If you see a moon as a moon, you are not there yet
"If you see a moon as a moon, you are not there yet".
This is what my Chinese literature teacher said in the class 15 years ago and I've been thinking about the sentence ever after she said that. We were studying the ancient prose at that time and she tried to emphasize the importance of synaesthesia and guide us to learn the beauty of language art. The point is that if you have stored enough knowledge for Chinese literature, you will no longer take the objective thing as-is, but instead, you get associated/emotionalized with the objectives with your personal experience, feeling, and situations by using a symbolized image. This is where imagination happens. I am resonated with the point Vygotsky made that imagination is taken based on reality and previous experience, which provides the material the imagination has access to.
I also think writing is a way to materialize the imagination. I believe that only when the students have made the sense of language art, will they be able to write creatively. Everyone can write, but not every piece of writing can be considered as a piece of art. Everyone can read, but what they read influences how and what they write. I recalled that there are a lot of writing classes in China and their purpose is to help students improve writing for the higher education administration exam. I didn't participate but I guess it might be helpful for learning how to organize the paper but does nothing to do with the core of writing "imagination", which may not be gained through external instruction, but is rooted in the individual synaesthesia combinations to the world.
This is what my Chinese literature teacher said in the class 15 years ago and I've been thinking about the sentence ever after she said that. We were studying the ancient prose at that time and she tried to emphasize the importance of synaesthesia and guide us to learn the beauty of language art. The point is that if you have stored enough knowledge for Chinese literature, you will no longer take the objective thing as-is, but instead, you get associated/emotionalized with the objectives with your personal experience, feeling, and situations by using a symbolized image. This is where imagination happens. I am resonated with the point Vygotsky made that imagination is taken based on reality and previous experience, which provides the material the imagination has access to.
I also think writing is a way to materialize the imagination. I believe that only when the students have made the sense of language art, will they be able to write creatively. Everyone can write, but not every piece of writing can be considered as a piece of art. Everyone can read, but what they read influences how and what they write. I recalled that there are a lot of writing classes in China and their purpose is to help students improve writing for the higher education administration exam. I didn't participate but I guess it might be helpful for learning how to organize the paper but does nothing to do with the core of writing "imagination", which may not be gained through external instruction, but is rooted in the individual synaesthesia combinations to the world.
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