Walking the Wall

The students of Qingtongxia Vocational High School

So did you hear the one about the Wall Walker who was roped into singing “Edelweiss” in front of 300 giggling high-school students?

It all started on that Sunday when we met Hilton, the English language teacher from Qingtongxia (see Sunday in Qingtongxia). Not only was Hilton immensely generous and hospitable, but he was also very convincing, and somehow he got Brendan and me to agree to visit an English class at his school the following Tuesday.

From left to right, Hilton, two students, Brendan, the headmaster’s son, “Tommy,” and Mr Wang, the headmaster

What he neglected to tell us was that one-third of the school would be there and that we would be sitting at a panel in front of a row of microphones, giving the students pointers on learning English and participating in an impromptu episode of karaoke. A small oversight.

Headmaster Wang in his office

After the obligatory cup of tea with the headmaster, Brendan and I walked into the hall and froze. There in front of us were more than 300 students and teachers, all staring excitedly and craning to get a good look. A young guy with a video camera zoomed in. My first thought? Something like, “Damn, if he’d warned us about this I would have actually done something to my hair.” No choice on the clothes, though; we only have one set.

At least most of them seem to be enjoying themselves

As these students sang in unison and recited Tang Dynasty poetry for us, we couldn’t help but feel impressed with their knowledge and pride in their collective cultural heritage. Three hundred voices reciting the same poem is quite powerful. Fortunately, I remembered Dorothea Mackellar’s poem “My Country,” so we were able to fire back with a bit of Australian poetic history.

Me and the girls

The group singing evolved into solo singing – brave individuals performing solo in front of their peers. One boy even attempted a Shakespeare sonnet in English then gave up after some perseverance and finished in Chinese.

A student singing a famous pop song in front of the school. Now it’s your turn.

When it seemed that no more students were forthcoming, Hilton turned to us and said, “So, what are you going to sing?” We mumbled a bit and tried to convince him that we couldn’t, so he suggested we sing Christmas carols. “Everybody knows ‘Jingle Bells,’” he said. This guy was determined. So, supported by the students in Chinese, together we sang “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night.”

“Oh, no, you can’t sit down,” he said as the strains of the Christmas carols faded away.

“How about you sing “Edelweiss?’” You know, from The Sound of Music.

Brendan triumphantly raised his hands in the air, claiming no knowledge of the words, despite having just watched the movie on a locally bought pirated DVD on our laptop. Oh, the coincidences are astounding.

“Emma, you can sing it by yourself,” he laughed, knowing full well I can’t hold a tune.

Having learned long ago that when people ask you to sing, it’s better just to do it and hope they stop you half way through, I sang. My theory is you draw less attention to yourself by doing rather than by repeatedly protesting. In this case, they didn’t stop me half way through. Maybe I should have protested.

Brendan, take over, pleeeaaase