Manufacturing Co., Ltd. — delivered a heartfelt address titled “Carrying Responsibility the Way a Bearing Carries a Load”, in forceful, resonant tones.
“I want to use my own experience to tell you: a dream may be distant, but pursue it and you will reach it; a wish may be hard, but hold on and it will come true.”
—— Wang Bing
With 42 years of perseverance, she interpreted the deep meaning of the model worker, labour and craftsman spirits, igniting the students’ determination to strive.
“Hello, everyone! This is my capable assistant — the ‘robot dog’, whose formal name is the all-terrain legged inspection robot.” Wang Jianing, a member of the Wen Yanming Model Worker and Craftsmen Innovation Studio and a smart-systems engineer at Zhongshan Jam Power Co., took the stage together with the robot dog, unveiling how artificial intelligence is applied in industrial settings and drawing waves of amazement from the students.
Liang Jiawei — a National Advanced Worker, an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council, and a senior teacher at the Zhongshan Technician Institute — spoke on the theme “Chasing the Light of Skill, Igniting the Dreams of Youth”. In plain language he recounted his journey from a student at a technical school to a champion technician, encouraging students to serve the nation through skill and write a remarkable life.
Interaction: The Model Worker Spirit Touches Hearts
At the event, Yang Ronghao, Party Secretary of Zhongshan Experimental Middle School, presented appointment letters as part-time instructors for the school’s ideological and political education programme to Huang, Wang and Liang. He said the school integrates labour education throughout the whole process of educating students, and that the event was not only a feast for the spirit but a vivid lesson in civic education, lighting in students a belief that “labour is glorious, skills are precious and creation is great”. Taking the event as an opportunity, the school will deepen its “model worker and craftsman spirit in the classroom” initiative, build more practical platforms, and cultivate new-era youth who have ideals, dare to take responsibility, can endure hardship and are willing to strive.
“What does industrial robotics technology do for a company?” “What is the bearing known as?” “What three spirits does Wang Bing see as the keys to growth?” In the “Craftsman Q&A” contest, the host posed questions drawn from each speaker’s address, and students rushed to answer, turning details from the model workers’ stories into reflections on the value of labour. Suolang Wangjiu, a first-year junior-high student in Class 6, said excitedly:
“I used to think model workers were unreachable heroes. It turns out they are right beside us, doing ordinary things well with effort every single day.”
—— Suolang Wangjiu, student
Jiang Hanyu, a classmate from the same class, is another student who came to Zhongshan from Tibet to study. She said she was deeply moved by Wang Bing’s unyielding spirit — how Wang turned the dismissiveness of foreigners at international events into a driving force, and ultimately won a reputation for China’s bearing manufacturing on the world stage. She will draw courage and strength from this lecture and write an unregrettable youthful chapter with greater vigour.
“The hard-working, persevering spirit of the craftsmen gives me a powerful drive to strive,” said Li Xizhe of Class 4, Senior 2. Through the model workers’ stories, he came to see that the craftsman spirit is not cold numbers and monotonous parts, but an unremitting pursuit of excellence. It is this spirit, he noted, that is driving the glorious turn from “Made in China” to “Intelligent Manufacturing in China”.
The event closed with teachers and students singing “As Wished” together. According to the organisers, the Zhongshan Federation of Trade Unions will continue its series of themed lectures, sending model workers and master craftsmen at all levels into campuses so that students can keep drawing on the strength of role models, lighting the dream of craftsmanship in their youth, and growing into the scientific and technological pillars of the new era — contributing to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Source: Zhongshan Plus (Zhongshan Daily), originally published 29 May 2025; translated and adapted by TCB