The Long Project

Culture 10, East 08' Media Launch 6th of Feb,2008- When the yellow dragon meets the blue dragon

2008-02-07T00:01:00.000Z

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂, 萬事如意!

Today, The weather was so wonderful. It was a really sunny day.

We, four schools finally met together to dance our two lovely dragons. We danced the dragons infront of many people included the children from Shanghai.

We had three performance and won a lovely feedback.

Photo by Chun Chao Chiu

This is our performance vedio clips.
Have a look!

你可以試著到英國BBC的網站看我們小朋友們精采的演出喔! 只要連到以下的網址

View video from BBC - Look North News

You can look the vedio by click the link bellow

** North East honours Far East **A year-long celebration of Oriental culture has been launched in Newcastle and Gateshead.< http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7230000/newsid_7230900?redirect=7230904.stm&news=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1 >

Performance Post

2008-02-04T23:16:00.000Z

Performance Date and Time --- 06 /02 /2008

2008-02-04T22:43:00.000Z

Place: the square around the Dance City
Time: 10: 30 Am.
Who: 92 students from four schools + two Chinese Dragons.

THE LONG PROJECT

The start of 2008 has seen the UK develop and nurture its ties with China, as the Prime Minister: The Rt Hon Gordon Brown visited the Far East to discuss various key subjects including international and economic issues. The visit holds additional significance as the country hosts the 2008 Olympic Games later in the year, when all eyes will be on the nation's capital Beijing.

Closer to home, Tyne & Wear has become the unofficial hotbed for worldwide relations as artist Dr. Chun-Chao Chiu delivers the culmination of 4 months intensive work, which has seen four NewcastleGateshead-based primary schools develop an on-line relationship with three schools on the other side of the globe in China and Taiwan.

The Long Project has involved Dr. Chun-Chao Chiu teaching nearly 100 young people from Birtley East Community Primary School, Kenton Bar Primary School, Sacred Heart RC Primary School and Greenside Primary School - about the origins of Chinese culture, through the means of storytelling and the creation of two fabulous traditional Chinese Dragons.

The Long Project is a great opportunity for children to directly learn about and experience a different culture by interacting first-hand with people from other ethnicities. The programme is an ideal way for young people to develop self confidence through the various creative stages of the project, such as drawing, painting and the practical aspect of constructing the dancing Chinese Dragons. The project uniquely enforces the true meaning of team work as both the construction process and Dragon Dance procedures require groups of people to work closely together as a unit.

The unique aspect of The Long Project has been the way every step of the creative process has been captured and documented for the world to see on its very own BLOGSPOT - http://longproject.blogspot.com

The Long Project has developed a close relationship with Xin Yuan Xi Li School in Beijing (China), Chi Bi Lu Primary School in Nanjin (China) and WanFu Elementary School in Taipei (Taiwan), which has also seen the Far Eastern schools develop and post (upload) their paintings and facts about the Chinese Dragon online with the intention of sharing the information with their UK counterparts. It shows a clever use of technology to unify youth communities on a global scale.

The blog has served as a cultural platform for the pupils from the UK, China and Taiwan to communicate online with each other. All of the participants have been provided with access to the web-blog enabling them to contribute their views and feedback via the website.

The UK participants have been given the chance to sample an exciting and realistic experience, as they develop a cultural awareness by directly communicating with young people from a different society [Far East]. Likewise for those pupils in China and Taiwan, they have learnt how to appreciate the values and customs of their own culture by sharing knowledge about Chinese traditions and observing online how the information is interpreted by a group of children from a western country.

