I'm afraid to but need to - writing an introduction for the Orchid Plant song for students during the Thanksgiving break

 Gisela Jia

Why sing these songs? - Students need to know something about this

CCBG students sing songs.  They sing songs to enjoy the music, utilize the lyrics to practice language, AND also to connect to Chinese speakers. 

So they do NOT just sing any pretty Chinese song, but songs that are or were popular in the Chinese-speaking regions.

We've selected songs that fit this criterion. However, students have sometimes giggled and even scorned at expressions in the lyrics that they claimed were "strange" or "weird". 

How to let students know that such strangeness or weirdness precisely and necessarily stretches their mind, so that they get closer to the core of the language and culture that their family have committed to educate them in?  

Even better, can we help students connect to the minds and souls of the music and lyric writers and see them as humans letting out the voices of the time through songs? How empowering would that be for children's overall growth!

We can, but it's tricky. After having tried different things, I've found one thing most practical. That is, to get students read an intro about the song before they sing it. 

For the intro, its length cannot be longer than a short paragraph, otherwise it would feel like a lecture. Its content needs to be specific with tangible information to effectively orient students to the time and society of the song's birth. Equally important, the information needs to be true.

Why am I afraid to write the song intros?

It takes time. 

I first learned that during the winter break of 2023. I thought I would write a short intro for the ancient poem 《静夜思》by 李白. I planned to do it in 12 hours on a day of the break. I wanted to tell readers these - How old was Li Bai when he wrote the poem? Where was he? Why he was where he was? Who were in his family that he missed? Where were they?

To come up with that short paragraph that answers these questions, I spent 7 days x 17 hours per day of that winter break. To get the answers to these seemingly straightforward questions, I needed to track down Li Bai's footsteps and the time stamps, and his motivation. I swam in Libai's writings and the early Tang history which then led me to the Sui history ..... 

That intro is done. It took me most of a winter break. 

Afterwards, I had additional similar experiences with songs.

For song intros, I decided also to start with the simplest, the ones that tend to be sung by Levels 1 & 2 students. But I miscalculated. How?

Throwing the Handkerchief 《丢手绢》- 

It's a song Chinese children sing while sitting in a circle waiting for the one child who holds a handkerchief and runs around the circle to surreptitiously drop it behind someone sitting. 

Looking for the background of the lyrics and music writers led me to Yan An 延安 during World War II at the communist headquarters where kindergarteners were nurtured by music and games created for them. Who were the creators? Who were the children?

That intro is done. It took me a few days of full time study.

Two Tigers 《两只老虎》- 

Looking for the creation of the lyrics and music led me to Italy, France, then Russia, then to the city of Chong Qing 重庆 during World War II.  There, at a big conference for the Nationalist Government top military leaders, Jiang Jing-Guo 蒋经国 stood up from his seat, sang the song while performing it, and used it to remind all present to do things in life that they would remember for a long time. His singing was said to be the song's first appearance in China.

What led Jiang Jing-Guo, son of Chiang Kai-Shek, both former presidents of the Republic of China to sing a children's song at such a moment in such a setting? What does that say about him, the time and the song?

That intro is done. It took me a few days of full time study.

My Darling Bunnies 《小兔子乖乖》- 

A big wolf pretends to be two little bunnies' mom and asked them to open their home door for him. What can be complicated about the creation of such a song? I searched about its author 黎锦晖 and went through a world of his children's plays and songs in 1930s to charter the journey of the birth of this bunny song at the dawn of modern Chinese theatre.

That intro is done. It took me a few days of full time study.

The New Year Song 《新年歌》- 

"Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni A"     Isn't that the most popular new years song? Well, a search of its lyric and music writer 陈歌辛 unraveled a chain of historical and artistic events that make up a beam of bright light shining in the dark. 

Do you know that he wrote this song to celebrate his release as a war prisoner by the Japanese on his own China homeland after World War II? Do you know that he also wrote 《玫瑰玫瑰我爱你》《夜上海》, songs that defines a special era of Shanghai? Do you know that while he was lying on his death bed in a re-education farm in An Hui Province during the culture revolution, he heard on the radio the release of the music of Butterfly Lovers 梁山伯和祝英台, the work of his son?

I spent a few days reading about him. I do not plan to tell students his entire story in a song intro of 10 sentences. But I do plan to write it with the warmth, understanding and connection that the song deserves, in that 10 sentences.

That intro is not done. I am waiting for another break.

The Orchid Plant Song and my Thanksgiving Break 

Before this Thanksgiving Break, I planned to knock off a few songs on the intro-to-do list, meaning to write up the song intros.

But I was afraid to. I was afraid that I might appear preoccupied to my family in the midst of the Thanksgiving shopping and cooking scenes while still can not finish the work.

So, on the morning of Nov. 27th Wed, the first day of my break, I carefully selected an easy song to start with.

That song is  the Orchid Plant《兰花草》. 

I picked it because it has simple straightforward lyrics. It's about a person who brought from a mountain trip an orchid plant, and placed it at home, hoping it would blossom, but it didn't. The song has been popular in many Chinese-speaking regions in Asia and it's hard to find a Chinese who doesn't know the song. 

