The theme of the IFC Activity for December 4 was to learn a part song of an opera in Chinese which was named "Soong Ching Ling." Firstly, the opera "Soong Ching Ling" was initially composed and written by the Research Institution of Peking Opera House elaborately three years ago in honor of the centennial anniversary of the 1911 Revolution. The play used Chinese words to tell the Chinese story. The plot was fluent, sincere and moving based on the real history. It expressed Chinese people’s specific feelings of that period incisively and vividly. The opera stands for a successful breakthrough for the Chinese made opera in the concept of consciousness, originality, performance skills and other aspects.
Firstly, our foreign teachers came to learn about the background information of the early 20th century about China. Sun Yat-sen was the first president and founding father of the Republic of China and the nation’s medical practitioner.Sun played an instrumental role in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty’s feudal system andopened a whole new era for Chinese people who received people’s worship and admiration for a long time. His wife Soong Ching Ling, the first lady as well as the mother of the modern China, also had significant influence on Chinese history. The epic love story of this couple was full of ups and downs which drew a lot of people’s attention. In addition, we also introduced the history of the Republic of China to help foreign teachers have a better and more thorough understanding of Chinese culture. At the same time, we watched the movie "the Song’s Sisters" to help foreign teachers dig deeper into various aspects of China in the 1920s through visual effects.
Later we set off to the Opera House where Ms. Liu Yingge would each everyone the relevant song from the Opera "Soong Ching Ling." named "I am willing to." The song demonstrated the endless feeling of missing each other due to the long and uncrossable distance between Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching Ling. Before starting, we comprehended the overall meaning of the song. Foreign teachers learned how to pronounce the syllables in Chinese. Then, Ms.Liu started with a Mozart’s opera to explain the singing skills for opera. Meanwhile she also sang Chinese local opera a cappella to help foreign teachers appreciate the particularity of the Chinese local opera sentimentally. In the later activity, we all spent a pleasant and meaningful afternoon accompanied by echoes of songs singing and sudden burst of laughter. Our foreign teachers couldn’t wait to praise for the charming voice of Ms. Liu, while everybody’s voice sounded far more splendid then the original expectation.
Even after the event, teachers were still discussing the interesting moments of the previous event. Part of the teachers was looking forward to watch more movies with Chinese characteristics such as “the Soong’s Sisters” The others were still immersed in the graceful and unforgettable echoes that still lingered in their ears. Among them was Mr. ChIma from Nigeria who repeatedly said his devotion to the song even after the activity. He did hope that in the future there may be more similar activities to enrich their leisure time.
