School Founder and Principal

Huirou (Tina) Tian has been teaching Chinese in the Inland Empire for 18 years. Realizing that more and more students are wanting to learn Chinese, she established her private school, the Yucai Chinese School of Language and Culture began teaching in the Yucaipa, Calimesa, Banning/Beaumont, Redlands, and Highland, area in 2007. Tina loves teaching students of all ages (from 5 years to 72 years), and her passion is evident in her activities with students.  She encourages her students to speak, understand, and write Chinese as well as native speakers. She understands that with economic globalization students who have a firm grasp of the Chinese language will be able to compete in the “global” marketplace. She admits that learning Chinese is a difficult task, but that with perseverance and determination, her students are becoming more fluent and conversant. She takes great pride in the progress of her students and she is relentless in the pursuit of her teaching and encouragement of all of them.

Bijua (Becky) Zhao, has been teaching at the Yucai Chinese School for years and has served as our Vice Principal for the last four years. Teacher Zhao is a graduate of Min Zu University in Beijing, China. She spent most of her teaching career in Hong Kong where she taught Chinese, music, social sciences, and mathematics for over 30 years. She came to the United States in 2006 and immediately began teaching Chinese in Riverside, CA. However, in 2008 Becky joined with Tina at the Yucai Chinese School in Yucaipa and began teaching the entry-level students.  She is an excellent teacher who provides a thorough grounding in the essentials of grammar, calligraphy, and oral comprehension.  She teaches regularly at the main campus of the Yucai Chinese School, on Saturday mornings. We are fortunate to have teacher Zhao as our Vice-Principal and teacher.