Poetry and Future: To await New Year in poems — “Lasting Sound” New Year Poetry Concert

On the night of December 30^th, experts from the Zhejiang Speech Association and recitation lovers in Hangzhou gathered together in the conference hall of the 2^nd floor of Zhejiang Library. With the shows of “Little Fairytale”, “the Little Ears of Leaves” and “I Like You Fox”, the beautiful voices came along and the New Year Poetry Concert with the theme of “Lasting Sound” was put on stage.

This New Year Poetry Concert was jointly organized by Zhejiang Library, Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions and Zhejiang Speech Association. Hangzhou has always been a city of poetry, and it has been immersed in the lingering fragrance of poetry since ancient times. In recent years, Zhejiang Library has hosted many recitation activities and the library has become a paradise for poetry lovers. The staff reading school newly founded by in Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions has also aroused the enthusiastic response of the city’s recitation fans and achieved good results. The New Year’s Poetry Concert has also been warmly welcomed by people in Hangzhou. Over 400 people signed up soon after the registration notice was made through WeChat. “In the south of the clouds, in the far afield, there is a group of leaves saying, ‘We’d like to blossom like flowers.’ There is a group of flowers saying, ‘We’d like to fly like the birds.’ A group of peacocks said, ‘We’d like to grow like the trees.’” The Poetry Concert opened the first chapter in the poetic language delivered by younger readers with voices full of appeal.

This Poetry Concert was divided into four chapters. The first chapter was “Fairy Tale of Sound”, the poems in which took us back to happy childhood. The second chapter was “Conversation of Sound”, which used poetry to voice something we can’t speak. The third chapter was “Reminiscence of Sound”, the familiar voices of which brought us back to classic film and television works. The fourth chapter was “Lasting Sound”, which allowed the audience to think about the future in the sounds. Most of the works were showed with delicate affections, in a hope to make the children and parents who attended the concert feel the power of love through the infectious works.

The New Year Poetry Concert tried a variety of ways to show the sounds. The little voice actors performed live dubbing for Peppa Pig, The Secret Life of Pets, Zootopia and other cartoons. Well-known anchors Lei Ming and Meng Yang in Hangzhou showed various ways to present sounds, such as telling movies for the blind and dubbing the scenes from films. As Lei Ming said, voiced language is getting wider application and the sound allows you to “see” a different world. In the Q&A session, the organizers also gave out exquisite poetry collection suitable to be read by both the children and the parents. It is hoped that through such a ceremonial activity, children and their parents can enter the world of poems and feel the poetic beauty in the warm lines.

Throughout the concert, poetry and music were intertwined, accompanied by beliefs and blessings. Poems read out passionately one after another gave the audience a chance to appreciate the power of poetry and the charm of sound. “We hope that everyone will not forget poetry in their ordinary life, not forget the future, and more importantly, let our employees bear in mind the character and spirit of this city.” An official from the Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions remarked that they had always been attaching great importance to the promotion of the spiritual and cultural life of the employees, and thus were constantly exploring new platforms to enrich the cultural and sports activities of the employees. Zhejiang Library and Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions have joined hands to invite the employees to bring their families to celebrate the coming of New Year in the form of poetry concert, which was very meaningful for both the Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions and employees as we used poetry to say goodbye to 2018 and to welcome the new year.