Lifelong poetry devotion (Pages 4-5)
云南大学附属中学  申谊

Warming-up
1. How often do you go to the cinema?
2. What is the last film that impressed you?
3. Have you seen or heard of the film 《掬水月在手》？

Reading for information
Name in Chinese:  《掬水月在手》
Name in English: Like the Dyer’s Hand
Type of film: Documentary
Director: Chen Chuan-xing from Taiwan, China
Time for premiere: On October 16, 2020
Main character: Florence Chia-ying Yeh (叶嘉莹)

Do you know something about Florence Chia-ying Yeh (叶嘉莹)? 
She’s an educator, traditional Chinese literature researcher and writer in Taiwan, Canada, US and the Chinese mainland. 

Please scan the text and mark some important events in Yeh’s lifelong journey. 
 

Reading for language features
Three quotations in the text:
1.“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” 
                         ---US poet Carl Sandburg 
2. “Heaven uses a hundred misfortunes to fashion one poet. I think you must have experienced such misfortunes before you can understand the poems.” Yeh said in the film.  

3. “The brightness in our hearts must be passed down. It is like a pond of lotuses, that even if all the petals wither, there remains the seeds to be preserved.” Yeh said in the film.  

Sentence study
1.The film’s director, Chen Chuan-xing, compared Yeh to Odysseus, the ancient Greek poet Homer’s literary figure who wanders for ten years trying to get home.

2. In this journey full of ups and downs, Chinese poetry has helped Yeh develop strong willpower regardless of wars, social unrest and family tragedy, including the loss of her daughter and son-in-law.
 
Word study
1.This may also be a fitting description of Florence Chia-ying Yeh’s life, …
2.Yeh was born in 1924 to a literary family in Beijing.
3. … to find her physical and spiritual hometown.
4.In this journey full of ups and downs, Chinese poetry has helped Yeh develop strong willpower…

5. Heaven uses a hundred misfortunes to fashion one poet.
6. Apart from teaching Chinese poetry, she has donated a total of 35.68 million yuan to date to support traditional Chinese cultural research.

Reading for thinking
Re-read the title: Lifelong poetry devotion 
After reading the whole text, what’s your understanding of the title? 
Can you suggest another title for the text? 

Share your views with each other. 
1. What does Yeh think of ancient Chinese poetry? 
2. What does the director of Like the Dyer’s Hand think of Yeh?
3. What do you think of the film Like the Dyer’s Hand and its director?
4. What do you think of Yeh?