If a butterfly could roar, it would look and sound like Jen-Jen Lin marshaling a class of kindergartners through their Chinese lessons. As the beloved teacher of Mandarin language at Eakin Elementary, Lin Lao Shi (translated "Lin Teacher") is the voice of Chinese language to 480 enchanted pupils. As the director of the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville, she is a bewitching advocate for Chinese culture in her adopted city.
Lin left Taiwan for Chicago in 1982 to pursue a career in modern dance, a genre predominantly influenced by Western traditions such as jazz, tap and ballet. There she met and married graduate student Ray Friedman. She taught dance at William & Mary College in Virginia and Trinity College in Connecticut, before Friedman's career eventually led to Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management. In Nashville, Lin retired from professional dance and turned her focus to raising two children and teaching. She served as principal of the newly formed Nashville Chinese School and ultimately founded the Chinese Arts Alliance in 2002. Through dance productions such as Monkey King and Moon Goddess, which CAAN staged at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music, Lin has fused her passions for Chinese culture and modern dance into a medium that celebrates both China's tradition and its promise. "People are always interested in China's past, but no, Chinese culture continues to grow," Lin says.
Nashville's appetite for Chinese culture and language also continues to grow as the city's population diversifies. Metro Schools introduced Mandarin to the curriculum in 2007, mirroring a growing awareness of Asia's influence around the globe. "When I started, nobody really cared," Lin says of her early work with CAAN, "but now the trend is changing."
As proof of that change, a recent Chinese New Year celebration at NCS's H.G. Hill School campus overflowed with Lin Lao Shi's students and fans, who crowded the room to see her graceful but deafening percussion on the lion drums and her precise athleticism in the traditional Lion Dance. "My goal is to promote my stories," she says. "I love Swan Lake, but people can learn my stories too. I want to bridge the culture gap."
Photographed at Eakin Elementary by Eric England
