Culture Transmission＞Verse Reciting Poetry

Verse Recitation Activity

1.Motive and Purpose

Today we host a Verse Recitation activity for the Luzhou Shenjiang culture in the library. The main participants in this activity are second-graders. Our purpose for leading this activity is to let students know the stories of our Luzhou Shenjiang culture. We also hope that through this activity, the second graders will understand the basic idea of Shenjiang culture and the reasons why Luzhou has such a culture. These are the main purposes of this activity. If they are interested, they can continue to learn how to differentiate between all Shenjiang statues. Of course this is more difficult and requires students’ interest to do so. For this activity, we create a poem for the students to recite in the activity, and explain the history of Shenjiang culture for them to learn.

2.Our Verse Writing

The Rhythm of Dance Steps~The Hallmark of Blessings (The Shenjiang Culture of Luzhou)

Crossing black water and passing through Luzhou
Guanyin sits on lotus to receive statues
Shancai, Longnu, General Qi and General Ba
Weituo, Jialan, Wan Li and Gan Hui
Wearing a helmet and armor with the mighty flag
Master presents agile skills
Mighty Shenjiang steps forward

Protect our hometown and people on behalf of gods

Translation:

橫渡黑水經鷺洲，觀音坐蓮收偶頭。
善財龍女范謝使，韋馱伽藍將軍偶。
戴盔著甲威風旗，大師技藝現靈活。
神將顯威踏步來，護國佑民代天狩。

Teacher Guan-you Guo is demonstrating poetry to us.

This is the meaning of this poem: A sculptor from China has brought Shenjiang heads with him across the Taiwan Strait to Taiwan. When he went through Yonglian temple, which mostly worshipped Guanyin Buddha, he sold six statue heads including Sudhana, Long Nu, Skanda, Samgharama, General Hsieh (General Qi) and General Fan (General Ba) to the temple. After a final assembly, these six statues and previously assembled General Wan Li and General Gan Hui became Luzhou’s eight major Shenjiang statues. Besides the head, a Shenjiang statue requires a helmet, armor, and the mighty flag. These all require exquisite skills from a sculptor. Once the delicate equipment is equipped, the Shenjiang statue will look more vivid and show people its power and prestige. They represent the gods to inspect our world, give Taiwan favorable weather, and provide people with happy lives.

 

This poem uses the “-ou” sound, and uses seven-syllabic lines. Not too bad, right? The meaning of this poem is: A Tangsan sculptor has brought 8 Shenjiang head and came to Luzhou by ship. Yonglian temple bought Sudhana and Long Nu. Wenwu temple bought a pair of General Qi and General Ba. Anle She bought Weituo and Jialan.

Second graders were playing a game
This poem shows the historical stories of Luzhou Shenjiang culture. Besides for introducing Luzhou Shenjiang culture in today’s activity, we let students recite this poem. We all had a great time today. Even though many students made mistakes while reciting the poem, after our instruction, everyone seemed to have some impression about Luzhou Shenjiang culture. Today, I have learned that it’s a little difficult to explain things to 2nd graders since they are excited and not easy to control in class.

Shun-wei was teaching a student to recite the poem.

3.Afterthoughts

Shun-wei Huang: We got together in the library during the 2nd and 3rd periods. The bell finally rang. We saw a group of lovely 2nd graders walking into the library, and I started to get nervous. Fortunately, they all behaved very well during the activity. These 2nd graders started to recite the poem one station after another, and finally came to our station. Our station was called “Read The Shenjiang Poem”. Everyone was focused and read one word after another. Their lovely faces released my nerves. It was worth my while when I saw the students’ happy faces after passing our station. We then gathered all the students who recited Shenjiang poetry in a classroom to watch a Shenjiang video. After watching the movie, we ended the activity with a quiz for prizes and painting Shenjiang. During the break, we discussed the process of the activity and someone said some students were exchanging beads during the activity. Their actions really made us happy. In the third class, we repeated all the procedures from the previous class. There were more students in this class, yet the students behaved even better. I was no longer nervous. We did the same thing as before and had the students walk through the stations one by one; they all did this very quickly. We quickly finished the poem and moved to the video. Before I left, a super lovely “little angel” came to me and the teacher told him “Repeat after this big brother! One by one.” I started to recite the poem with a smile, but he seemed to be nervous, so I smiled to him and told him “don’t be afraid”. He started to repeat after me, word by word. He finished it, and I was very touched. The teacher said he did great, and I thought so too. We were finally finished today. We were all very touched. We felt complete by bringing happiness to students. Every happy face from them brings us support and encouragement. I hope these two class activities have brought Shenjiang knowledge to them.

Pin-yu was leading a student to recite the poem.

We were seriously answering the students’ questions.

Is the watermelon sweet? “Cheese, give me a smile.”

