Yunnan is a good place to learn Chinese as Yunnan is a beautiful place with rich natural resource and profound cultural background. You can not only learn Chinese language in Yunnan province, you can also travel around Yunnan province and visit those tourists sites and cultural relics around Yunnan province.
Some foreign students may ask the question as where to study Chinese in Yunnan province, Kunming Keats School should be on the top of your choice list. Kunming Keats School is one of the best Chinese schools in China. You can have the best Mandarin Chinese courses and classes in Kunming Keats School, and you can also learn about some famous local festivals from your Chinese teacher in Kunming. The torch festival is one of those traditional festivals in Yunnan that you should know when you decide to come to learn something about Yunnan province.
While you come to school in Kunming to study Chinese in summer, torch festivals are what you may know. The most widely known torch festival in Kunming is Yi People’s torch festival, but the torch festival of Bai nationality is also popular and widely celebrated in Yunnan province. When you are in Yunnan in July or August, torch festival is the place you can go and have fun with local people.
A local story about the torch festival of Bai nationality should be introduced in your Chinese classes when you learn Chinese in Yunnan. Many years ago, the leader of Bai people was a very handsome prince. The prince was highly skilled in military drills and he won in every battle. He always rode a white horse and wore white armor. Under his management, Bai people lived and worked in peace and contentment without any fear of other nationalities’ invasion.
If you keep reading the story while you study Mandarin in Yunnan, you would find something happened. Han and Bai people were at war because of some disputes. The prince found some mud and made it into soldiers and war- horses, and the prince put those mud soldiers and war- horses into a closet.
Some foreign students would ask their teacher who teach Mandarin language to them that what the prince could do with those mud soldiers and war-horses. They had great use. When invaders came into Bai people’s residence and started to kill, the prince whispered a spell to those mud soldiers and war-horses and they became real. Together with the prince, those soldiers and war-horses fought against the invaders and defeated them.
Brave as the prince was, he was also caught by enemies for about 29 times. Every time the enemies caught him, the prince was beheaded by them. However, minutes later, he became alive again. The next time, local people would see him lead his army and fight back the invaders. Many people were surprised why the prince would become alive again even if his head was chopped off, so did those foreign learners who came to study in China.
One day, the prince got caught and beheaded again. When he got back home, his wife asked the same question as every learner who traveled to study Chinese in Kunming would say, which was how the prince could be alive again. The prince told a secret to his wife, and it was he could only be killed with dog intestines tying his hands and sharp grass piercing his heart.
The prince told his wife not to give away the secret, but bad things always happened in ancient Chinese tales you read when you took time to study Chinese in China. One day, his wife betrayed him and exchanged the secret for a large sum of money. Having known he was betrayed, the prince went to the battle field as usual and got caught again. The prince was killed on June 25 in lunar calendar. Local people waited and waited, but the prince never showed up.
In order to find the prince back, local people flamed torches and searched for every corner of the village, which became the famous torch festival you know when you learn Mandarin in Yunnan province. Local people keep celebrating the festival every year with a hope that one day the prince would come back and protect them.