In March, students from middle school were completing a project in preparation for the SHSID World Fair. On the afternoon of April 1st, 6 and 7 graders watched the World Fair finals. This colorful cultural performance stirred the hearts of every audience present.

Our goal as teachers is to prepare students to be responsible global citizens. One vital element of being a global citizen is understanding the importance of history and historical events on the way our world is today. That’s why SHSID conducted a large-scale competition called The History World Fair among the sixth and seventh graders. Students were divided into groups of four in their history class, and each group was assigned to write a history play about one major historic event that they were learning now and performed it in class. The play has to revolve around a particular personal character’s story and adventures, a character involved in one of those monumental events. Eliminations took place in both classrooms and grade selections. The final survivors who managed to stay in the match are in the finals that they have to perform in front of all sixth and seventh graders in the auditorium.

Teresa, jasmine, Alison, and Jayce from class 6 (1) performed the story of Pan Geng’s moving to the capital in the Shang Dynasty. They showed how Pan Geng moved the capital to Yin to solve the chaos of flood and clan conflict. Theodore, Milly, Hanwon, Jubilee, and Kevin from 6 (3) performed the ups and downs of the Qin Dynasty and affirmed the contribution of the first emperor of Qin to the unification of Chinese currency and language. For Class 6 (9), Kingston, Oscar, William, and Zihao performed the story of the fall of the Shang Dynasty. During the live performance, each one seemed to be on the scene, with vivid language, expression, and action, showing a historical picture.

During the last three weeks, each student devoted 100% of enthusiasm and preparation for the event. Students researched information, designed the main storyline, wrote the script, and rehearsed repeatedly. From Shang, Qin to Han dynasty, the students created captivating storylines with a unique and innovative perspective, showing us vividly colorful stories, allowing us to truly walk in character roles, walk into those fascinating and magnificent epic tales. The effort over the last three weeks was evident through their work and performances on stage.

Jonathan and Jeffrey from 7(12) recalled, “As for our group, we succeeded with our creative props, such as the drivable boat. Since groups were selected through voting, our props caught the eye of our fellow classmates. The process of preparing the props was simple. You simply had to take some time to put them together. We used whatever we stumbled upon that seemed appropriate. Rehearse was a real pain, as for continuing problems. But at last, we still got into the finals, and I’m very thankful to my teammates for that.”

Ray from 7(11) explained the reason why he chose Bubonic plague as the basic script of play, “First of all, I am very interested in the historical events during the idle ages. I wanted to use this historical event to reflect on the daily lives of people living in Medieval Europe. I also added a lot of dark humor while writing the script to help create the dreadful atmosphere of the Dark ages.” He also learned a lot from teamwork, “While I was preparing the play with my teammates, everything went surprisingly well and according to plan. However, we did hit a few minor obstacles though, mainly the fact that we only had three people (the least in our class). Each person had to play multiple roles, so the changing between scenes was a little rough at the start. But we overcame that problem through an excessive amount of practice and changes to the original script.”

Marcus Garvey once said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” The importance of history is nonnegligible, therefore, students must have a closer understanding of these old historic events. Well done to all students! This experience had been insightful and unique to every student and teacher.

Wining list:

Most Informative: The Relocation of Shang Capital

Most Dramatic: The End of the Shang Dynasty

Best Costumes: The Rise and Fall of Qin Dynasty

Best Interpretation of a Historical Figure: The Legend of Clovis

Best Props: The 4th Crusade

Best Dialogue: The Nasopharyngitis

Most Historical: The Death of The Bradwardines

Most Creative: The Unfortunate Time Traveled the Black Death

(Written by Ma Xinyu, Gu Yuting, Brittany Amling Pictures by Xu Jing)