Teaching Shakespeare to young ESL learners in Hong Kong

Teaching Shakespeare to young ESL learners can be one of the most challenging tasks for English teachers and parents. Because of the difficult vocabulary and unusual language, Shakespeare is often left unread and unexplored both in school and at home. With a view to helping children overcome reading obstacles and learn to appreciate Shakespeare and his plays, the Hong Kong Public Libraries and I co-hosted a weekly Shakespeare teens’ reading club for K12 learners from local grammar schools. Four Shakespearean plays were introduced to about twenty Cantonese child participants who had no or little experience reading or studying Shakespeare’s works. To enhance imagination and interactions among child readers, various learner-centred, interactive, and multimedia pedagogical activities such as the reader’s theatre, movie screenings, creative writing tasks, comics reading and drawing, etc. were used in the reading club. In this paper, I will share teaching ideas and reading activities that make Shakespeare understandable and enjoyable for ESL young readers

Female Cross-Dressing in Chinese Literature Classics and their English Versions

Cross-dressing, as a cultural practice, suggests gender ambiguity and allows freedom of self expression. Yet, it may also serve to reaffirm ideological stereotypes and the binary distinctions between male and female, masculine and feminine, homosexual and heterosexual. To explore the nature and function of cross-dressing in Chinese and Western cultures, this paper analyzes the portrayals of cross-dressing heroines in two Chinese stories: 《木木木》 The Ballad of Mulan (500–600 A.D.), and 《梁梁梁梁梁梁台》The Butterfly Lovers (850–880 A.D.). Distorted representations in the English translated texts are also explored

Transgressing the gender borders: the subversive re-inscription of Eve in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials

As a gendered rewriter and a gender boundary transgressor, Philip Pullman uses the Holy Bible as a “pre-text” (Stephen and McCallum 1998: 2) when writing His Dark Materials (1995 – 2000). He boldly challenges the masculine discourse in the Bible, crossing the oppressive and insufficient gender boundary propagated in the Book of Genesis. With the objective to examine how Pullman breaks down gender boundaries, in this paper I will first re-read the creation story of Genesis of the Holy Bible and discuss Eve’s sexist portrayal. Then, I will compare the traditional, biased representation of Eve with the portrayal of the new and perfected Eve, namely the female protagonist – Lyra Belacqua in Pullman’s His Dark Materials. Through examining the re-inscription of Eve (as well as Adam) in Pullman’s re-version, the paper will reveal ways in which stereotypical gender implications are played out in the Holy [email protected] Wing Bo Tso, PhD, is a lecturer in English and Applied Linguistics who teaches postgraduate and undergraduate courses at the Open University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include language arts, children’s fantasy, gender studies and translation studies. She has published articles in various refereed journals, including The International Journal of Early Childhood, Libri & Liberi: Journal of Research on Children’s Literature and Culture, and SPECTRUM: NCUE Studies in Language, Literature, Translation and Interpretation.The Open University of Hong Kong2294

Darstellung des Monströs-Femininen in ausgewählten Werken von C. S. Lewis, Roald Dahl und Philip Pullman

