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Puxi Campus G4-5: Chinese Poetry Competition

November 22, 2023

From the desert in the north to the apricot flower in the southeast area; from the landscape countryside to the frontier fortress. Like a miracle, poems flow and persist through time, to link us with the wisdom and souls of poets from thousands of years ago. On the afternoon of November 16th, the students of Grade 4 and 5 gathered in the auditorium, with the enthusiasm of poetry club friends, to review those timeless classic poems.

During the Chinese Reading month in October, students in Grades 4 and 5 read a series of books related to ancient poetry and accumulated a lot of extra-curricular knowledge of poetry and its history and culture. On this basis, all Grade 4 and 5 students participated in the first round of the poetry competition. Through lots of poetry knowledge Q & A, each class finally selected two contestants, and the fourth and fifth grade students eventually formed eight teams to compete in the final. The final was divided into five rounds, from the competition of poetry knowledge to the appreciation of the connotation of poetry, the students shared the beauty and interest of poetry.

On the day of the competition, Ms. Liu Fang, Vice Principal of SHSID Middle and Primary School, Ms. Bao Guohong, Vice Principal of Shanghui Experimental School, Ms. Miao Xiaoling, Assistant Principal of SHSID Middle and Primary School, Ms. Zhang Wei, Head of Primary School Chinese Department, Ms. Lu Luting, Director of Puxi Campus Grade 4-5 and teachers from Shanghui Experimental School all joined us in the celebration of the ancient poetry!

In the first round of the competition, students had to find and correct two wrong characters in the poem in just 10 seconds to test the correct writing of ancient poetry. The second round of "joint poem" requires the tacit cooperation between the contestants to say one sentence of ancient poems containing the given Chinese characters shown on the screen.

After two rounds of warm-up, the real competition began! In the "Finding poems along the Rattan" section, the students guessed the answer according to the clues given on the screen in turn. The answer could be a famous poet, or a scenic spot, or a seven-character quatrain. This round examined the accumulation of ancient poetry and related knowledge of the contestants.

The fourth round of "fun poetry" presented different scores of various levels of difficulty. Each team had different selection strategies. What is the most difficult path in Li Bai's writing? "I know my brothers would with dogwood spray in hand, climb up the mountain and miss me so far away" corresponds to which festival? Your good friend is leaving China, which poem should you quote to express the sadness of farewell? Students were tasked with answering these types of questions, not only displaying their knowledge, but applying poetic concepts and themes to their everyday lives.

As the final round started, the competition ramped to a climax. The high scores of the several groups of players competing for the final champion were displayed, as the atmosphere grew tense and exciting. Contestants listened carefully to classical Chinese poems read in English or Cantonese, identifying the verses and reciting them in Mandarin. The auditorium echoed in a crescendo of reading that not only sounded lyrical, but also demonstrated the cross-lingual charm of poetry.

Finally, after five rounds of fierce competition, the team that was composed of Ryan and Olivia from Class 4-2, Ethan L from Class 5-6 and Ethan Q from Class 5-8 won the 2023 Chinese Poetry Conference! In the warm cheers, Ms. Liu Fang, Vice Principal of SHSID Middle and Primary School awarded the giddy champions.

When we recite the ancient words, we taste the variety of the world and draw nutrition from the wisdom and feelings of the ancients, cultivating the soul. As our students continue to recite gorgeous verses of timeless poetry, they will continue to grow.

Written by Wu Yin

Pictures by Cao Minxuan

Edited by Serene Yang, Ginger Xu, Cong Luo, Wu Shiyu (Intern), Bianca Noguera