This week is the annual Chinese Culture Week, and Grade 1-3 students in Puxi campus wore various clothes and had a “conversation” with Chinese emperors, ordinary people and literati by watching videos and reading books at the turn of spring and summer.

Grade 1: Exploring the Life of the Emperor

With a loud sound, the "Meridian Gate" opened. The Grade 1 students opened the "Meridian Gate" and ran into the “Forbidden City”, starting their week of Chinese cultural journey.

When traveling in the Forbidden City, you cannot miss the world-famous Forbidden City buildings. On Monday, the students learned about the architecture of the Forbidden City through the documentary and completed relevant questions. They also “visited” the buildings of the Forbidden City through an app. The magnificent Jinluan Hall stands on the square of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The vermilion gate, the vivid animals on the roof, the carved beams and painted buildings all took them back to the distant ancient times. On Tuesday, the students competed for "Zhou Botong of the Forbidden City" through the "Forbidden City Character Knowledge Quiz". On Wednesday, the students "traveled back to the ancient times", dressed in ancient costumes, went to explore the secrets of Chinese characters together, and tried to design a Chinese character as a decoration for the building of the Forbidden City. On Thursday, students had the opportunity to have a "dubbing" as ancient characters. They imitated the way the ancients spoke and dubbed the characters in the play. The appearance of the "prince" sitting upright, and the appearance of the "empress dowager", made everybody laugh. Through this, our children learned that although princes were rich and honored, they got up in the early morning, studied hard, and worked harder than current students.

When the picture scrolls of the Forbidden City, the magnificent scenes of court officials, the lively scenes of court banquets, were unfolded in front of the children, they couldn't help wondering — what was the day of the people who live and work in the Forbidden City like? What was school life like for the prince and princess? Teachers carefully selected the books "Hello, Forbidden City: Characters" and radio drama — "Hello, Forbidden City" for the children. The emperor, empress, princess, and prince... all came on stage one by one and told the children about their daily life. After reading the bibliography, the answer presented in the reading report was even more interesting: "If I can travel back to ancient times, I want to be the emperor. In this way, I can develop my ambitions and manage my country well." Through this activity, they realized that no matter what kind of family they are born in and what kind of position they are in, everyone has their own responsibilities and obligations that they must bear and fulfill. Even the emperor who has great power can't do whatever he wants.

On Friday, if you come to the corridor of the first grade, it is as if you have entered the Cultural and Creative Store of the Forbidden City. The corridors are full of canvas bags with elements of the Forbidden City. Look at this one, wow, what a majestic Hall of Supreme Harmony! Look at that one, the gorgeously dressed princess is showing off her new dress. The children proudly introduced his/her cultural creations to the class.

With a week of exciting activities, in a relaxed atmosphere, the children learned knowledge about court life in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and thus added some deep love and in-depth thinking to the Forbidden City, the long history of the motherland and their current life.

Grade 2: Approaching the Ordinary People

The grade 2 students experienced the fun of the four seasons during the Chinese Culture Week and felt the wisdom of the ancient people.

The second-grade students first followed the video on the first day of the Chinese Culture Week to learn about the spring solar terms. The students were surprised to find that each solar term like a "weather bottle" can predict the weather in the future. No matter how time passes, every year when it comes to this solar term, there will be the same weather. The change in weather also brought the signal for growth to grass and trees, and second-graders walked out of the classroom, carefully searched the campus for the smell of spring. Students gently picked up fallen petals and put them in transparent pages, wanting to keep spring forever. They gently held the bottle filled with spring and recited the ancient poems about spring aloud in the beautiful campus. At this moment, they seemed to stand on the land full of flowers like the people who lived in the same land thousands of years ago.

When spring passes, summer comes. In class, the students smelled the fragrance of lotus leaves, listened to the sound of frogs and cicadas, and watched the plums ripen. The students, who excitedly shared the different customs of each solar term, were discussing what the ancients would have done on this day. The solar terms rotate, the earth has also changed from colorful to golden dazzling which means the autumn is coming.

On Wednesday, the second-graders dressed in the traditional costumes of various dynasties and learned how to make sachets in the style of ancient commoners. Then they wore fragrant sachets on the belts like the ancient did.

At the end of the year, everything rests. After a week of study, the second-grade students sorted out what they had learned during the week, innovatively combined the 24 solar terms with poetry and painting, and completed their own "writing and painting" work display. The four seasons and poetry have always lived together in each other, just like man and nature, coexisting and symbiotic.

Grade 3: Experience the Life of a Literati

Appreciating the artistic conception of poetry, explaining the meaning of poetry, painting the colorfulness of poetry, narrating the inheritance of poetry, and singing the rhythm of poetry, the third grade students experienced the fun of "tasting, explaining, painting, narrating and singing" in this Chinese culture week.

On Monday, the opening of the class poetry competetion made the classroom full of fun. Forming words into poems, connecting the previous sentence with the next sentence, filling in the blank words, guessing the poems based on pictures and text clues, and other challenges were all a piece of cake for the students. The young contestants answered each question fluently and refused to admit defeat. The cheers on the scene kept coming and going.

On Tuesday, the students recited ancient beautiful poetry in the form of Fei Hua Ling. The students in eight classes separately revolved around numbers, grass, clouds, moon, bamboo, swallows, flowers and mountains, and lines of poems came from their mouths smoothly. In addition to the Fei Hua Ling, the students also discussed the images represented by the theme in ancient poems, and carried out a variety of classroom activities, such as painting cloud patterns, bamboo patterns, and phase of the moon.

On Wednesday, lots of poetry-inscribed fans symbolizing elegance were born in a pair of skillful hands. The students wrote poems and paintings on the fans that represent auspiciousness, and wrote the poetic beauty they felt, such as elegant designs and colors.

On Thursday, the students traveled back from ancient times, and used various materials such as newspapers, magazines, and paper bags to cut, collage, and create. They collaged seemingly disposable waste together to make modern children's poems, making them glow a new life came out.

On Friday, young poets dressed in traditional costumes showed off their voices and sang many beautiful poems, integrating the long-lasting Chinese culture into the crisp and melodious singing.

Taste culture in poetry, and see the world outside poetry. When children enjoy spring flowers, autumn moon, summer rain and winter snow in poetry, poetry is no longer a distant place, but their daily life.

In this short week, students from G1 to G3 in Puxi traveled to the Forbidden City virtually and learned about the life of the ancient emperor. They experienced the changes of the four seasons and felt the wisdom of the ancient common people in the fields. Additionally, they also traveled across time and space, sat on the ground with poets Li Bai and Du Fu, and talked about poetry under the moonlight. The Chinese Culture Week has become a bridge spanning the past and the present, allowing children of Puxi G1-3 to travel through the millennium, to get close to the emperors, common people and literati at that time, and to experience the charm of Chinese traditional culture in a meaningful perspective.

Written by Thea Chen, Chelsea Chen, Everly He

Pictures by Primary School Teachers

Edited by Serene Yang, Yilin Zhu (Intern), Niall Keenan