Quote from Garry Smith, Strictly Press

Comment from Taipei

2008-02-04T22:39:00.000Z

Ms. Lo,

我個人非常高興有這個機會與您合作
而且非常佩服您可以從無到有
帶著外國的小朋友認識中國文化
甚至具體的製作與實踐舞龍的精神
就連本國的小學
要實施起來也很不容易
更何況您在國外
自我摸索而完成如此艱鉅的任務
可以想像大家參予活動的那股熱情與成就感
是無可取代或比擬的
前兩週在上電腦課時
我上網連結您的網址
廣播給學生觀賞你們的進度
學生們熱烈的討論
彷彿他們也身歷其境般的愉快
就像開始看到他們的畫作在網頁上
一樣的興奮
就連家長也非常認同
能與國外的朋友相互串連交流
的意義重大
因此 我們都要感謝您
所給予的機會
也謝謝您所帶領的小朋友與團隊

Comment from Beijing

2008-02-04T22:37:00.000Z

Ms. Chu, described that:

在画龙的活动中，孩子们通过查找资料，如：龙的起源、龙的造型、龙的寓意、龙的精神，以及龙和中华民族的渊源等，更深入地了解中华民族古老的神话。他们独立创作、互相参观和提出建议，修改完善作品，创作了一幅幅生动并寓意深厚的龙的图画。这些作品在学校的展示窗中展出，得到更多同学、家长、教师的称赞。在元旦联欢会上，他们把自己的作品送给其他同伴，增进了友谊。

这次活动给搭建了交流与合作的平台，使孩子们展示自我、欣赏别人，更加自信；给所有人创造了深入了解中华民族古老文明的机会，我们更加喜欢祖先创造的龙，深刻理解龙的精神，懂得如何做好龙的传人。

Birtley East - When the Birtley meets Grrenside- the yellow dragon arising

2008-01-31T23:04:00.000Z

Kenton Bar- When the Scare Heart meets the Kenton Bar- The dragon, flags and drumers

2008-01-28T17:50:00.000Z

You can also view ITV Tyne Tee News by click the website below,

http://www.itvlocal.com/tynetees/news/?player=TYN_News_26&void=145132

Greenside Primary- Dance practice

2008-01-25T12:19:00.001Z

Birtley East Primary- The Dragon dance and the dragon body

2008-01-24T20:03:00.000Z

Dance practice with Apple.

The First sight of our dragon.

Sacred Heart - Dance Practice

2008-01-22T17:51:00.001Z

Kenton Bar - Dance practice

2008-01-22T17:10:00.001Z

A Dancer and Choreography Mrs Apple Young was invited to teach our dragon team to do the dargon dance. She will help us to design the route of dragon dance for our performace event.

Greenside Primary School

2008-01-15T22:06:00.000Z

Kenton Bar Primary School

2008-01-14T23:04:00.000Z

Birtley East Primary School

2008-01-11T19:47:00.001Z

Sacred Heart Primary School

2008-01-11T19:46:00.000Z

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-12-17T15:06:00.001Z

Greenside Primary School - The final decoration of the Long body

2007-12-14T19:01:00.001Z

Today, we finished our part of Long body. We have been working for few weeks to finish the decoration. Finally, we did it. Please watch the vedio and you will able to see it.

We cannot wait to see it all put together.

Kenton Bar Primary School - The Head Hunting

2007-12-13T22:38:00.001Z

Birtley East Primary School

2007-12-11T19:18:00.000Z

Sacred Heart Primary School

2007-12-10T19:43:00.001Z

Greenside Primary School

2007-12-07T20:48:00.000Z

Birtley East Primary School

2007-12-05T13:53:00.000Z

Sacred Heart Primary School

2007-12-03T20:57:00.001Z

Greenside Primary School

2007-11-27T19:41:00.001Z

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-11-26T21:15:00.000Z

Birtley East Primary School

2007-11-23T23:39:00.001Z

Sacred Heart Primary School - Decorating the Dragon Body and Flags

2007-11-20T17:21:00.001Z

Greenside Primary School - Decorating

2007-11-19T20:15:00.000Z

Kenton Bar Primary School- Story telling + Decoration

2007-11-17T16:15:00.000Z

Birtley East Primary School- Decorating

2007-11-13T23:22:00.001Z

Sacred Heart Primary School - Story Telling & Decorating

2007-11-13T19:37:00.000Z

Greenside primary- Story Telling

2007-11-02T22:39:00.000Z

Birtley East Primary School- Story Telling

2007-11-01T18:18:00.000Z

A professional story teller Pascal was invited to join our Long Project this morning. She told us a few dragon storys based on China and England. We really enjoyed the story session. We know why the dragon family wanted to move away from the dragon land. It was because the Yellow emperor wanted to build a great city. We also know the story of English Worm (dragon) in the North East.