 

Yuang-ting Tseng was explaining to the younger grades like a big brother.
Ming-hsien Hsu: Today, our Cyberfair project team held a verse-reciting activity in library. We each took care of one station and taught 2nd graders to recite Shenjiang poetry at each station. The students’ pronunciation was not quite accurate. They sometimes showed sweaty faces while reciting the poem. I almost could not hold my laughter when I saw their faces. In the first class, students went to other stations and no one came to our station for reciting poetry. When some came to us, many came at the same time. The last few students recited very loud, and behaved very well. I admired their teacher. Students in the second class behaved very well too and had very accurate pronunciation. Their voice volume was proper and sounded very nice. We played the video for them after reciting poetry. When the commentator mentioned that each Shenjiang head requires at least 30 thousands carves, every student was so surprised and all made a big “Wow!” sound. The teacher asked us to create some questions to quiz for prizes, and I picked the question about how many carvings are needed to make a Shenjiang head. After I stated my question, many students raised their hands immediately. I picked one student to answer, but he answered it wrong. When I was going to pick another student, he corrected the answer immediately. After quizzing for prizes, the teacher gave each student a prize, Mantou bead bracelets, to encourage those 2nd graders who participated in the activity. I saw some of those students exchanging their prizes. The Cyberfair project members got them too. All students came to say thanks after the activity was done. When I saw their serious faces while reciting and big smiles while receiving prizes, I felt very accomplished for this recitation activity.

I was not lazy. I explained it very seriously.

 

They are seriously following the lines as I read. Very scary.

The younger grades were painting a Shenjiang head.

Playing the Shenjiang video.

Kuan-ting He: Today, the school held a verse reciting activity in the library for lower grades. Members from the Cyberfair project participated in this activity and each set up a station. I taught two 2nd-grader classes, and the first one was my brother’s class. No one came to our station in the beginning. They went to try other stations. At the end, many students came. Since lower grades do not know many characters, they needed phonetic notations to help their pronunciation. Those lower grades read the poem word by word very carefully. I listened to their recitation and watched them to make sure they read correctly. Most of the students walked away happily after getting a stamp, but a few of them stayed to ask questions. One has told us that we misspelled the phonetic notation of Luzhou, so I explained it to him. He got the answer and left. I think this is the true meaning of hosting an activity. I hope the students would get to know Luzhou cultures through activities. Since then, more students came to the station, so Shun-wei kept stamping sheets for them. Later on, Class 15 of 2nd grade (my brother’s class) all came in to watch the video – “Swing! Shenjiang!” After the video, the teacher’s gave each student in class 15 of 2nd grader bead bracelets. Through this activity, we saw the students’ faces after passing our station. Even though their pronunciation was not quite accurate, we had the chance to teach them knowledge. I am fully satisfied.

This is Yu-chi Hsu and Hsin-yu Li’s work. Great work!

Quietly lined up for reciting the Shenjiang Poem.

 

Teacher Yu-chen was maintaining order for us.

 

Teacher Hung-hsun Weng explained this activity to us.
Po-hung Wang: Today, the members of the Cyberfair project went to the library on the second floor of Lujiang Hall to host a verse recitation activity for 2nd graders. In the beginning, our lovely 2nd graders did not know what to do and were walking around. When these 2nd graders did not know how to read, we jumped in and taught them how to read. The order during first class was not good, but they finished their mission of Shenjiang recitation very quickly. After everyone was done, we played the video “Swing! Shenjiang!” for them, and introduced the topic of the Cyberfair project, The Rhythm of Dance Steps~The Hallmark of Blessings~The Shenjiang Culture of Luzhou, to them. It’s my honor that I can serve these 2nd graders.
Yuang-ting Tseng: We taught 2nd graders to recite verse in library today. The procedure was a little bit harder, but I had lots of fun. Since the 2nd graders did not know many Chinese characters, it was more difficult for them to read, and needed our help. It did not matter how much they read, they did it very seriously. I appreciated this. After everyone was done with verse recitation, we moved to the very last classroom to watch the instructional video, “Swing! Shenjiang!” In the video, we saw a Shenjiang patrol tour and a ritual of inviting god. After the video, the teacher gave each student and team members a bead bracelet. Everyone was so happy when receiving the gift.
Pin-yu Wu: It was my honor to teach 2nd graders to read our poem today. Listening to their lovely baby voice and looking at their concentrating eyes, I was thinking, “If I were them, I would complain a lot, and lose my patience.” They were so serious. I was touched. At the end, we offered them candies. I was very happy when I saw their satisfied smiles. I hope I have the chance to get together with these lovely students again.
Yu-chi Hsu: After getting the exam paper from the class instructor, Shin-yu Li and I were late for the activity. I watched their faces when the second graders recited the verse, some of them read it word by word so carefully because they were afraid of making mistakes and not getting a stamp. Some of them were confident and read the poem so loud and so fluent. To be honest, some of the 2nd graders were better than us. After everyone finished, they moved to another classroom to watch a video. We were standing in the back to watch the video, and the teacher asked us to give a quiz for prizes. When I helped Hsin-yu Li pick a question, Ming-Hsu had the same question as mine, so I had to think of different question. Fortunately, the bell rang so I didn’t need to give any question for the quiz. I was happy! The award ceremony ended with a beautiful song.