chinese poems

last week i had the opportunity to watch some of my 6th grade students read some chinese poems about their love for china. it was a competition to see who could read the poems the best. i wasn't going to go at first because i had chinese class and didn't want to be late but i was happy i stayed- it was really interesting and the kids were happy to see me there. obviously i couldn't fully understand the poems, but the topics included how beautiful china was in the spring, how great the yellow river is, etc. they were all read in this very loud, exaggerated voice that sounded really official and important. i had never heard the chinese language spoken in that way before, so it was a little surprising, especially coming from little kids. here are some of my students waiting for their turn, and one of my students who is apparently really interested in photography and was the official cameraman and videographer for the event.


these are some clips of the best performances that i saw. for the first video, i had been in the room for a while waiting for my students to go because they had to get through all of the 4th and 5th grade classes first. so i was pretty excited when it was finally my 6th graders' turn, and this first reading blew me out of the water- the staging, the unity, the fervor! some of these kids are so shy in my class, but give them a nationalistic poem to read, and all bets are off!! i think i almost died when the boy at the end of the first clip pumps his fist and screams "WO SHI ZHONG GUO REN" which means "I AM CHINESE". wow, he almost fell over! they repeated that several times throughout the reading.

the second clip is of a fantastic little boy reading his solo portion. i've written about him before on my blog. his style of reading and delivery is nothing short of expert- i think it's how the poems are intended to be read. i can't imagine an english poem being read like this...but maybe the style is like the equivalent of our shakespeare? still, i can't imagine little kids in america screaming "I AM AMERICAN" with that kind of intensity. perhaps it is true what i've heard that in american schools we teach our kids to think but in chinese schools they teach their kids how to be chinese citizens!