Please look at our photos and see how much we enjoyed today's session.

We even tried to create a drawing based on the story which Pascal told us. We have also made two cards for our partner schools. Our class teacher Mrs. Fry also made one. She thinks it is a very good idea to send one to the teacher in Beijing, Nanjin or Taipei. They will be suprised.

Sacred Heat Primary School

2007-10-30T22:25:00.000Z

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-10-29T22:55:00.000Z

We were creating our New Year Cards today.

Mrs. Wang explained and demonstrated how to do paper cutting. Everyone did two different piece of cards. One is for the pupils from our partner school -Scared Heart Primary School, the other one is going to send to our partner school in China.

We will starting our decoration next time when Dr. Chiu visit us.

Logo

2007-10-28T22:57:00.000Z

This is our Long Project Logo.

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-10-20T15:38:00.001+01:00

Birtley East Primary School

2007-10-17T23:48:00.001+01:00

Greenside Primary School

2007-10-16T20:14:00.000+01:00

Sacred Heart Primary School

2007-10-15T22:08:00.000+01:00

We had a busy day today. Learning how to say Happy Chinese New Year, lucky, happiness and so on in Chinese. We are also busy with designing our dragon. We spent most morning to draw or paint our dragon. Soon we will finish our design and start to decorate the dragon.

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-10-11T23:46:00.001+01:00

Some pupils talked about this project.

Monique said: “I am really enjoying this project, because it is very exciting. Dr. Chiu and Mrs. Wang came and made some dragons with us. And we painted pictures. I really really liked it.”

Sophie commented: “I like the LONG project, because it was lots of fun and I enjoyed it. It was excellent and I liked the picture what you draw. Hope you like your visit. To Dr. Chiu and Mrs. Wang: have a safe journey home!”

Stephanie mentioned: “I like the LONG project, because we get to paint, sketch and have lots of fun. Plus we get to learn about Chinese culture + Dr. Chiu + Mrs. Wang are so nice and kind. Plus they are very funny and it is very nice to have them here. We are very lucky to have them here.”

Nanjing Chibilu Primary School

2007-10-11T18:27:00.000+01:00

白希远(Bai Xiyuan)

沈欣洁(Shen Xinjie)
李闻夕(Li Wenxi)
白欣萌(Bai Xinmeng)
王佳琪(Wang Jiaqi)
陈馨仪(Chen Xinyi)

睢缘(Sui Yuan)
韩宇星(Han Yuxing)
张紫岩(Zhang Ziyan)
黄鑫(Huang Xin)

Birtley East Primary School

2007-10-10T16:42:00.001+01:00

Greenside Primary School

2007-10-09T22:19:00.001+01:00

Today, this project got very good responses from lovely pupils.

Kathryn mentioned: “The best was the art. I liked it when we were painting. I thought it is good, funny and cool. Dr. Chiu is so fun. I liked you.”

Laura said: “I am enjoying the LONG project so far. I can’t wait until we are making and dancing the real big dragon. We are very lucky to have Dr. Chiu and Mrs. Wang in with us. ”

Daniel commented: “It is really interesting so far. Dr. Chiu is a good artist and is really funny. He has many good talents. Mrs. Wang has some good stories and is most helpful to come and help us and it is most fun. ”

Liam said: “I liked doing the painting and the puppets. I am looking forward to the Chinese dragon and also looking forward to performing behind the Millennium Bridge now. I am really good at drawing dragons. I really like the LONG project. My favorite part was doing the puppets with Dr. Chiu.”

