Part 2: Shanghai Diary -- American School

Our host for the visit to China was the Shanghai American School (SAS), which has two campuses on opposite ends of the city, in the Pudong and Puxi districts. 

Over a six-day period at the two campuses, I gave 22 presentations to groups ranging from pre-K to high school seniors. I offered drawing workshops, dinosaur drawing demos, behind-the-scenes presentations on Dinotopia, and a creature design demo.

At SAS, a lot of the students are children of expatriate Americans and other nationals who are working in China and have brought their families to live there. 

Although the schools offer classes in Chinese history, language, and calligraphy, most of the classes are conducted in English by American expat teachers, and the vibe of the school resembles a well-endowed American private school. 

The Pudong campus, which we visited first, has an indoor Olympic-size swimming pool, a climbing wall, and an art room with skeletons, plaster casts, and an abundance of supplies. The Puxi campus has a film class, with production equipment. The weekend we were there was the annual Student 
International Film Festival, and storyboard artist Daniel Maslen was a guest lecturer.

The collection of the libraries of the combined campuses represents the largest collection of English-language books in all of China.
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Wikipedia on SAS 

Official site for Shanghai American School 

Pre-K 4 Teacher's Blog 

Shanghai Diary Series:
Part 1: Getting There
Part 2: American School
Part 3: Old Town
Part 4: Jujiajiao
Part 5: Goat Man
Part 6: Sketching in Restaurants
Part 7: China Rising
Part 8: Chinese/Russian Drawing
Part 9: Sketching in Shanghai (Video)