This paper examines the representation of female antagonists in three popular children’s books – C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books, Roald Dahl’s The Witches, and Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass – by referencing Kristeva’s theory of abjection and Creed’s discussion of the monstrous-feminine. In both the Narnia series and The Witches, female antagonists are simplified, stereotyped and negatively portrayed as evil figures that threaten the stability of a well-ordered community. They are represented as the abject that blurs the borderlines between life and death, human and non-human, masculine and feminine. At the end of both narratives, the monstrous-feminine is ejected, eliminated, and the ‘purification’ brings relief and a vengeful pleasure. In Pullman’s book, the harpies are represented as monsters that can be reasoned with. They are honoured as generous and “Gracious Wings”. Yet, while the attempt of positive reinvention of the monstrous-feminine is noticeable, they play only a secondary role acknowledged by the symbolic order – the monstrous-feminine stereotype is nevertheless perpetuated.Rad istražuje načine prikazivanja ženskih likova u ulozi protivnika u trima popularnim književnim pripovijedima za djecu – u ciklusu Chronicles of Narnia [Kronike iz Narnije] C. S. Lewisa te u romanima The Witches [Vještice] Roalda Dahla i The Amber Spyglass [Jantarni dalekozor] Philipa Pullmana – pozivajući se na teoriju abjekcije Julije Kristeve i na raspravu o čudovišno-ženskom Barbare Creed. I u ciklusu o Narniji i u romanu Vještice, ženski su protivnički likovi pojednostavljeni, stereotipni i negativno okarakterizirani kao zle figure koje prijete stabilnosti dobro organiziranoga društva. Prikazane su kao abjekti koji nejasnima čine granice između života i smrti, ljudskoga i ne-ljudskoga, muškoga i ženskoga. Na kraju obiju pripovijedi čudovišno-žensko se izbacuje, eliminira, a ‘pročišćenje’ donosi olakšanje i osvetničko zadovoljstvo. U Pullmanovoj su knjizi harpije prikazane kao čudovišta s kojima se može razborito razgovarati. Časti ih se kao velikodušne i imenom „Dobrohotna Krila.“ Pa ipak, premda je uočljiv pokušaj ponovnoga uspostavljanja pozitivnoga pojma čudovišno-ženskoga, takvi likovi igraju tek drugorazrednu ulogu koju im nameće simbolički poredak, a stereotip se ipak i dalje održava.Anknüpfend an die Abjektionstheorie von Julia Kristeva und an die Diskussion über das Monströs-Feminine bei Barbara Creed werden in diesem Beitrag die Darstellungsweisen der Frauengestalten als Kontrahentinnen in drei populären kinderliterarischen Erzählwerken – im Romanzyklus Chronicles of Narnia [Die Chroniken von Narnia] von C. S. Lewis sowie in den Romanen The Witches [Hexen Hexen] von Roald Dahl und The Amber Spyglass [Das Bernstein-Teleskop] von Philip Pullman – erörtert. Sowohl im Narnia-Zyklus als auch im Roman Hexen Hexen werden diese Frauengestalten auf eine vereinfachte, stereotype und negative Weise als Verkörperung des Bösen dargestellt, die die Stabilität einer ansonsten gut organisierten Gesellschaft bedrohen. Sie werden als ‚Abjekte’ dargestellt, die die Grenze zwischen Leben und Tod, dem Menschlichen und dem Unmenschlichen, dem Männlichen und dem Weiblichen, verwischen. Am Schluss beider Erzählwerke wird das Monströs- Feminine ausgegrenzt bzw. eliminiert, wobei diese als ‚Purifikation’ empfundene Aktion das Gefühl der Erleichterung und Zufriedenheit hervorruft. In Pullmans Werk dagegen werden Harpyien als Monster dargestellt, mit denen dennoch eine vernünftige Kommunikation möglich ist. Man verehrt sie als großzügige Wesen, weshalb man sie u.a. als „Sanfte Flügel“ bezeichnet. Obwohl darin der Versuch einer Wiederherstellung des positiven Begriffs vom Monströs-Femininen zu erblicken ist, spielen solche Gestalten jedoch nur eine – von der symbolischen Ordnung zugewiesene – zweitklassige Rolle, so dass das Stereotyp trotzdem erhalten bleibt

Challenges in Achieving Coherence and Cohesion: A Discourse Analysis of Chinese EFL Students’ Essays

This paper aims to highlight the prevalent challenges faced by Hong Kong Chinese students in utilizing connectives and ensuring coherence in their English academic writing. Research indicates that constructing fluent, effective, and cohesive English written texts that maintain logical flow poses a significant challenge for Chinese learners studying English as a foreign language (EFL). This difficulty is likely attributed to the substantial cultural differences between the English and Chinese languages, regardless of the learners’ grasp of English grammar and vocabulary usage. In order to raise awareness among EFL teachers regarding the struggles Chinese students encounter in mastering connectives and cohesion in English writing, this qualitative study analyses five sample English term papers written by Hong Kong university students majoring in English in 2023. The findings reveal that the Hong Kong EFL participants tend to present their arguments in an indirect and circular manner within their English essay assignments. Additionally, due to cultural norms and politeness, the true intent of their writing is often withheld, and the thesis statement is implicitly inferred towards the end of the essay rather than being explicitly stated at the beginning in the introduction. Furthermore, a focus group interview with the student participants conducted after the written analysis demonstrated that their English academic essays reflect the influence of Chinese social interaction norms on rhetorical patterns. The relevance of this study lies in its potential to inform EFL instruction, enabling educators to better support Hong Kong Chinese students in navigating the complexities of English academic writing and to adapt pedagogical approaches that bridge cultural and linguistic gaps

Delimit Imagination? A Comparison of Unabridged and Abridged Versions of Peter Pan

Adaptations of English literature have thrived in the last decade to cope with the ever-expanding market of teaching English. The reading public seems to endorse it as a pedagogic device to increase children’s interest in reading and improve their language. Whether it has increased language proficiency remains a matter of debate. Our main concern, however, is the cultivation interest in literature through abridgement and to impact young learners’ imagination. At first glance, abridgement seems to open the door to the world of the classics so that children may have first-hand experience of literature, yet to achieve its ultimate purpose one needs imagination vis-à-vis the reading text. Does the abridgement which favours less demanding verbal dexterity operate at the expense of children’s imagination?Pertaining to the question, we conducted a comparative study of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1911), the unabridged version, and G. Clemen’s abridged version (2000), their contexts and lexicons, in particular the deletion of some famous lines and passages, the replacement of some significant expressions and, eventually, how all these impact children’s imagination. While it can be argued that the abridged text makes reading easier for learners, its characters have largely been flattened and the recurring theme of not growing up has been disparaged. The interplay of sexuality becomes banal. A visible example is the omission of the poignant start “All children, except one, grow up”.Our assertion is that abridgement should be executed and refined not only for the advantage of lightening the linguistic burden but, more importantly, of nurturing the imagination in the young minds. To unleash their imagination, light but purposeful and exuberant reading with a fine adjustment of authenticity and aesthetics is deemed necessary and beneficial. Ultimately, children will improve their language and develop a life-long interest in English literature

