Jointly reported by:
Chok Jia Yien Jr3S2
Leong Jomin Jr3S2
Wong Bry Yan Sr1ScC
On the 20th of May, 2023, Kuen Cheng High School organised a talk for Junior Middle 3 students regarding literature. Mr Teh Tian Jing, a PhD student of the University of Southern California, who is also the Champion of the National Intervarsity Chinese Literature Award was the speaker. The talk was held at the Auditorium and officially started at 8.15 a.m.
Mr Teh Tian Jing believes that there are two main elements to creating a poem, space and time. According to our speaker, we must make use of our perspective on life and the world, which correspond to [space and time], to think. He proceeded to talk about how we do not lack information and knowledge in this generation.
What is the usage of poems? Mr Teh said that poems can be used as a form of self-reflection and healing. For instance, employing poems as a window to face the problems you did not want to deal with. He then moved on to talk about his interpretation of literature; he thinks literature is not a book, not an author, and not reading itself, but that literature should be understood as an event. The students were told about the four main factors of literature, including time & space, the author, the work created, and the readers.
Approximately halfway into the talk, Mr Teh started to showcase some other works of literature such as: “The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition” written by Meyer Howard Abrams, “Nostalgia” directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and some of his own literary work.
Before the talk ended, there was a Q&A session provided. The participants showed great interest in his work and were curious in the writing process. The day’s event officially ended with a group photo.