Becky said: “Up to now, I think the Chinese LONG project is very interesting. The best bit up to now is the painting, because we learned lots of new ways for painting and painting over pastels. Dr. Chiu is very funny and happy all the time. He is also very talented at voices and funny things. Mrs. Wang is really good at telling stories and is very helpful around the class.”

Thomas mentioned: “The best bit about the project so far is do the pictures in pastels. I feel happy because we were doing art all day long. Today we were doing drawing painting and colouring.”

Sacred Heart Primary School

2007-10-08T20:46:00.000+01:00

A few comments from the class, Laura Fitzsimmons said, "The long project is fun because the people tell stories, do crafts, look at Chinese characters and more. I can never wait for the day they come!"

Jack Dennett described, "I think it is great for us to see what the Chinese do and think about the dragon. And “I love the Chinese, I think this is the greatest thing in the world."

"The long project is preparing us for a performance at the quayside. People are helping us prepare for the event so we can celebrate Chinese New Year. "– Joseph Forster mentioned.

There are some pictures for today's activities:

Paintings from Class7, Year 5, WanFu Elementary School, Taipei

2007-10-07T16:05:00.000+01:00

凌婉庭 10 years old

Year 5 Class 7 , has contributed their lovely paintings to this project. They were excited about join this project. They have used extract time to finish their paintings outside the normal teaching timetable. There are 11 pupils' artworks have been selected to demonstrate their creative mind and wonderful skills.

This is their class's website
http://css000000036956.tw.class.urlifelinks.com/

and their wonderful paintings.

廖翊坊 9 years old

詹閔茹 11 years old

李泳輯 9 years old

黃騁遠 10 years old

王柏凱 10 years old

謝伊勒 9 years old

邱于芳 9 years old

蔡定超 9 years old

陳孟冠 10 years old

楊順雅 10 years old

Greenside Primary School

2007-10-05T16:13:00.000+01:00

Hello! Year 5, Good morning. Would you like to know how to say Dragon in Chinese? Repeat me please - Just say "Long". This was our first lesson from Dr. Chiu.

We had a few lessons today. The Chinese culture and custom were amazing to us. Such as the Chinese dragon dance, Lion dance, Dragon boat race and the Chinese New Year parade etc. They are quite different from our culture.

We spent a cuople of hours to make a dragon puppet and we really wish we can take it home. We would like to show my family what we have done in school today.

Birtley East Primary School

2007-10-04T17:37:00.000+01:00

The view outside the class room was so beautiful today. The grass is green with a lovely smell.

We worked with 19 pupils from the Year 5 calss at Birtley East Priamry. We had a wonderful day today. They were responding very well and asked a lot of questions. For example, Can I touch the dragon? Can we have a dance with the dragon? When can we see our photos on the website? When can we ........?

Be patient! Children! We need to hatch the dragon first.

Kenton Bar Primary School

2007-10-03T22:01:00.000+01:00

There are 27 lovely pupils in year 5 class 3 at Kenton Bar Primary School. The story of the Chinese Long were very interesting. Pupils asked a lot of questions about this Long Project. Few pupils kept asking when we are going to make the real thing- the 50 meters long "Long" dragon? It sounds very exciting! A pupil said.

At Sacred Heart Primary School

2007-10-02T22:49:00.000+01:00

There are 30 pupils in the year 5 class at the Sacred Heart Primary School. We had a few storys about Chinese Dragon, for example, Dragon Kings, Dragon liver, Painting dragon without eyes and Mr. Yate loves dragon... We also decorated and created our little dragon.

Works from Xinyuan Xili Primary School of Beijing

2007-10-01T21:19:00.000+01:00

Xinyuan Xili primary school is located in Chaoyang District of Beijing. It was founded in Septemper, 1983. Totally, there are 17 classes, 9 of them are set up for special education. 311 students are enjoying their study in this school now, including 84 special children of mental retardation, hearing disability and infantile autism.

