It is summer vacation time for most students, but Huang Guiqin, a retired hotel manager in Hubei's capital city Wuhan, believes this is the best time for young children - along with their parents - to learn, not about knowledge that would ensure them future financial success, but the essential etiquette tips and mannerisms that will help them become better people.

Huang Guiqin, a retired hotel manager, teaches kids and their parents Chinese traditions, morals and etiquette in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. Provided to China Daily

Huang, 52, has been running a series of free local seminars known as "Community Loyalty and Filial Love Classes" for willing parents and their children on Chinese traditions, morals and etiquette over the past three years.

Doubts about Huang's ability to teach the class have never been in short supply, especially considering that she has no formal education and even speaks Mandarin with a heavy local accent.

But the class has nevertheless grown from less than 50 students in its first year to 200 this summer.

"Residents in the community welcome the class," Huang said.

A clearly warm-hearted woman, Huang said she has been observing the society during her first years after retirement and found many problems.

"Why do people produce poisonous food? Why do some children kill parents for money? Why do we see increasing juvenile delinquencies?" Huang asked. "Because our society too often define peoples by the money they make, and parents usually value kids only by scores they earn in exams."

Too narrow a definition for success has allowed a younger generation to ignore the importance of being a good person, such as taking responsibilities, respecting others and loving people, Huang added.

At first, Huang thought of providing Chinese classical teachings to restore understandings of traditional values.

"Classical books such as Dizigui (Standards of being a good child and student) are the best texts for this purpose," she said, adding that loyalty and filial love are essential to smooth relationships and are pillars for one's moral development.