{"id":355,"date":"2004-10-24T09:51:39","date_gmt":"2004-10-24T09:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.com\/?p=355"},"modified":"2004-10-24T09:51:39","modified_gmt":"2004-10-24T09:51:39","slug":"only_a_sandpiper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"Only a Sandpiper"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anyone who’s interested in learning more about Chinese classical poetry, I highly recommend Only A Sandpiper: Appreciating Classical Chinese Poetry<\/b><\/a> by Li Lienfung.
\nIt’s a great book which is aimed at bilingual readers who are more proficient in English. It gives the uninitiated a good and simple introduction to the basics of classical Chinese poetry. Explanations are written in English and there is hanyu pinyin to help the reader when encountering a word that one does not know how to pronounce.
\nLi Lienfung, now in her 80s, is an effectively bilingual scholar in Chinese and English literature and she peppers her explanation with personal anecdotes of her learning experience. Her easy conversational style of writing makes the explanations go down like a fragrant cup of tea.
\nLearn how the structures, cadences, and the choice of words make a good poem. She introduces several famous poets in Chinese history like Tang dynasty poets Du Fu and Li Bai, Song dynasty poets like Su Dongpo. There are several others like Li Yu and Liu Yong who are mentioned.
\nIn order to appreciate Chinese classical poetry, it is also important to learn about the circumstances surrounding the poet when he\/she wrote it. For example, it might have been because of some existing political situation, or a personal tragedy which sparked off the poet to pen the poem. In explaining each poem that is mentioned in the book, Li Lienfung gives all these background information in order for the reader to fully grasp and appreciate the poem. The reader is often given snippets of Chinese political history as it is often the situations which arise from the political happenings which are written about.
\nAfter reading the book, one is able to better appreciate the implicit meanings and nuances that are so inherent in Chinese classical poetry. The biggest difference between English and Chinese poetry is the subtlety of the language. In Chinese, one character embodies so much meaning. There are so many connotations, underlying meaning, and conclusions that can be drawn from one character. Therein lies the beauty of the Chinese language.
\nI think schools in Singapore should teach such things to students to make Chinese lessons more interesting. I only wished I had such lessons in school last time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For anyone who’s interested in learning more about Chinese classical poetry, I highly recommend Only A Sandpiper: Appreciating Classical Chinese Poetry by Li Lienfung. It’s a great book which is aimed at bilingual readers who are more proficient in English. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-literature-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dimsumdolly.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}