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G6-7: World Fair Play Presentation

March 24, 2023

On March 23, Grade 6 and 7 World Fair Play presentation kicked off in the primary school auditorium and the Zhen Tao Building Lecture Hall respectively. In the past month, the students were busing in preparing this presentation. They discussed with their group members to select the topic and historical events, completed multiple tasks such as costume and prop presentation, script creation, rehearsal and preliminary selection. Now they brought their best works to the final round performance stage.

The sixth grade students are studying Chinese history this semester and their plays contained various historical events from ten different dynasties. Some were related to the development of civilization, such as how the people in Shang Dynasty carved cracks on bones and left the Oracle Bones. There were plays about the emperors’ rule, like Shang Yang building trust in the people and convinced them to obey the new laws to make a powerful Qin State as well the Sui emperor set up the examination system to select government officials. Other stories were about the relationships between China and other countries, such as Marco Polo’s travels to China via the Silk Road and Zheng He’s voyages. There were also well-known stories and historical events including Zhuge Liang Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boat, King Wu of Zhou Defeating King Zhou of Shang, and the Invasion of the Eight-Power Allied Forces at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The seventh grade students' historical plays were set in medieval Europe, which are often associated with "darkness". However, in the students' performances, we could see not only the conflicts caused by barbarian invasions, crusades, and the collisions between the Church and the monarchs, but also the heroic Joan of Arc who died for her country and the brewing and birth of new forces. The signing of the Magna Carta laid the foundation for constitutional monarchy. Shakespeare's plays of the Renaissance made people rediscover the emotions and complexities of humans.

The wonderful performances on stage won warm applauses from students. Although the groups that entered the final round presentation were limited, every student participated in the World Fair Play project. According to them, "It was really fun, we often laughed during the rehearsal, and want to improve our performance skills in the future." "I learned more about the Crusades by preparing the play." "We made our own props, they were so cool!" "We had disagreement at the beginning, but the final performance turned good, and I would like to work with my group again next time!" "I was very nervous, I don't know why I performed well during rehearsals but my mind went blank during the performance..." "We should have arranged our time more efficiently, we wanted to practice more times but there was no enough time." "I hope we can have more topics for the project. I want to try another interesting topic."

The historical play is a comprehensive learning project. In the process of completing various tasks as independent learners, students not only practiced their ability to collect and organize historical sources, but also strengthened their time management and cooperative skills. At the same time, students have gained the opportunity to transform from historical bystanders to historical participants, to experience analyzing and understanding historical events from the perspective of historical figures of that time, and to write their scripts with creative thinking and critical thinking.

While the plays may end, our students’ growth continues on in SHSID. They’ve created great memories as clever youth in the World Fair.

Written by Liu Chen

Pictures by Xu Jing, Grade 6 teachers

Supervised by Kelly Schroer

Edited by Serene Yang, Niall Keenan