Secondary School Streaming - Chinese Literature
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hi chen lao shi,
below is OP (O-level program) Chinese Literature exam syllabus
https://www.seab.gov.sg/docs/default-source/national-examinations/syllabus/olevel/2019syllabus/2093_2019.pdf
refering above OP Chinese Literature, for 文言文, why SEAB exclude testing popular Chinese novel, like
\"三國演義\" or \"孫子兵法\" ?
Instead, they tested following, for 文言文
1)\t先秦寓言三则：
《五十步笑百步》\t（孟子•梁惠王上）
《望洋兴叹》\t\t（庄子外篇•秋水）
《买椟还珠》 \t\t（韩非子•外储说左上）
2)\t《史记•荆轲刺秦王》（节选）
3)\t《桃花源记》
4)\t《小石潭记》
5)\t《爱莲说》
6)\t《满井游记》
7)\t《狼三则之二》
the 4 classic Chinese novel include
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber
https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-canonical-works-the-four-classic-novels-of-chinese-literature/
the Classical Novel (四大奇書) of Chinese Literature
- “Story of Water Margin” (水滸傳), also known as “Outlaws of the Marsh”
- “Journey to the West” (西遊記)
-\t“Romance of the Three Kingdoms” (三國演義)
-\t“The Plum in the Golden Vase” (金瓶梅)
- \"Dream of the Red Chamber\" ( 红楼梦) -
@phtthp: Very reasonable Wen Yan Wen selections for 16 year old OP students to critique. Those short poems and novellas (mostly composed post May 4th Movement) are manageable for OP kids. I myself have read some of the vernacular texts listed under Paper 2.
'Romance of the 3 kingdoms'; 'Dream of Red Chamber'; 'Water Margin'; 'Journey to the West' have A LOT OF CHARACTERS and intertwining SUBPLOTS. You only have 2 years to read and master all the examinable texts. It's not reasonable for OP students to be tested on such long and complicated texts. Worse than 1 Shakespearean play. Maybe they will do that in uni. 'Sun Tzu Art of War' is more for military and business management students. Don't find it very 'lyrical'.
Moreover, for the 2021 batch onwards, MOE has already announced they will incorporate some 4 classics' elements into mainstream CL/HCL textbooks.
\"华文教材就选用四大名著如《西游记》、《水浒传》等的题材。我们希望借此鼓励学生阅读原著和其他以母语创作的文学作品。”
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/singapore/story20190824-983541 -
红楼梦 ALevels
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.zeit\" post_id=\"1934611\" time=\"1568096176\" user_id=\"171271:
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms has 800,000 words and nearly a thousand dramatic characters (mostly historical) in 120 chapters - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms. Haven't even mention the number of places covered yet.
@phtthp: Very reasonable Wen Yan Wen selections for 16 year old OP students to critique. Those short poems and novellas (mostly composed post May 4th Movement) are manageable for OP kids. I myself have read some of the vernacular texts listed under Paper 2.
'Romance of the 3 kingdoms'; 'Dream of Red Chamber'; 'Water Margin'; 'Journey to the West' have A LOT OF CHARACTERS and intertwining SUBPLOTS. You only have 2 years to read and master all the examinable texts. It's not reasonable for OP students to be tested on such long and complicated texts. Worse than 1 Shakespearean play. Maybe they will do that in uni. 'Sun Tzu Art of War' is more for military and business management students. Don't find it very 'lyrical'.
Moreover, for the 2021 batch onwards, MOE has already announced they will incorporate some 4 classics' elements into mainstream CL/HCL textbooks.
\"华文教材就选用四大名著如《西游记》、《水浒传》等的题材。我们希望借此鼓励学生阅读原著和其他以母语创作的文学作品。”
https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/singapore/story20190824-983541
Would love to see it being incorporated as a O Level text... confirm no one will want to take that subject. -
floppy\" post_id=\"1934629\" time=\"1568098071\" user_id=\"97579:
H3 reads 《红楼梦》, but SEAB only requires students to master 10 selected chapters out of 120, and those 10 chapters are from the first 40 chapters only. Those are supposedly the more famous chapters, frequently cited in conversations and performed in operas.
Romance of the 3 Kingdoms has 800,000 words and nearly a thousand dramatic characters (mostly historical) in 120 chapters - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms. Haven't even mention the number of places covered yet.
Would love to see it being incorporated as a O Level text... confirm no one will want to take that subject.
