Anji Play

Anji Play is an early childhood education approach and public arts initiative that originated in China, founded by educator Cheng Xueqin. Developed over 15 years in Anji County’s 130 public kindergartens -and despite initial parental protests- the approach has won China’s highest early education award and is reshaping national guidelines, offering a model for fostering joy, creativity and engagement over test-taking and adult-imposed outcomes.

It is centered on the philosophy that unstructured, child-directed outdoor play is the most effective form of learning for young children. In Anji Play, children are given complete control over their play using simple, open-ended materials like wooden planks, ladders, ropes, barrels, and tires, with teachers acting as observers and documenters rather than directors. The program emphasizes risk-taking, problem-solving, and creativity, allowing children to explore their own boundaries in a safe but challenging environment. This approach has gained international recognition for fostering resilience, collaboration, and deep engagement, and it has influenced early childhood practices worldwide.

“All of us experience a unique and important period in our lives that we call childhood when we have an innate urge to understand the world, ourselves, and others. Our brains are ready and set to solve and understand the new problems and relationships and qualities that we encounter in our experience. For that reason, what we describe as True Play—play that is self-determined in an environment of love—is actually the deepest and most natural form of learning. Nothing could be more important to the lives of children than the joy, freedom, and growth that characterizes this kind of play.”

- Cheng Xueqin.

Anji Play – The Child’s Right to Play PDF

An interview with Cheng Xueqin.

‘Anji Play’, a video lecture by Cheng Xueqin.

The 21st Century Maria Montessori is Changing China

Jesse Coffino (a father and educator working with Cheng Xueqin) explores the development and impact of Anji Play and argues that the Chinese educator is a “21st century Maria Montessori” whose approach is revolutionizing early childhood education.

The Five Principles of Anji Play

Dr. Jie-Qi Chen, formerly Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Erikson Institute in Chicago, reflects on her visit to Anji, China, where she spent two days observing the philosophy in practice. Having followed Anji Play for nearly two decades, Chen traveled to China to deepen her understanding of how the approach works in real classrooms and to learn directly from teachers, school leaders, and founder Cheng Xueqin.

The Chinese educational revolution with outdoor play as its beating heart

Article written by Tim Gill, former director of the Children’s Play Council (now Play England) and a global advocate for children’s play and mobility, and author of the Rethinking Childhood blog,

‘Risk and the Role of the Teacher’, a Facebook video (6 minutes) on Anji Play.

Crossing Borders in a Shanghai Kindergarten Through Anji Play: A Cultural Psychology Reflection PDF

An academic study of ‘the role of the Anjii Play in Kindergarten in the Chinese context of schooling. [ …] The article focuses on the relationship between spontaneous and guided activities using the Anji Play method and their repercussions on the process of boundary crossing for the young students.’

‘The Anji Play Ecology of Early Learning’, an overview of Anji Play as part of their series on Childhood Education Innovations by Childhood Education International.

‘Anji Play – Radical joy in early childhood education’, from the Australian website Care For Kids.

‘The Five Principles of Anji Play’, by Denisha Jones PhD, from the website Defending the Early Years.

The information below comes from the official Anji Play website, https://www.anjiplay.co/

About Anji Play

https://www.anjiplay.co/about

Overview

Anji Play 安吉游戏 is a philosophy and approach to early education developed over the last two decades by Ms. Cheng Xueqin 程学琴 for the public early childhood programs of Anji County, Zhejiang Province, China. Centered on a fundamental belief in the ability of the child, Anji Play is committed to the right of every child to experience extended periods of self-directed, uninterrupted, and unguided play.

Anji Play is the comprehensive, full-day curriculum of 130 public schools in Anji, serving 14,000 children ages 3-6. It has pilot and demonstration programs in every county in Zhejiang Province, and every province in China, and is the basis for a variety of partner programs around the world.

Ms. Cheng, the founder of the Anji Play approach, is a tireless advocate for the child’s right to True Play, and shares her insights and experience with educators, policy-makers, researchers, and families outside of China through her partnership with Anji Education, Inc.

“To call her work innovative seems small. She has taken her understanding of the nature and needs of young children and created a philosophy and practice that is both unique and extremely powerful. Her approach to early childhood empowers the child to follow his instincts and interests to pursue sophisticated learning in an environment where calculated risk enhances each and every cognitive connection.”

-Dr. Sherry Cleary, Dean of Early Childhood Initiatives, City University of New York

History

For many years the approach to early childhood education in Anji County was that of the majority of Chinese schools: get kids to sit quietly at their desks until they were ready to return to the care and supervision of their parents at the end of the day. But Ms. Cheng, whose position put her in charge of those 130 preschools, would soon change the status quo. From the eras of no play to false play to true play, read more about the history and development of Anji Play here.

“The work of Ms. Cheng and her colleagues has ignited a global revolution to free children and teachers from the constraints imposed by traditional research methods in early childhood education to promote diverse perspectives and ways of knowing and teaching young children.”

-Dr. Denisha Jones, Howard University

True Play

True play is deep and uninterrupted engagement in the activity of one’s choice. A foundational concept in the Anji Play approach to early childhood care and education, read the True Play Statement and about the rights and responsibilities of true play here.

