March 12, 2025
字圆其说 x 小象汉字 · 小象生花
Workshop
For a full month, the Elementary II students poured their hearts into preparation—writing scripts, filming introduction videos, designing the campus tour route, and running mock practices. Their efforts culminated on the evening of March 12, when 27 student hosts warmly welcomed 10 families from the neighboring Dongming Community for a special night of surprises and joy.
As they guided guests around campus, students proudly applied their newly learned vocabulary for giving directions in Chinese, turning classroom phrases into real-world communication. The tour then led to the exhibition A Cosmos Within Chinese Characters, where they presented their personal interpretations of Chinese characters in casual but effective bilingual communications. Speaking to native Chinese speakers, they shared not only what they had learned, but how they learned it, bridging language gaps through humor, insight, and heartfelt curiosity.
The evening concluded with a hands-on workshop led by Liangpeng Liu, the founder of 小象汉字, where students and community members came together to co-create an original storybook using Oracle Bone Script—the earliest known form of Chinese writing. While deciphering these ancient characters may seem daunting even to native speakers, their pictographic nature made them surprisingly accessible, and all the more fascinating for beginner learners. Storytelling, as always, served as the great equalizer, drawing everyone into a shared creative flow.
What began as a one-night event will now continue as a long-term online collaboration. With support from our community partners, students and Dongming families will work side by side to create a fully original Oracle Bone Script storybook—complete with story, script, and illustrations. It’s a bold, joyful experiment in co-creation, and a living testament to the power of language learning through play, partnership, and imagination.
