session 7: cosmopolitan east asia

Before I forget, I normally tell my students the reason why we need to memorize the characters is very similiar to the reason why we have to memorize certain roots, prefixes and suffixed in English. Chinese characters have radicals which works like roots, prefixes, suffixes depends on its usage. For example: 木 means "wood" "tree" , however it's also used as a radical in characters like 林 forest; 树 tree; 松 pine; 桌table; 椅 chair ...

Similiar to English root, prefix and suffix, if a student memorize the reasonable amount of basic characters, it is no longer pure memorization when it comes to learning new characters. Hopefully, my explanation and answer to this question makes sense and helps.

Is the "little buddha" a good film to review?

I am in awe of Professor Ye's abilities and knowledge. One of the very important points he made in the morning session was how history is often divorced from the other arts. This point struck a chord with me because I came to the teaching of history by way of teaching literature. I taught English literature for over a decade before I switched schools and took on the duty of teaching both English and social studies to 6th, 7th and 8th graders at a small, independent school. There, I learned how language arts and history complement each other in the classroom. Although I now exclusively teach history, I continue to bring my love of language to my students through touching upon linguistics, poetry, fiction, and non-fiction whenever I am able. Listening to Professor Ye chant Du Fu's "Ascending Heights" brought tears to my eyes. All I could think of was how important it is for this art to be preserved for future generations. I was part of something this morning that very few people have ever witnessed in modern times. Amazing.

Today was a very moving experience for me. As someone who has spent many years developing software in languages, I know that there are very few people in the world living today who have learned to sing these poems - it is a disappearing art. Dr. Ye is a treasure in so many ways, but I was thankful to Wayne Chu for videotaping this event. Dr. Dubey will post this for the class on our forum. I was blown away to be a part of today and to hear something I have heard about for years, but never had the opportunity to experience. It is my hope that USC will try to capture as many of these poems as possible...it is such an important part of history to digitize and to preserve for future generations.

I agree with Robin's common on Professor Ye's chanting. I was so touched and I had to hold my tears. I thought this was because I grew up in China and understand Chinese. However, when I thought more about the chanting, I found out, that chanting can actually go beyond the language limitation. Amazing!

Other things that Professor Ye had in his presentation were the 3 stages of development of Chinese civilization. As I said in my previous pods I am not a history person, but I love literature and philosophy. I noticed that in Professor Ye's presentation of the 3 stages, he explained history by sharing the famous writers, poets, and philosophers. Now history became very interesting to me. I am a language teacher. I think that the same strategy I could apply in my teaching - teaching language and sharing Chinese history to my students. This would enhance their understanding of Chinese language.
edited by vding on 8/7/2011

I really enjoyed listening Professor Ye's chant as well. I didn't realize that Wayne Chu had taped it. I will keep a look out for this if he posts it on this forum. This would be very valuable to add to a lesson for the students.

I had never heard about chanting a poem. This was a completely new experience for me. As I listened to Dr. Ye, I was amazed at the feeling he put into his chant, the strong sense of pride, maybe, that he conveyed in a talent that probably not many today can do. Also, I never had heard about the CIA world fact book, but it sure makes sense that they would have the hold on what is correct around the world. Empress Wu sounds very interesting to me as she was a very powerful woman at a time when most women worldwide stayed home to raise the kids, cooked, cleaned, and more. How funny it is say that fiction to the Chinese means gossip or chitchat. I love the quote, "There is an end to our life, but there is no end to knowledge," by Zhuangzi.