May 8th, 2014, the 3rd International Cultural Festival of Keats School was successfully held at the best KTV of Kunming. Around 70 students attended this annual cultural fest. The topics for this year are cultural festival were “The Beauty of My Hometown” and “I Can Sing Chinese Songs”. Therefore, it was full of beautifully sounded music throughout the entire festival.
The hosts for this year were Margie Ma, teaching supervisor of Keats, and 唐博文（Tom Bowerman）, Keats student. The festival started with a Tibetan song “Love from the Holy Land”(天籁之爱) from 4 Keats teachers, Joy Huang, Jayden Yu, Margie Ma and Yingdan Sui. The opening song, which received thunderous applause, was followed by a highly difficult Chinese song “Chinese Language”(中国话) from the teacher and the students in the advanced level Chinese class. The difficulty of the song was largely due to its mix of traditional Chinese music and modern pop music with tongue twisters. This fast-speed song led to a huge Climax of the festival.
When it came to the presentation of hometown, Keats students who come from all over the world and gather at Keats to study Chinese had a chance to show their hometowns. For example, a student from Ukraine read a poem in Ukrainian and Russian. Two students from American introduced the interesting parts of their hometown and also a student from Sweden presented her hometown in Swedish. Two students from Israel sang a famous song in Hebrew. All students were trying their best to present the beauty of their hometowns.
The performance form the beginner class was “Haiyu Lian”(海芋恋) with dancing and singing, which made the crowds cannot help to join the performance. The song form the elementary class was”Love because It Is In My Heart” (爱，因为在心中) with the audience shaking their arms. The song from pre-intermediate class “Super Star” (超级明星) brought tremendous happiness to the audience through the uniform dancing and widely accepted rhythm. The song, from the intermediate class, “The Most Fashionable Minority Style” (最炫民族风) recognized as the “God Song of China” due to its easy rhythm and funny lyrics, helped to reach the most exciting point of the festival. The audiences were dazzled by the glamour of Chinese language through the students’ perfect singing and dancing.
Between singing performances were talent shows of students and interesting games, to make the festival more culturally diverse. A one-on-one student Klaus played guitar while his teacher played Pipa, a traditional Chinese musical instrument. The merging of Chinese music and Western music magically brought the two cultures closer. Katya played guitar and sang a song with her teacher. The song was called “Ti Da” (滴答) as if they were telling a beautiful story. Many teachers were amazed at Katya’s rapid progress in Chinese in such a short time from an absolute beginner. Sandy (林高俊), from the advanced class, played his Ukulele with a song written by himself, to show his fondness of Keats School. This song was regarded as the most creative performance. Of course we have got wonderful performances from Keats teachers. Three teachers played Hulusi with Dai dancing from Xishuangbanna. Two teachers performed Yi dancing as if they were celebrating the “Torch Festival” (火把节). Lastly, the teachers invited all the students to the stage to dance together.
The game section was composed of “Grab the Song” and “Slam the balloons”. This section got all the teachers and students involved. The rule for the “grab the song” was to sing the song once you could recognize it by listening to the beginning part. Since all songs we prepared were famous songs, many students soon recognized them, leading to the chorus of each song. During the “Slam the Balloons” part, a one-on-one student became the winner because she successfully protected her balloons.
Time passed so quickly and the cultural festival approached its ending imperceptibly. Started by one student, an appreciation to the event planners from all students surprised all the teachers. The 3rd International Cultural Festival of Keats School was closed with its splendid success. Some students remained in the KTV for an afterparty. We greatly look forward to next year’s International Cultural Festival at Keats School.