Repressed Sexual Modernity: A Case Study of Herbert Giles’ (1845 - 1935) Rendition of Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1880) in the late Qing

Translation studies in English and Chinese has long been of great interest to academics. Yet, Chinese scholars who have translation training and linguistic expertise are often found to “give excessive attention to listing facts and probing linguistic matters, to the neglect of the cultural and contextual considerations that have given rise to translation in China in the first place” (Lin, 2002, p. 170). Much emphasis has been placed on translation strategies, while translation “in connection with power and patronage” (Lefereve, 1992, p. 10) is overlooked, leaving “existing ideology” or “existing poetics” (Lefereve, 1992, p. 10), such as gender unexplored. In light of this, this paper attempts to take the literary and cultural approach and focus on examining the gender ideologies in Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) and Herbert Giles’ English rendition (1880). By comparing the source and target texts, the paper reveals that in many of Pu Songling’s stories, spirit-freelove and sexual pleasure are celebrated. A witty parody of the imitative structures of gender can be found in Pu Songling’s “Painted Skin” too. Unfortunately, to a large extent, such transgressive gender views are repressed in Giles’ English rendition

Zatrta modernost spolov: študija prevoda Herberta Gilesa (1845 – 1935) Pu Songlingovega dela »Strange Stories From A Chinese Studio« iz poznega Qinga

Translation studies in English and Chinese has long been of great interest to academics. Yet, Chinese scholars who have translation training and linguistic expertise are often found to “give excessive attention to listing facts and probing linguistic matters, to the neglect of the cultural and contextual considerations that have given rise to translation in China in the first place” (Lin, 2002, p. 170). Much emphasis has been placed on translation strategies, while translation “in connection with power and patronage” (Lefereve, 1992, p. 10) is overlooked, leaving “existing ideology” or “existing poetics” (Lefereve, 1992, p. 10), such as gender unexplored. In light of this, this paper attempts to take the literary and cultural approach and focus on examining the gender ideologies in Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) and Herbert Giles’ English rendition (1880). By comparing the source and target texts, the paper reveals that in many of Pu Songling’s stories, spirit-freelove and sexual pleasure are celebrated. A witty parody of the imitative structures of gender can be found in Pu Songling’s “Painted Skin” too. Unfortunately, to a large extent, such transgressive gender views are repressed in Giles’ English rendition.Prevodoslovne razprave iz in v angleščino oz. kitajščino so v akademskem svetu že dolgo aktualne. Vseeno pa še vedno prevladuje mnenje, da kitajski prevajalci, ki so sicer opravili prevajalsko uvajanje in imajo tudi jezikoslovno znanje, vse preveč pozornosti namenjajo nizanju dejstev in jezikoslovnim problemom in tako zanemarjajo kulturne in kontekstualne pomisleke, ki so v osnovi spodbudili prevajanja na Kitajskem (Lin, 2002, str. 170). Velik poudarek je na strategijah prevajanja, medtem ko je spregledano prevajanje, ki je “povezano z močjo in pokroviteljstvom” (Lefereve, 1992, str. 10). S tem so spregledane in ostajajo neraziskane obstoječe ideologije, kot je na primer vprašanje spolov, ter poetika (Lefereve, 1992). V tem kontekstu se tokratna raziskava posveča proučitvi ideologij o spolih v Pu Songlingovem delu Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (1740) in angleški prevod Herberta Gilesa (1880). Primerjava izvornega in prevedenega teksta razkriva, da sta v veliki večini zgodb avtorja Pu Songlinga močno opevana neduhovna ljubezen in seksualno zadovoljstvo.  Duhovito parodijo imitativnih struktur spolov najdemo tudi v Pu Songlingovem delu »Barvna polt«. Na žalost pa Gilesov prevod v angleščino v precejšnji meri zatre transgresivne poglede na spol

Losing Sight, Gaining Insight: Blindness and the Romantic Vision in Grimm’s “Rapunzel”

In Brothers’ Grimm’s fairy tales, the motif of blindness occurs quite frequently, each time with a different symbolic meaning. In “Hansel and Gretel”, blindness is represented as a body deformity, an abject feature of the red-eyed, half-blind cannibalistic witch who lives in the candy house in the middle of the forest, while in “Cinderella”, blindness becomes more: a brutal punishment for wrongdoings, such as when: the wickedly unkind stepsisters’ eyes are pecked out by pigeons as they are on the way to the wedding of the Cinderella and her handsome prince. Yet, in “Rapunzel”, blindness is not meant to be an abject feature nor a direct punishment. Rather, it opens the door to the Romantic vision and spirit. Through studying the earlier versions of the Rapunzel story and the Grimm’s later version, this paper explores how blindness represents the limitations of logic and reason and, through embracing the beautiful power of the female sensibility, welcomes the rebirth of insight, faith and Romantic sentiments