I also knew that it originated in the 1970s' Taiwan. I wouldn't need to deal with wars and so on while researching its background.

From the Orchid Plant to Hu Shi to Xiong Xi-ling

I started by looking at the lyric writer. It says Hu Shih 胡适.  At the turn of last century, Hu Shih was the main shaker and mover of the New Culture Movement, aimed to bring a new form and identity to China's culture. He was a prolific and influential writer, teacher, and diplomat. 

How did Hu Shih who lived from 1891 to 1962 write the lyrics for a song born in the 1970s in Taiwan?

One sentence somewhere says the lyrics was adapted from a poem Hu Shih wrote in 1921. The poem was entitled Hope 希望. He wrote it after he brought back an orchid plant from a visit to two friends, a couple, who lived in the Fragrant Hills 香山 to the northwest of Peking (name of the then Beijing).

How was his original poem like? What words were changed to make the lyrics of this song?

I found his poem Hope. I compared, and found that the last few lines saw a few changes. Most of the lines were directly from his poem. That means, I've independently verified the identity of the lyric writer.

Then I saw that Hope was from a poem collection of Hu Shih named My Poem Trials 《尝试集》.  It is a collection of poems Hu Shih wrote in vernacular Chinese 白话文.  Prior to that, Chinese wrote poems in a special written language that is very different from daily spoken language. Hu Shih and the New Culture Movement advocated for the use of vernacular Chinese so that the less educated mass could understand the poems. He and his peers felt, as a result, the literacy level of the common Chinese people would go up, and more educated citizens would make a stronger nation.

I ventured into other poems from this collection. Hu Shih wrote about a firefly on the Xuan Wu Lake of Nanjing; about his wife's kind-hearted but strict management of his lifestyles; about the young man who was killed in a student demonstration. That reading took some hours.

Then I wondered, how old was Hu Shih when he wrote the poem Hope? He visited his friends in the mountains in August of 1921, and wrote the poem in late October after he waited in vain for the orchid plant to blossom. He was born in 1891. So he was 30-years old. But wait, he was born in Dec of 1891. So, he was not 30 yet but a 29-year old.

In the poem, he said he put the orchid plant in 小园. What type of Xiao Yuan? Was it a courtyard or a garden? Where was it?

My further research showed that, by then, he had been a professor of Peking University for four years. He was living in a courtyard house 四合院. Therefore, the 小园 should not be translated as "garden" but a "courtyard" that was surrounded by rooms on four sides which were backed by alley ways 胡同 on the outside.

But then who were the "熊希龄夫妇" (Xiong Xi-ling and his wife) that gave him the orchid plant? 

熊希龄 I had heard for a long time, but only knew vaguely what he did. He was briefly the prime minister of the Chinese government established after the downfall of the Qing dynasty government. 

Now, this round of reading showed that he was a leader of the failed 1898 Reform Movement of the Qing Royal family. He was too sick to report to Guang Xu Emperor 光绪皇帝 in Peking so that he was not slaughtered by Ci Xi 慈禧 as was his close colleague and Hunan Province fellow man Tan Si Tong 谭嗣同.

He had three wives, successively,  as atypical during his time, he only married after his ex-wife passed away. So my next question was, when Hu Shih visited their Fragrant Hill home in 1921, which wife was it? 

It was Zhu Qihui 朱其慧, the wife who was married the longest to Xiong, from 1895 until her death in 1931.

I tried to quickly scan her life in a few minutes just to have a more concrete picture of her, who handed over the pot of orchid plant to Hu Shih, who wrote the poem Hope, which CCBG students will sing.

It shows, in 1921, she and her husband lived in the Fragrant Hills because a year ago in 1920 they founded the 香山慈幼院 Fragrant Hills Children's Protectory. 

The protectory sheltered peasants' children who lost their parents and (or) homes during the big flooding of 1917 and the big droughts of 1919 when millions of people became homeless.

While they ensured that these children were fed and safe while living on a grand former royal mountain retreat, they realized that only 养 "taking care of"  without 教 "educating" would not do these children and the nation much good. 

So, they formed advisory boards made up with top education experts like Hu Shih, Zhang Xuemen. Together, they created a paradise for children whose family members died of hunger, exhaustion and illnesses on their way fleeing the flood and draughts. 

These children were grouped into "houses", the Dalton model they might have emulated as many on their advisory board studied in Columbia University with John Dewey. Each house had a “娘” "mother" who not only took care of the children, taught them the good manners, but also coached them daily life skills such as cooking, sewing, woodwork, money bookkeeping.  In the classrooms, they learned both the Chinese classics, and modern sciences from teachers who had rigorous professional training. Children were given responsibilities to run printing houses, clubs. For sports, they practiced both traditional Chinese marshal arts as well as soccer. They were given the best medical care of the time.

Songs were written for them. The lyrics reminded them to be aware that many children outside their school campus were still hungry. When Japanese soldiers stormed into China during World War II,  the teenager children received, instantly, effective training to go to the frontlines to fight, while prior to that, when Japan suffered a natural disaster, the students were organized to make 100 kimonos to donate to victims in Japan. 

