Chinese Youth Says|Maomao, a Chinese-German Mixed Girl: I Study Peking Opera in Germany
Recently, a video of "Chinese-German mixed girls singing Peking Opera" became popular on social media.
At the beginning of the video, accompanied by a prelude to the cello and piano, a well-dressed "foreign (Yang) imperial concubine" walked out of his room, and surprised netizens: "This is too good to sing!"
What's more impressive is that the production and editing of cello, piano, and even video are all done by this "foreign (Yang) noble concubine" himself.
The girl whose Chinese name is Maomao, who can top a band by one person, is only 14 years old this year, and she is of Chinese and German ethnicity!
How did so many talented girls come out?
In this issue of "Chinese Youth Talk", Maomao and Maomao’s mother are invited to tell us the story of Maomao’s growth.
The following is what Maomao’s mother said:
Maomao was born in Germany in 2007. I am a dentist and her father is an engineer. Her father and I don't know anything about art. We didn't cultivate her since we were young.
All the things Maomao does are things she proposes and likes to do.
We only have one requirement, that is, we cannot give up halfway.
We don't care about the progress and quality, and we can choose not to do it after trying it out, but once we choose to do it, we must stick to it.
There are no competitions in Germany, they are all based on interest.
We don't require specificity, just try and be happy.
At the age of 4 and a half, Maomao saw her sister playing the piano and wanted to learn, so she kept learning.
Maomao is in the 10th grade since the beginning of school. She can play the piano every day. She decides the time, usually 30 minutes to 1 hour.
At the age of 6, Maomao began to learn Chinese.
When it comes to learning Chinese in Germany, it is really "a handful of bitter tears".
At that time, the Internet was not well developed, and the local Chinese school was far away from home.
When Mao Mao was 5 years old, I set up a Chinese school with a few parents. After two years of studying, Mao Mao started to take private lessons, because the private teacher Liu Siming can teach Chinese and Guzheng.
After Ms. Liu graduated and returned to China, I taught her a little bit by myself.
She also took the Chinese Proficiency Test, passed the first and second levels of the HSK at the age of 7, and passed the third level in 2018.
The purpose of learning to sing Chinese songs is also to improve Chinese character recognition ability.
For the first two months, I had to teach her to know the words in the lyrics to sing.
Later, she didn't want me to teach, so she used the software to convert Chinese characters into pinyin to learn by herself, and then recognized the characters through pinyin. Because the pinyin can't sing well, she must recognize the characters.
This year I took the Chinese eloquence class of Gao Fei again. I learned a lot of ancient poems and learned a few tongue twisters... I consolidate Chinese through what she likes and wants to learn.
Maomao won't do things she doesn't like, but as long as she is willing to do, she can do well and persist. All the teachers are very satisfied with her.
I started to learn singing, dancing, and swimming when I was 7 years old. They are all hobbies, mainly to have fun with children.
When she was in the sixth grade of middle school, she wanted to participate in the school string band, so she asked to learn the violin, and she was admitted after a year of learning.
Later, I learned cello again, and now the cello class has been suspended due to the epidemic.
Guzheng was also studied in Germany. At that time, the Chinese teacher invited for her was the Guzheng. We bought a Guzheng from China at the Frankfurt Music Fair.
After studying for less than two years, the teacher stopped when he returned to China after graduation, but every year Mao Mao would go back to Beijing to visit his grandmother and study another 10 lessons. After returning to Germany, he would continue to practice on his own.
Before the age of two and a half, Maomao was nursed by my parents in Germany, eating Chinese food and speaking Chinese.
In Germany, I adopt a 90% German-style education, a stocking style, where children can learn whatever they like. Accompanying is the mainstay. I don’t teach early and learn while playing.
Another 10% use Chinese-style education. Chinese-style education is mainly to understand Chinese traditional festivals.
Every traditional Chinese festival we spend ourselves in Germany, such as eating dumplings during the Spring Festival, eating Lantern Festival on the 15th of the first lunar month, making dumplings on the Dragon Boat Festival, and eating moon cakes on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
When Maomao was 10 years old, he came into contact with Peking opera during an autumn camp at the Chinese Cultural Paradise, and then fell in love with it.
But in Germany, there are few opportunities to learn Peking Opera, and there is no way to learn it without interruption.
The only teacher we could find was Zhou Ailian, who was from a Peking Opera class in Germany, who was more than 260 kilometers away from us by car.
Mao Mao could only find the opportunity to learn two paragraphs when he returned to China during the vacation, and then consolidate the repertoire he learned when he returned to Germany.
In 2019, at the age of 12, Mao Mao participated in the "Water Cube Cup" Chinese Song Contest. He advanced from the Frankfurt division and rushed all the way to Beijing. He also joined the "Water Cube Cup" Overseas Chinese Gala on August 8th. Other contestants performed "Shu Embroidery" together.
When I first told Mao Mao about the contest information, she didn't know how to sing Chinese songs.
When she said she was going to participate, I even secretly felt that she was a little overwhelmed.
When Maomao was 10 years old, she learned a little piece of Peking Opera "Selling Water" from Li Min, and she also learned a song "Shui Diao Song Tou When Will There Be a Bright Moon" when she was learning Guzheng. She planned to use these two programs to participate in the competition.
Before the competition, she practiced Guzheng by herself. I helped her find Teacher Wu Xiaolu to consolidate "Selling Water".
Unexpectedly, in the Frankfurt preliminary, Maomao's Peking opera was particularly popular, and he went all the way to Beijing.
Data map: On August 8, 2019, Mao Mao performed "Shu Embroidery" with other contestants at the "Water Cube Cup" Overseas Chinese and Chinese People's Congress Gala.
Photo by Li Peiyun
After participating in the "Water Cube" and returning to Germany, she began to learn Chinese songs with teacher Yan Feifei. She learned a lot of songs with the flavor of Chinese opera. She liked this style very much.
I am Chinese, and Maomao is also half Chinese. I think she should understand Chinese culture.
Every country has a different culture. With more knowledge, you can understand and be more tolerant. If you have a broad vision, you will also have a broad mind. People will be grandiose, and they will not treat things one-sidedly.
Multiculturalism can broaden your mind.
She has made many things by herself.
For example, the "Ode to Pear Blossoms", which she modified herself, is to sing with her own Western musical instruments and guzheng plus Peking opera, expressing her love for Peking opera.
As a mother, I also like Peking Opera through her, and I understand a little bit.
I think Peking Opera is a comprehensive art, very beautiful.
From singing to costume makeup, all kinds of beauty.
Such a good art must be preserved as much as possible-although it is difficult to learn.
I am very pleased that Maomao can learn and spread Peking opera.
In the future, I hope Maomao will become a doctor and heal and save people.
She also wants to be a doctor, but she also wants to learn mathematics. I personally think that mathematics is relatively boring. It is more interesting that doctors can deal with different people every day.
But I will not limit her thoughts, only make suggestions.
Maomao brings a lot of happiness to our family. She is not a hard-working child. She just does what she likes and does not always do the best within her ability. Maybe she still doesn't know how to be perfect.
If the ability is 100%, she will always be satisfied with 90%. I don't want to be upset with her for the 10% perfection, so I always praise it (although I hope she can do that 10% too).
We want her to be happy.
(Source of manuscript: China Overseas Chinese Network WeChat Official Account, ID: qiaowangzhongguo, source of video and pictures: Interview/Editor: Li Mingyang)