The third Phoenix Lecture themed “Strategies and Techniques for Reciting Chinese Classics in Mandarin” was held on June 10th at 3:00 p.m. in Room 209, District C of Lijiao Building by Phoenix School of Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai. The guest speaker was Professor Zhang Weijia from School of Chinese Language and Literature (Beijing) and College of Education for the Future (Zhuhai) of Beijing Normal University.

Prof. Zhang is the director of the Beijing Language and Culture Research Center, a research base of the Beijing Language Commission. He is also the standing director of the Chinese Language Modernization Research Association,  the vice president of the Language Policy and Planning Research Institute of the Chinese Linguistic Society, the president of the Beijing Language Modernization Research Society, and the deputy director of the Beijing Language Commission Expert Committee. Professor Zhang’s main research areas include Chinese dialect phonology and phonological history, linguistic geography, sociolinguistics, Chinese language and ethnolinguistic contact, language policy and planning, and Chinese characters and calligraphic aesthetics.

Before the lecture began, Prof. Zhang introduced the relevant documents and laws and regulations issued by the state, emphasizing the fact that the "Chinese Classical Recitation Project" was listed as one of the 23 "key projects," and that Mandarin and Chinese characters are seen as the "standard spoken and written Chinese language."

In the first part of the lecture, the three ways of reciting Chinese classics were explained by Prof. Zhang: chanting, reciting and reading aloud. For chanting, Prof. Zhang firstly explained the phonetic expression and the value of chanting by showing the examples of Zang Kejia's chanting of "Remembering Zhongzhou," Ye Jiaying's chanting of "Spring Dawn," and Wang Peixing's chanting of "A Gift to Wang Lun." What’s more, he also explained the classical chanting method of ancient private school education by demonstrating the two ways of "flat and long, short and narrow" and "following the words." Then, for reciting and reading aloud, Prof. Zhang introduced these two classical recitation forms of modern education by analyzing the different characteristics of the two forms and paying particular attention to the characteristics of the art of recitation.

In the second part of the lecture, Prof. Zhang firstly pointed out that breath is the driving force of recitation. Then, three ways of breathing and three approaches to practicing breathing were introduced in detail. By combining many video and audio examples, he vividly described the control and training of articulation organs, as well as the requirements for sounds of words, quality of sound, rhythm, modifying sounds, and gestures in recitation.

Finally, Mr. Zhang elaborated on the recitation strategies and teaching methods for different texts, including the labeling of recitation texts and the recitation of ancient and modern poetry. During the lecture, Prof. Zhang invited students to recite works such as Tao Yuanming's "The Land of Peach Blossom," Zhu Ziqing's "Rush" and Xu Zhimo's "Farewell to Cambridge Again," and gave comments on their performance. After that, he performed the wonderful drama recitation from "Kangxi Dynasty" with two different roles of middle-aged Kangxi and old Kangxi, fully demonstrating the requirement that the expression paradigm should be chosen according to the characteristics of the role. The atmosphere was warm and the students responded strongly.

The Phoenix Lecture Series has been successfully held three times so far. To help all the students and teachers of BNUZ and BNU Zhuhai expand their international horizons, inherit Chinese traditional culture, inspire innovative thinking and obtain cutting-edge information in the academic field, Phoenix School regularly invites renowned experts and scholars from home and abroad in the fields of international education, traditional culture research, and inter-disciplinary fields to give lectures.

Translator: Xu Yifan 

Proofreading: Martin Wittenberg