Cao Xueqin only authored Chapters 1-80 of 《红楼梦》. Chapters 81-120 were completed by Gao E who was a mandarin/scholar in Emperor Qianlong's court.
https://postimg.cc/njjspt4f
\"Romance of the 3 Kingdoms\" might be boring to girls (more girls tend to take Chi Lit H2 and H3). But it's useful to read this classic if you need to understand what your Chinese friends are insinuating. Some proverbs they use could be from 《三国》。
H2 Chi Lit covers selected chapters from《天龙八部》. The 18th century restaurant in Suzhou 松鹤楼 I was talking about in another thread was a favourite haunt of Louis Cha! In 《天龙八部》，段誉 and 乔峰 met at 松鹤楼 to talk business
Back to OP 2020 syllabus, some of the examinable poems have pop song renditions. E.g.《水调歌头》（明月几时有）-苏轼 （from Hangzhou)
邓丽君
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ4G9wo9Jsc][/youtube]
Another one of my favourite poets is 徐志摩 from Jiaxing, Zhejiang. He was an associate member at King's College, Cambridge in the 1920s. There's a nice Xu Zhimo Garden@King's College you can check out. 《偶然》 has also been made into a ballad.
蔡琴
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pv2GEWEpqQ][/youtube]
《孔乙己》鲁迅 (from Shaoxing, Zhejiang) is also an OP text. The main setting in this novella is 咸亨 tavern selling Shaoxing wine and 茴香豆. I'd visited this place in Shaoxing before. Still there!
There're many 'Chinese Spark Notes' (from Baidu) and movies students can rely on to do well for this subject. The only problem is Paper 1 (50%) assesses students' mastery of the core Singapore literary text. There're not many online materials to fall back on for local Chinese literary works. You really need to depend on your teacher/lecturer's notes. Otherwise, it used to be very easy for Chi Lit students to score above 90marks in the past. The questions were repetitive. -
wow! any suggested books to read post psle…can borrow from nlb I guess…
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MrsKiasu\" post_id=\"1935128\" time=\"1568348353\" user_id=\"43981:
Yes, there are many copies in NLB as Singaporeans do not borrow Chinese lit texts. There are online books too, e.g 《像我这样的一个女孩》
wow! any suggested books to read post psle..can borrow from nlb I guess..
http://www.my2852.com/gt/xixi/003.htm
Refer to the 2020 syllabus, not the one Phtthp posted.
https://www.seab.gov.sg/docs/default-source/national-examinations/syllabus/olevel/2020syllabus/2031_y20_sy.pdf
Not sure if they'll change the texts again. In the past, they'd included 阿Q正传、背影 , etc.
If your child is strong in Chinese, listens to Chinese songs and watches Chinese tv or movies, this is an easy subject to score, as modern lit novellas and poems are written in plain vernacular Chinese 白话 and conversational style.
像我这样的一个女子，其实是不适宜和任何人恋爱的。但我和夏之间的感情发展到今日这样的地步，使我自己也感到吃惊。我想，我所以能陷入目前的不可自拔的处境，完全是由于命运对我作了残酷的摆布，对于命运；我是没有办法反击的。听人家说，当你真的喜欢一个人，只要静静地坐在一个角落，看看他即使是非常随意的一个微笑，你也会忽然地感到魂飞晚散。对于夏，我的感觉正是这样。所以，当夏问我“你喜欢我吗”的时候．我就毫无保留地表达了我的感情。我是一个不懂得保护自己的人，我的举止和言语，都会使我永远成为别人的笑柄。和夏一起坐在咖啡室里的时候，我看来是那么地快乐，但我的心中充满隐忧，我其实是极度地不快乐的，因为我已经预知命运会把我带到什么地方，而那完全是由于我的过错。一开始的时候。我就不应该答应和夏一起到远方去探望一位久别的同学，而后来，我又没有拒绝和他一起经常看电影。对于这些事情，后悔已经太迟了，而事实上，后悔或者不后悔，分别也变得不太重要。此刻我坐在咖啡室的一角等夏，我答应了带他到我工作的地方去参观。而一切又将在那个时刻结束。当我和夏认识的那个时候，我已经从学校里出来很久了，所以当夏问我是在做事了吗？我就说我已经出外工作许多年了。
那么，你的工作是什么呢。
他问。
替人化妆。
我说。
啊，是化妆。
他说。
但你的脸却是那么朴素。
他说。
Same for modern Chinese poems:
我是天空里的一片云，
偶尔投影在你的波心——
你不必惊异，
更无须欢喜——
在转瞬间消灭了踪影。
你我相逢在黑夜的海上，
你有你的，我有我的，方向；
你记得也好，
最好你忘掉，
在这交会时互放的光亮。 -
MrsKiasu\" post_id=\"1935128\" time=\"1568348353\" user_id=\"43981:
@Chinatown mrt, there is this National library on level 4 (Chinatown Point), full of interesting Chinese novel, storybooks, CL literature to choose from, on open shelves. After psle over, can bring your daughter there, read for hours inside. Enjoy
wow! any suggested books to read post psle..can borrow from nlb I guess..
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hahaha thanks zeit and phtthp! something to look forward too and hope dd likes those books
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