"Taking Off Towards the Sky" by 周蔷 (Zhou Qiang) 11 years old

"Volitation" by 柴晶晶 (Chai Jingjing) 12 years old

"Dancing--Chinese Dragon" by 李丽思 (Li Lisi) 12 years old

"Hovering with Clouds" by 刘浩楠 (Liu Haonan) 9 years old

"Dragon of Reunion" by 王磊 (Wang Lei) 16 years old

"Seven Colours Chinese Dragon" by 杨博任 (Yang Boren) 13 years old

"Prosperous Chinese Dragon" by 张波 (Zhang Bo) 17 years old

"Two Dragons Playing With Bright Pearl" by 金蕊 (Jin Rui) 13 years old

"Multicoloured Joyful Dragons" by 宋晶晶 (Song Jingjing) 12 years old

"Olympic Dragon for Beijing 2008" by 张燕 (Zhang Yan) 8 years old

Schools Lists

2007-09-26T20:16:00.000+01:00

There are four schools are going to involve in this fantastic project in Newcastle and Gateshead.

Gateshead area,
1. Birtley East Primary School
http://www.birtleyeastprimary.ik.org/

2. Greenside Primary School

Newcastle area,
1. Kenton Bar Primary School
http://www.kentonbar.newcastle.sch.uk/

2. Scared Heart Primary School

Partner Schools
From Taipei, Beijing and Nanjing .

1. Taipei WanFu Elementary School 台北市萬福國小
http://www.wfps.tp.edu.tw/

2. Beijing 北京市新源西里小学
http://www.bjsxl.cn/index.asp

3. Nanjing 南京市赤壁路小学
http://www.cbl.cn/main.asp

Long Project 2 @ Newcastle and Gateshead 2008

2007-09-24T19:55:00.000+01:00

The Long Project 2, 2008 Brief introduction

This new project was funded by NGI (NewcastleGateshead Initivate) Culture 10 and based on the previous one but will be involving more schools. Four Year 5 classes from different primary schools, two from Newcastle and two from Gateshead, will be involved in this project. Pupils from the same city will team up with each other to design and create a dragon that represents their city. After completing the creation, both teams will dance their dragon at the Quayside. It will be part of the Year of Look East and 2008 Chinese New Year’s celebration. Each team will dance along each side of the river and then move towards the Millennium Bridge. They will greet each other in the middle of the bridge to celebrate the coming of the Chinese New Year.

In addition, during the project development, there will be a cultural exchange programme to link the four year five classes in Newcastle and Gateshead and another four year five classes from schools in Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Taipei.

NGI http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/index.php

Aim of the project

Theaim of this project, the Long Project 2, is to create an international link in culture between North East of England, China, and Taiwan. It involves young people from 8 schools in these four areas. They will work together to create two 50 metre Chinese dragons to celebrate the “Year of East 2008”.
This proposal is promoting cultural diversity and to be able to produce a new piece of work which would be part of the Culture 10 "the Look East" programme and Chinese New Year celebration 2008.

Culture 10 http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/culture10.php

A brief introduction to The Long Project, 2007
The Long Project was an 8 week project funded by Arts Council England’s grants. I worked with 30 pupils from the West Jesmond Primary to create a 20 metre long “Long” (dragon in Chinese) from December 2006 to early February 2007. Throughout different stages including story telling, dragon designing, construction and performance, the pupils participated in this project were able to gain a greater appreciation of the traditions behind it.

The dragon which created by the pupils was also part of the Chinese New Year celebration 2007 (the Year of Pig). These pupils danced the dragon for the Chinese New Year Launch Party in front of public at the Monument, Newcastle 15 February 2007. The whole project gained a great feedback from the public and press.

A video clip for 2007 Long Project