oldghost32 78M
107 posts
10/23/2019 2:57 pm
Could someone Chinese answer a question I have about Chinese poetry (part 1)



Your post has TWICE been denied due to the following reason: Ban*ned Topics (ha*te/wea*pons/under*age). Please update your post to get it re-reviewed. Haha idiotic!

Could someone who has been through Chinese education explain to me how Xu Zhimo's poetry is taught and analysed and explained in the Chinese Education system? As part of my never-ending Chinese study I recently followed up on the brief poem By Chance 偶然 which I had liked so much (of which I wrote here in the past), and read others of Xu Zhimo, including the mandatory Second Farewell to Cambridge. Xu Zhimo seems to be rated as a great modern Chinese poet, and is studied in jun*ior or middle schools in China. My reading of him reveals no strong reason for such a high rating, pleasant reading but not much more. So why is he rated highly and spoon or force fed to Chinese students?
I asked one of my students whether she had studied this particular poem and what had been said of it, t0 which she replied she had, but had never understood why it was important.

Of my own early schooling I recall a poem which was also force-fed to us and which those of my vintage probably recall - the 1908 poem of Dorothea McKellar: My Country. It is apt for two reasons: firstly it commences set in England, but then turns to the Australian drought-stricken countryside, which provides the second reason, the dire and unbroken drought our farmers are suffering right now. Unlike in the poem My Country, there is no sign of a break in the drought.
Xu Zhimo's poem (1921) is also set in England, Cambridge to be precise, but there is no sign of China in this poem, which yet is acclaimed by Chinese commentators who assert that the deep Chinese sentiment and feelings cannot be revealed in English. I cannot see any deep significance in the Chinese either, but it goes without saying that a laowai cannot understand the inherent hidden richness of the Chinese even if he can read it.

So my question is: Why is a light, pleasant, sentimental Chinese poem set in an English university held in such high regard? Can anyone help me in my understanding?

Zai bie kam qiao 再別康橋 - Farewell to Cambridge again

The youtube below is a vocal and piano version, followed by the last verse:
youtube withheld

蔡琴---再別康橋

悄悄的我走了,
正如我悄悄的來;
我揮一揮衣袖,
不帶走一片雲彩。

To be continued trying to find out what the denial is for...



oldghost32 78M
219 posts
10/23/2019 2:58 pm

Deny it, allow it, deny it allow it. Absurd censorship rules


Lily20145 60F
887 posts
10/26/2019 3:31 am

It's modern poem that is different structure from the classic poem.

.


oldghost32 78M
219 posts
10/26/2019 6:16 pm

I am guessing that even though he adopted a more free-verse style, and wrote this poem in a typical English setting, there is a belief that something essentially Chinese remains in the poem. It is difficult for me to see, it just seems to be a pleasant but uninspired poem with no great imagery. Why was he considered a great poet I wonder, and why was the poem chosen as an examplar for the schooling system?


oldghost32 78M
219 posts
10/26/2019 6:17 pm

@lily were you also taught this poem at school?


Lily20145 60F
887 posts
10/26/2019 10:25 pm

I can't remember if I knew about this poem in school, it's long time ago. I am more into "300 Tang Poem" especially Du Fu. Below is example of classic poem structure, even you can't read Chinese but it's written symmetrical left and right. Moreover, poet mostly express their feeling about their career and politic or their country instead of love.

登岳阳楼
[唐] 杜甫

昔闻洞庭水,今上岳阳楼。
吴楚东南坼,乾坤日夜浮。
亲朋无一字,老病有孤舟。
戎马关山北,凭轩涕泗流

.