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Facing with the Profound and Beauty of Chinese Traditional Culture

December 19, 2016

Facing with the Profound and Beauty of Chinese Traditional Culture

As a Chinese teacher, it is important to cultivate the students’ interest in Chinese culture and understand it, so we have a special Chinese culture week including the shadow play, face painting, Qipao drawing , the crosstalk, and so on. In the past when there were no movies or TV, shadow play was one of the most popular recreational activities among the people, which was listed in the Human Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.

On the morning of November 16th, the non-native Chinese students of SHSID grades 7-8 watched a wonderful shadow play. At the Chinese culture week, we were very lucky to invite Mr. Yin Zhiping, the actor in the shadow play’s film "Alive", to perform for students. As an old traditional folk art of China ,the shadow play makes these foreign children learning Chinese appreciate the profoundness and beauty of Chinese culture.

Standing behind the white curtain, teacher Yin manipulated the opera figures and told the story in popular local tones , with percussion and string instruments in the background. These things combined had a strong country culture character. Teacher Yin also introduced the history and production of the shadow play. He invited students to perform together with him, letting the students not only watch and know the shadow play, but also learn the performing skills.

Chinese language learning is not confined to the classroom or textbook, it also includes the living cultural experience that we can see, touch and hear. This is the concept of education the teachers always uphold. These activities planted the Chinese culture’s seeds into the students’ hearts, increasing the students’ interest in, and motivation to learn, Chinese. We are looking forward to seeing these seeds continue sprouting, blooming and fruiting!

(Written by Wei Chen, Winter Liu, Lijiao Tian Pictured by Minxue Ni)