Tomorrow is Mother's Day in the UK, so I thought it to be very appropriate to teach Tiger yet another classical Chinese poem from the Tang dynasty that relates to this theme, <<游子吟>> (Hymn of the Traveller) by Meng Jiao (孟郊).
The best interpretation (in my personal opinion) of this poem can be found here, with the poem being sung in the traditional style accompanied by a wonderful dramatisation.
Mothers are traditionally revered in the Chinese culture for the love they give and sacrifices they make to bring up children.
While all this learning about mothers and the wonderful things they do and represent was going on, I also managed to persuade Tiger that it would be a very nice gesture to make a card of some sort for Mother's Day, so we sat down to draw a pretty flower.
We followed the instructions from this video, with mixed results. Tiger is not entirely happy with how his flower has turned out, even though it looks fine to me.
I am guessing that perhaps having to memorise, recite, and translate the new Tang poem has fried his brain for the day, so compelling him to draw a flower when he did not initiate the project himself has proven to be a bad idea.
Fortunately, I was drawing alongside Tiger so at least between us we have one drawing that is more satisfactory, and that we are happy to dedicate to all the mothers we know, especially to my own mother and my mother-in-law.
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The best interpretation (in my personal opinion) of this poem can be found here, with the poem being sung in the traditional style accompanied by a wonderful dramatisation.
Mothers are traditionally revered in the Chinese culture for the love they give and sacrifices they make to bring up children.
While all this learning about mothers and the wonderful things they do and represent was going on, I also managed to persuade Tiger that it would be a very nice gesture to make a card of some sort for Mother's Day, so we sat down to draw a pretty flower.
We followed the instructions from this video, with mixed results. Tiger is not entirely happy with how his flower has turned out, even though it looks fine to me.
I am guessing that perhaps having to memorise, recite, and translate the new Tang poem has fried his brain for the day, so compelling him to draw a flower when he did not initiate the project himself has proven to be a bad idea.
Fortunately, I was drawing alongside Tiger so at least between us we have one drawing that is more satisfactory, and that we are happy to dedicate to all the mothers we know, especially to my own mother and my mother-in-law.
Happy Mother's Day to all mothers!
This post is linked up to:
His flower looks great!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ticia. :-) I think he's being too hard on himself on this particular occasion which, according to what I've read somewhere, is quite common around this age.
DeleteHappy Mothers' Day to you, too, Hwee! I think both your flowers are beautiful :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lucinda! Glad you like the flowers. :-)
DeleteHwee, you are so gifted (yes I know I say it every time, but I particularly like your style of art - it reminds me of Nadine's of practical pages)
ReplyDeleteHappy Mother's day - I hope you had a wonderful day!
Thank you, Claire. You're always so encouraging! :-) I'm not sure about being gifted but I do enjoy drawing.
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