Activity in Focus 活动聚焦
F
文◎Teresa Tan 王慧兰
or three decades, Chung Wah Chinese School, with campuses located across Leeming, Morley and Rossmoyne, has continuously delivered Chinese language and cultural education. Besides Mandarin lessons, students may also enrol in a wide range of cultural based after-class curricular activities on Saturday. We will start to introduce them in this column.
Guzheng Lesson
(Chung Wah Leeming Chinese School)
The guzheng group lesson is one of the extra-curricular activities taught at Chung Wah Leeming Chinese School since 2007 with Teresa Tan as the instructor. Teresa Tan has been the instructor all along. The lessons are held on Saturdays 11:30am to 12:30pm at Leeming Senior High School, Aulberry Parade, Leeming. Due to the limited time for individual attention in a group setting, it is preferable that students are nine years old and older.
There are at least two or more guzheng performances, solos and ensembles every year. We have performed popular pieces, like “Dance of the Yeo Tribe”, “Liu Yang River”, “Fighting of the Typhoon”, “Rainbow Cloud Chasing the Moon”, “Happy Days and Fishermen’s Song at Eventide”, etc. Students always try very hard to perform at their best.
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| Chung Wah Quaterly Bilingual Magaizne Autumn Issue
GuZheng
Guzheng has a history of 2,500 years. It is a plucked pentatonic zither with movable bridges and is one of the most popular Chinese instruments. Its music is simple and elegant. The most well-known sound is the sound of water created by glissandos. The most commonly used guzheng has 21 strings that are made of steel wound with nylon. The body, about 1.6m long, is made
of wood. Artificial nails are used while playing in order to enhance the tone and expression skills. Guzheng originated in Shaanxi and has spread across China and around the world. There are different styles of presentation as it has developed through the years. Two-hand skills are widely used to increase its musical presentation.
