I love your passion for Chinese literature, thank you for sharing this. I've wanted to read the Four Classic Novels myself for some time, one day I'll commit and do it. I'm super impressed that you're teaching yourself classical Chinese. Did you feel like you needed to get a handle on contemporary Chinese first, or have you been able to throw yourself into it without too much prior knowledge?
My interest in Chinese is a little older than yours starting in the late 1980s when I was a mathematics teacher in our equivalent in High School. My interest culminated in me doing a Part-time Evening Degree Course at the University of Westminster in London for five years (1990 - 1995) Half the course was Modern Standard Chinese (普通话 / 國語) (Pǔtōnghuà / Guóyǔ) and the other half was Cultural studies though that mostly focused on 1911 - 1949 - Lu Xun, Ding Ling, Wen Yiduo etc. I did an optional class on Classical Chinese and we read Hanfeizi and Zhuangzi BTW we had for the final week of the school year - "Options Week" where the teachers offered a week of activities on an interest I always offered Chinese and we did speaking, writing, cultural activities and we cooked food and went on a trip to China Town in London. I worked with one of the support staff who was a keen cook who always reminded me after a "theater kid" said she couldn't say "Zhe shi" This is with its two retroflex sounds zh and sh I said to her that if a sixth of the world's population can say it - so could she!
@@johncrwarner Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing your journey of learning chinese. I'd love to take a course on classical chinese and might be able to due to living near a university but for now am slowly working on self-learning through books. My school has a sizable minority of students with chinese heritage and the parents put on an amazing chinese new year festival last year with guzheng music, ink painting, food and books which was thrilling for me and my students. Unfortunately I was the only teacher out of ~200 who decided it was worth attending - an absolute shame.
What a great video, I will be revisiting this I'm sure. I have read ROT3K and Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh, and I'm planning to read Journey to the West and Story of the Stone in the future. Would love to hear something more in depth or covering those "Big 4 Classics" if you're inclined 😊. I'm really enjoying your channel so far. I found your In Defense of Blood Meridian video months ago and agree totally with your take on it.
@@Orpheuslament the journey to the West is my favourite book. After reading the four great classics, I started reading poetry but reading poetry wasn't as rewarding as reading classic novels.
It would take a lot of effort for me if I didn't even marginally script the video which I tend not to do. Perhaps I could do a video where I discuss a work in Spanish with some reading of it.
I love your passion for Chinese literature, thank you for sharing this. I've wanted to read the Four Classic Novels myself for some time, one day I'll commit and do it.
I'm super impressed that you're teaching yourself classical Chinese. Did you feel like you needed to get a handle on contemporary Chinese first, or have you been able to throw yourself into it without too much prior knowledge?
im on my own voyage with Chinese works, Ezra Pound ignite my Interest
My interest in Chinese is a little older than yours
starting in the late 1980s when I was a mathematics teacher in our equivalent in High School.
My interest culminated in me doing a Part-time Evening Degree Course
at the University of Westminster in London
for five years (1990 - 1995)
Half the course was Modern Standard Chinese (普通话 / 國語) (Pǔtōnghuà / Guóyǔ)
and the other half was Cultural studies though that mostly focused on
1911 - 1949 - Lu Xun, Ding Ling, Wen Yiduo etc.
I did an optional class on Classical Chinese
and we read Hanfeizi and Zhuangzi
BTW we had for the final week of the school year - "Options Week"
where the teachers offered a week of activities on an interest
I always offered Chinese and we did speaking, writing, cultural activities
and we cooked food and went on a trip to China Town in London.
I worked with one of the support staff who was a keen cook
who always reminded me after a "theater kid" said she couldn't say "Zhe shi"
This is with its two retroflex sounds zh and sh
I said to her that if a sixth of the world's population can say it - so could she!
@@johncrwarner Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing your journey of learning chinese. I'd love to take a course on classical chinese and might be able to due to living near a university but for now am slowly working on self-learning through books.
My school has a sizable minority of students with chinese heritage and the parents put on an amazing chinese new year festival last year with guzheng music, ink painting, food and books which was thrilling for me and my students. Unfortunately I was the only teacher out of ~200 who decided it was worth attending - an absolute shame.
some du fu, du mu, and plum wine >>> hello weekend :D
What a great video, I will be revisiting this I'm sure. I have read ROT3K and Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh, and I'm planning to read Journey to the West and Story of the Stone in the future. Would love to hear something more in depth or covering those "Big 4 Classics" if you're inclined 😊.
I'm really enjoying your channel so far. I found your In Defense of Blood Meridian video months ago and agree totally with your take on it.
came back to watch the rest... great vid orph keep going strong bro
Just read "The Banished Immortal: The Life of Li Bai". Really really good
Haven't read that one but I just got ahold of Weinberger's new book on Tu Fu and found it excellent. A somewhat unorthodox biography.
Months ago I read all the works of classic chinese literature. Awesome reading!
That's quite the journey. Did you have any favorites? Did you also read the poetry or was it the 4/6 Great Classics?
@@Orpheuslament the journey to the West is my favourite book. After reading the four great classics, I started reading poetry but reading poetry wasn't as rewarding as reading classic novels.
Glad to hear the mention of Alienated Majesty! My pilgrimage from San Marcos is always worth it.
I've been going about once a week since they opened...
Would you ever consider making some videos in Spanish?
It would take a lot of effort for me if I didn't even marginally script the video which I tend not to do. Perhaps I could do a video where I discuss a work in Spanish with some reading of it.
Have you seen Chan is missing film
Very nice