“Anji Play represents a truly innovative methodology in which carefully selected materials are used for co-construction and reflection, and thereby creating a dialogue of discovery between the child, peers and the teacher. This approach embodies the true potential of how children learn through play, and in our comparative research, also a strong articulation of how children develop the social, emotional, physical, creative and cognitive competencies essential to become a lifelong learner with both the individual, ethical and social responsibilities of future citizens.”

- Dr. Bo Stjerne Tomsen, LEGO Foundation

Principles and Practices

In the process of prioritizing true play, Ms. Cheng and the early educators of Anji County identified love, risk, joy, engagement, and reflection as interconnected and mutually reinforcing values that form the basis for a clearly articulated philosophy and approach. Read about these five principles and the foundational practices of Anji Play here.

“I feel like the impact is too big to put into words. Our work together has influenced how I show up not only into my work every minute of every day, but my life in general. I feel I am constantly trying to actively engage with the world from a lens that has been influenced by Anji Play/True Play.”

- California Early Head Start Educator

Environments and Materials

Anji Play is committed to practices of creating safe, love-filled environments, focusing on authentic relationships of trust and listening, maintaining a stance of uncertainty and discovery about every child’s ability, setting aside adult goals and needs, and recording and sharing and reflecting together. This principle-based approach informs the design of physical materials and environments that seek to provide the basis for the child and educator to be independent, capable, and deeply engaged together. Read about Anji Play environments and materials here.

“I’d never imagined a model that was as brave and had such deep trust in children as what I saw in Anji County. I had been designing for what adults would let children do, rather than what children were capable of. Ms. Cheng was not only designing for what children were capable of, but in a way that facilitated them discovering what they are capable of – which far exceeds our expectations.”

- Cas Holman, designer.

People

Ms. Cheng Xueqin, founder of Anji Play, is a former (retired) leader of the Early Education Section of the Anji County Department of Education. In 2014, Jesse Robert Coffino joined Ms. Cheng to share her work and the work of the educators of Anji County outside of China. In 2019, Anji Education, Inc. was founded in California to provide resources about Anji Play, professional learning and growth opportunities, speaking engagements, and rights management. Read about the people involved here

Additional Resources

Summarizes the approach, the role of teachers and technology, and relationships with families and communities.

Practice Guides

These guides include tips for the present, mindful, intentional, responsive educator/caregiver committed to meeting all learners where they are.

Stepping Back vs. Stepping In PDF

Provides straightforward examples of “stepping in” to a child’s play, and some alternatives that allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the child’s needs and abilities.

Empowering Children and Educators Through Recording Play PDF

Provides helpful hints for using readily available technology to record play and reflect on those recordings to deepen our understanding and create more responsive environments.

Listening to Learners PDF

Provides advice on facilitating learner reflection on their own joyous experiences of exploration and discovery.

Listening to Learners PDF

Provides a basic framework for understanding the stages of educator development in environments that seek to meet and then support every learner where they are.

Research

No longitudinal studies have yet been conducted on outcomes for children who have taken part in full-time Anji Play programs. A large body of individual case studies and anecdotal evidence, along with the support of current research, has allowed the educators and administrators of Anji to focus their time on developing the practice and approach rather than on measuring program outcomes.

While Anji educators are not focused on designing or implementing peer-reviewed systems of quantitative research, we welcome researchers to learn more about the work of Anji Play, and encourage all researchers to share research proposals and ideas with us.

In Anji Play programs, teachers and children are both engaged in a constant process of discovery, hypothesis-generation, and reflection. Therefore, both children and teachers in Anji Play programs are engaged in a constant process of research.

We often describe traditional academic research as non-practitioners describing practice. Below are links to presentations by well-known educators and researchers at the 1st International True Play Conference: TruePlay2019 and a bibliography of important research that describes the role of risk in play and learning, theories of cognitive development, and the relationship between block-play and literacy.

Research Presentations on the Philosophy and Practice of Anji Play (video)

Deep Learning in Anji Play
Professor Feng Xiaoxia, Beijing Normal University

Anji Play: Inspiration for Deepening Chinese Educational Reform
Professor Li Jimei, East China Normal University

Anji Play: Making the Invisible Visible in Framing and Play-based Curriculum
Dr. Doris Cheng, Tung Wah College, Hong Kong

Humans Need Play: the Contributions of Anji Play (and some concerns)
Dr. David Whitebread, University of Cambridge, UK

Anji Play in Context
Dr. Frances Rust, New York University

Anji Play and the Cultural-historical Theory of Lev Vigotsky
Dr. Nikolay Veraksa, Moscow State University

Rethinking Risk: Are Children Too Safe for Their Own Good?
Dr. Mariana Brussoni, University of British Columbia

Observation and Documentation of Children’s True Play: Some Research Questions to Consider
Dr. Peter Mangione, WestEd

What can research(ers) learn from (Anji) play?
Dr. Andreas Roepstorff, Aarhus University, Denmark

And presentations by:

Professor Hua Aihua, East China Normal University

Dr. Lawrence Cohen, Playful Parenting

Dr. Tovah Klein, Barnard College, New York

Dr. Mitchel Resnick, MIT

Dr. Rona Jualla van Oudenhoven, Durham Children’s Aide Society, Canada

Dr. Nico van Oudenhoven, International Child Development Initiatives

Dr. Yan Chaoyun, Sichuan Normal University