A PE teacher's music show at Ethnic Games
Updated: 2011-09-16 16:50
(Xinhua)
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GUIYANG - The 49-year-old teacher Wang Enguo is used to speaking loudly to a whole class, but seemed shy and uneasy when being interviewed. However, when he put a leaf between his lips and started to play fair-sounding music, only enjoyment and confidence could be read from his deep eyes.
Wang is a grassroots teacher in the Ethnic Middle School in Hezhang county of Guizhou's Bijie city. He used to teach PE (Physical Education) and now works as an administration staff. Throughout his teaching career, he has never taught music in the classroom, but in his mind every Yi people is a music teacher.
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"We learn how to sing and dance and play a leaf generation by generation and everyone could be a music teacher," Wang added.
"Axilixi", is the pronunciation of Yi language, which means "Our best friends" in English. It is a quite classic Yi folk song performance which combines singing, dancing and sports together. The lyrics are quite simple, with the synopsis being "we are all friends. Let's play games together and dance together".
The folk song reflects the hospitality and passion in singing and dancing as well as doing sports of Yi nationality, and has been selected as a culture course in local middle schools.
"We are teaching our culture to the youth in classroom. Like in the PE course which I used to taught, we teach them traditional ethnic sports like the Yi-style wrestling, top-flipping and swing, " said Wang. "As for the music part, they can learn both at school and at home."
"When I was a kid, I learned how to play music with a leaf. You just fold the leaf and put it on you lips and the air from you mouth will make the leaf vibrating, which makes the music," explained Wang, who declared to be able to play any song with his special instruments.
"Back in my hometown, a lot of people can do this, especially those elder ones," said Wang. "Wherever there are leaves, there is music."
Both leaf instruments and "Axilixi" are culture treasures for the Yi group and for Wang, the most important thing is to pass the treasures on to the future generations.
All the performers of the "Axilixi" show in the 9th Ethnic Games come from Wang's school and most of them are students.
"Our performances are warmly-welcomed, which encouraged the students a lot," said a proud Wang. "The National Ethnic Games is really helpful for the introduction and promotion of ethnic culture and sports events. It provides a platform to show the charm of these culture treasures."
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