As Japanese soldiers swept southward, Xiong Xi-ling tried to move the students to the China South to be safe, while also establishing rescue stations for wounded Chinese soldiers and civilians from the battles of Shang Hai and Nan Jing. In 1937, he tried to take the route from Hong Kong to get to his home province Hu Nan to mobilize some resources, he passed away in Hong Kong. By that time, he had donated all of his personal savings to the Protectory.

At the last moment of Xiong Xi-ling's life, his was nation in a state of survival crisis, which he described as “东扶西又倒" "We just managed to pop up the east wall while the west wall now is collapsing". 

How was its music created in Taiwan in 1979?

For the music of the Orchid Plant Song, I read about the 1970s Taiwan music composers and publishers. 

On December 3 of 1976, at a concert in Dan Jiang University 淡江大学, song writer Li Shuang-ze 李双泽 threw a coca-cola bottle into the audience seat, shouting "When I was in America, I drank coca-cola and I sung American songs; when I was in the Phillipines, I drank coca-cola and I sung American songs. Here in Taiwan, I still drink coca-cola and sing American songs. Why don't we sing our won songs?" 

That triggered a fierce debate in Taiwan among song writers and publishers. 

Less than 10 months later, Li Shuang-ze drowned in the Dan Shui ocean shore, after rescuing the life of a foreigner. Among the songs he wrote and left us, are 《少年中国》Young China and 《美丽岛》Beautiful Island.

In addition, he left us with a new era of Chinese songs. 

The music writer of the Orchid Plant Chen De-xian 陈德贤、Zhang Bi 张弼 are an uncle and nephew pair. One saying is that they were approached by the song publisher 格兰唱片 Garner Co. to write music for Hu Shih's poem. 

Another saying is that the nephew Zhang Bi already wrote the music on his own initiative while being a high school student. He discovered and liked Hu Shih's poem Hope? He heard about Li Shuang-ze's shout "Why don't we sing our own songs?" I didn't find the records to verify this. But I believe, if it was not Zhang Bi, plenty others had heard Li Shuang-ze's shout.

The evidence? The hundreds and thousands of Chinese songs that have been created in Taiwan since 1970s that have entertained and nurtured Chinese speaking communities all over the world.

Intro to the Orchid Plant Song - my work done during the break!

Here is my intro for the Orchid Plant song. At the end, it includes a cute detail I found out through research that is not mentioned up to this point.  [In due time, the intro will be further cut down into 10 sentences. ]

"In the summer of 1921, Hu Shih, a 29-year old, went to visit a couple who lived in the Fragrant Hills of the Western Mountains northwest of Beijing. They gave him an orchid plant in a pot. Hu Shih brought it back to his courtyard house in Beijing city, hoping it would blossom. However, two months had passed and there was no sign of a single flower. Hu Shih put his experience into a poem entitled Hope. The Qing dynasty had just ended 10 years ago. Hu Shih hoped that a new culture would emerge on the land of China. The friends who gave him the orchid plant were Xiong Xi-ling (husand) and Zhu Qi-hui (wife). About 10 months before, they founded the Fragrant Hills Children's Protectory, taking care of and educating children who lost their parents and/or homes during the flooding and droughts that plagued the provinces around Beijing. Hu Shih was serving on the education advisory board for the Protectory. Likely, he had also hoped that such educational opportunities would reach more Chinese children. Almost 60 years later, in Taiwan, artists were launching a campaign of singing songs written by Chinese (instead of mostly translated songs). They created music for this poem with some modifications toward the end of this poem. Since then, this song has been sung decade after decade by known singers of the time on both sides of the Taiwan straits. In finding the best known tunes to its people, many cities have been using this song on that water sprinkler trucks that make up part of the daily scenes. As soon as people hear the familiar tune, they instinctively jump to the road sides."

1921年夏天，胡适29岁。他去北京西北部西山群中的香山，探访一对夫妇。这对夫妻送给她一盆兰花草。他把兰花草带回北京城的家，放在四合院中，希望它早开花。但是两个月过去了，还没有看到一朵花。胡适就写了一首小诗，叫 《希望》，表达他下网兰花早早绽放的心愿。那是，满清往常于10年前结束。胡适担任北京大学教授，他希望中国迎来一个新的文化天地。熊希龄、朱其慧夫妇于不要一年前创办了香山慈幼院，为北京附近数省近两年遭受水灾、旱灾儿丧失五福、家园的儿童提供照顾、教育。胡适为慈幼院担任教育指导，他可能也希望教育会汇集广大中国民众。近60年后的1979年，台湾星期了唱自己的歌的社会运动。作曲人为这首诗谱了曲，并把诗的后半部分修改作为歌词。这首歌被海峡两岸的多名歌手代代传唱，还成为很多城市洒水车的固定播放曲目。当《兰花草》的旋律响起，路人都不自觉地快速闪到一边！

Hope you enjoyed the learning as much as I did.