The 2018 performance in China cultural Center in Singapore came to an end. As the cast prepared to take a photo, director Su Mingyang went missing.

Director Su was so excited that he had hidden himself to calm down.

In the past three years, Su Mingyang established good friendship with the children while working in China National Theatre for Children, but now after completing the mission successfully he had to return soon.

Teachers and children in Malan Flower art school. At the third line, the fifth one is Su. [photo/Xinhua]

Malan Flower Art School of China National Theatre for Children , co-hosted by China cultural Center in Singapore and China National Theatre for Children, began in March 2016. Su Mingyang became a full-time teacher in the school. The first training stage had 43 members and they were divided into four classes whose age ranged from 5 to 12.

At the end of October 2015, as soon as Su came to Singapore, he began to prepare the establishment for the start of school. He spent 10 days designing a declaim of Three Character Primer performed by seven students from Nanyang Primary School for the opening ceremony of China Culture Center. After that, he organized an experience class containing 30 students from Nanyang Primary School. After just 10 hours of training, they held a great performance. Various programs of Chinese tradition blazed a promising future for this new school.

With the support of China Culture Center and China National Theatre For Children, Su and other teachers led Malan Flower Art School to a bigger scale. In these years, every report-back performance was always exceptional and amazing. On July 20, 2018, after working hard for months, a fairytale musical named Malan Flower played by students from Malan Flower Art school together with Chinese children was held at the China Culture Center. And this show was the first play that consisted of foreign teams which was also the important play on the opening ceremony of 2018 New Youth Arts Festival. On November 18, they brought another two dramas, Rising to Crow of Rooster and the Story of Puppet, that completely showed the stage performance and dramatic speaking.

Besides teaching, Su Mingyang carried out cultural exchanges. Lately, invited by Media Chinese International, Singapore, Su delivered a speech called the Imitation and Expression in Children Drama Education at the 33rd Book Fair in Singapore. He shared with teachers his experience and practical skills of drama education. He said that pre-school period is the golden period for children to learn imitation and expression and pre-school teachers should make full use of mutual games and drama to train children’s imagination and capability of creation and imitation. When children are familiar to creative imitation, they are able to express themselves and different roles so that they can understand the values dramas delivers.

Students in MaLan Flower Art School after the drama Malan Flower [photo/Xinhua]

Recalling these three years, Su said that it was the children who taught him. “They are informed and bear creative minds, taking Chinese drama class is more an interest.”

Su Mingyang said in recent years, the Singapore government has attached great importance to the understanding and inheritance of Chinese traditional culture in Chinese lessons. Drama, traditional opera, Chinese song and Wushu and so on became more popular among children. “During their learning, they can appreciate the endless charm of Chinese through pronunciation, body gestures, facial expression, etc.”