Our story
2015
An idea, in Varese
In early 2015 a group of Chinese families in the province of Varese set their goal, helped by the Milan association of Chinese from Zhejiang: a school where their children would not lose the language spoken at home. By the end of that year an agreement with the Istituto Salesiano “AT Maroni” in Varese gave them classrooms on Sundays.
2016
First lessons, and a sister school
The first summer courses opened in June. In September, with the backing of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the school twinned with Xiantai Primary School in Changchun, Jilin. That December its first students left for the winter camp of the “Roots-Seeking Journey” programme.
2017
On to Beijing
In July a group of students joined the Beijing summer camp of the “Roots-Seeking Journey” programme. Not sightseeing: the trip that gives Sunday mornings their point.
2018
Sundays in Busto Arsizio
On 26 September 2018 classes opened in Busto Arsizio as well, in partnership with Acof Olga Fiorini: every Sunday, for children aged seven and up, Chinese language alongside geography, history and culture.
2019/20
Two hundred and seventeen students
The 2019/20 school year opens with fourteen classes and two hundred and seventeen students across Varese and Busto Arsizio. Saturday school has become a fixture for the Chinese families of the province.
2020/21
The school does not stop
The pandemic year is, against every prediction, a year of growth: two hundred and sixty-six students in seventeen classes, with lessons moving online without missing a single Saturday. The "online" campus has never closed since.
2021
The composition contest is born
In 2021 the school launches its first composition contest: writing in Chinese, not just studying it. It is the start of a tradition that fills the classrooms with squared paper every spring.
2022
The first China-Italy Cup
The China-Italy Cup debuts, the contest that puts students on a real stage: the first edition is dedicated to recitation. Over the years poetry, singing and characters take turns, but the closing choir never misses.
2023
Its own premises, the same school
The school passed into the hands of someone who had taught in those classrooms, and is run today by Zig Zag Academy. For the first time it has premises of its own, in Varese and in Busto Arsizio. The management changed; the name families know it by, and the reason it exists, did not.
2024
Summer becomes school
The summer camp grows into a real session: thirteen classes and more than a hundred children in summer 2024. Chinese in the morning, workshops in the afternoon, and a September that arrives with nothing forgotten.
2025/26
Twelve levels, and everything around them
The curriculum follows the twelve volumes of the Zhongwen series, from the first character through to HSK certification, with a placement test so nobody wastes a term at the wrong level. Alongside the language: calligraphy, recitation and public speaking, singing, art, mathematics, coding, Italian for foreigners and business Chinese. The aim is the one the school wrote for itself years ago — that children arrive thinking “I want to learn Chinese”, not “I have to learn Chinese”.
2026
Sixty-four prizes
The singing edition of the China-Italy Cup gathers ninety-six participants and awards sixty-four prizes, while the summer camp reaches ninety-one children. Eleven years after the first lesson, the school is a small community that sings in two languages.