Poems rhyme through the ages

Traditional Chinese private schools, sishu, focused on this art of delivery, as well as many other kinds of academic knowledge and skills to impart. But the tradition nearly vanished due to the closure of many private schools immediately around the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when imperial examinations ended in the 1900s.

However, scholars and enthusiasts have been keen to revitalize and pass down this Chinese intangible cultural heritage in recent years.

Those veteran intellectuals have been teaching the time-honored art in colleges, popularizing it among schoolteachers, and as a result, more and more people have discovered its melodious appeal.

Zhao has signed up for the upcoming 2019 Chinese Classic Recitation Conference, which will open on Thursday in Jinan, Shandong province. More than 3,000 Chinese applicants from home and abroad have registered to take part in the preliminary selection of the event, and uploaded their yinsong videos in the hope of performing later at the annual conference there.

"It was fun to learn ancient poems and prose after the Chinese teacher introduced yinsong to us two years ago," says Zhao.

Chanting a poem actually helps her to remember the words more easily and better understand its cultural connotations, she says.

Zhao's teacher learned the poetic chants from Wu Shiyi, a local teacher instructor from Yibin. Three years ago, Wu became enchanted by the traditional melodious way of reciting poems at a workshop held at the Capital Normal University. Since then, she has been promoting the concept among teachers and students in Yibin city by setting up training courses.

"The unique chanting of ancient poetry gripped me when I was exposed to their beauty, so I decided to introduce it to more people in my city," recalls Wu. She is a woman of vision and right after the workshop she immediately invited an expert from the CNU to lecture and mentor in a class attended by 600 local teachers from kindergartens to high schools.