This past week G-Star School of the Arts entertained Mr.
and Mrs. Beiming Meng, owners of the Harbin No. 26 Senior High School in the
Xiangfang District Harbin of China.
Harbin High School is a private school with 11,000 students on four
campuses. The city of Harbin is the “Silicon
Valley” of China. Mr. Meng is the
Principal of the schools which have graduated over 30,000 students into China’s
major industries including the entertainment business. China has now become the second largest movie
market in the world and it is critically short on film industry professionals. It is this explosion in movie making that
sent Mr. Meng on a world-wide search to find the best film, animation and
acting high school in the world to study and replicate in China. He determined that G-Star School of the Arts
is that school! He is resolute that his
next school will supply the Chinese movie industry with the professional writers,
directors, editors, animators, camera persons, lighting, electrical, casts and
crews of the highest quality. Mr. Meng’s
quest began when he and his wife flew directly to West Palm Beach, Florida to
meet with Greg Hauptner, Founder and CEO of the G-Star School. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Meng
stated, “I believed G-Star to be the greatest high school for movies. Now that I have seen it, it is as I
believed. It is even more than I thought
it could be.” The hours of touring the
school and the discussion throughout the day reached a pinnacle when Mr. Meng
proposed a program where his schools in China and the G-Star School could
become international associates where his teachers would come to G-Star for
training and G-Star’s teachers would travel to China to set up his film,
animation and acting programs and train his staff. “Mr. Meng’s schools are unlike anything I’ve
ever seen. His organizational skills and
his educational programs reach far above the average school system,” says
Hauptner. His award winning school is
one of the most well known in their country; and his teachers are routinely
sent to study in Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong –
and now, perhaps, the USA at G-Star. The
Harbin High School brochure is filled with photos of its students in the
company of many of China’s most famous actors, entertainers and corporate leaders
such as Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Ma Yun whose company just bought China’s
largest film company, ChinaVision, that is valued at $8.7 billion. It is now named Alibaba Picture Group. “We are looking forward to continuing our
dialogue with Mr. Meng and the Harbin High School,” states Hauptner. “If the stars align properly, it could be a
most rewarding experience!”
