22 November 2020
On Friday 6 November, Years 7 to 11 Chinese language students experienced a thought provoking excursion when they attended Palace Nova Eastend Cinema to watch the film, ‘My People, My Homeland’ by Yimou Zhang.
The film presents a five-part anthology by Yimou Zhang, where five short stories are tied together by a consistent theme. While the film lasted for more than two and a half hours, the students all remained thoroughly engaged and entertained by the captivating story lines. At the end of the film, students expressed feelings of being deeply moved, saddened and interconnected.
Students were then encouraged to write a film review to further deepen their understanding of the Chinese culture reflected in the short stories. Instead of using the official name of each story, students were asked to collectively re-name the five stories in their own words. They chose Trauma, UFO, Dementia, Sandy Apple and Painter. The majority of students liked the Dementia story the best.
Following are some student insights and reflections from the movie:
• Ekjot Singh (Year 9) thought that the movie taught him that not only do parents take care of their children but at one point or another the child must take care of their parents as well.
• Oliver Hamilton (Year 8) was fascinated by how much Chinese people are so connected to where they are from.
• Thomas Whiteman (Year 9) was interested in how important family, children and marriage are to Chinese people.
• Joshua McDowell (Year 9) noticed there are many areas in China, but they all have their individual differences in the people, infrastructure and more.
• Liam Miller (Year 9) noticed the film glossed over the specifics of Chinese culture as a whole and focused on the universal aspects of love and helping others out.
• Noah Latimer (Year 8) felt that it was an eye opener to see how important people’s wellbeing is to others compared to Adelaide.
• Hieu Pham (Year 9) noticed how modern Chinese culture is based around modern technology like the iPhone and its social media platforms.
It was a successful excursion and we hope our Chinese language students were able to take home some life long lessons.
Chinese Department