Many people hate reading Shakespeare. Yes, that is the truth. Everyone knows Shakespeare and knows how competent — more like how much of a genius — he is at crafting language. However, in our spare times, we would still rather choose to grab a page flipper rather than read old English. For some people, old English is more than just excessively convoluted diction: it seems as if it is completely irrelevant to their lives at all. If reading Shakespeare is so boring and difficult, then why is it mandatory to read at least one of Shakespeare's plays in high school?
The answer is quite simple: he allows us to understand who we once were and who we currently are. Simply put, our experiences have not changed. For the issues and topics that we see today, he saw during the 1600s. The only thing that is different is how he expresses what he sees. He uses old English. We speak in modern English. Now this is where some people get frustrated and quit.
👋 Our goal is to empower students to see the beauty in Shakespeare’s writing, as well as see how relevant his works are for modern society. Further, engaging with Shakespeare helps us appreciate the beauty and flexibility of the English language.
Under our main focus of Shakespeare for the Community, we have carried out many small events that lead to our main focus:
2023 ELA/Shakespeare Winter Camp
Images of our event:
To those in middle and high school, our camp's resources are posted down below for you.
2024 Shakespeare Spring Camp
Flashcards Game
In this game, the students had to sort the cards in the order of the narrative for Macbeth. We designed these cards to ensure that students understood the story before we delve deep into Shakespeare’s art of writing. The game is attached down below:
Lord of the Rings & Macbeth Screenplay
Take a moment to appreciate a screenplay that combines Act 3, Scene IV of Macbeth with the fantasy world of The Lord of the Rings. This creative fusion was a class assignment for my ELA IB HL course during my grade 11 year. Our task was to rewrite a scene from Macbeth in a genre of our choice. My group and I chose to reimagine Macbeth within the context and plot of The Lord of the Rings, infusing it with elements of fantasy.
What started as a class project quickly grew into a passionate endeavor. My group and I worked furiously on this project, from brainstorming to writing the script to creating the props/setting to dressing ourselves up to filming to cutting the videos to recording voice overs to HAND DRAWING the animations to putting everything together and adding special effects to, finally, putting together a humorous and fascinating screenplay --- and watching it about 100+ times.
So why Lord of the Rings? This is in fact a question that I want you to percolate on. Try to discover the nuances and special parallels between Gollum and Macbeth. Hint: What does the double-character Gollum reflect about Macbeth's double-sided nature?
My Reflection
In high school, I noticed that many Chinese immigrants struggle to adapt to the English-speaking environment. What they struggled significantly with is grasping the Shakespearean texts they were taught in high school. This is what inspired me to begin this independent project of sharing Shakespeare to my community. Chinese-Canadian immigrants need a guide, someone with the experience of ELA and Shakespeare courses, to aid with their successful transition into high school ELA courses. During the winter of last year, Bingxuan and I personally developed a two-day ELA course at the Central Library. I taught Chinese immigrants tips on public speaking, reading comprehension strategies, and tips on reading Shakespeare. Many students gave positive praises after taking the course. They wanted me to teach them more, specifically on Shakespeare. The funny thing is, initially, I thought none of the immigrants found my course useful. None of them were actively answering my questions — and I was internally desperate for them to respond, yet they just sat in their seats, staring at me blankly. Later, one of the students timidly told me that I was speaking too fast in English. I experienced a rare moment of epiphany. No wonder none of them were responding. Teaching is really a double-sided learning process for both the students and I. And because they wanted to learn more, I gladly continued to serve their needs.
Early this year, I collaborated with two other LinkCC members — Qinkai and Bingxuan — and taught a two-day spring course to guide Chinese immigrants through the process of analyzing Shakespeare, specifically Macbeth. We explored the methods of tackling such a heavy Shakespearean text. We guided the Chinese immigrants through the process of not only understanding Shakespeare, but also finding wonder and awe in his works. I felt like I was opening a door for them, mentoring them through the process of grasping Macbeth. In our presentations, we weren’t just simply exploring the different themes of Macbeth. We were peeling back the layers and layers behind each act and scene. Though someone can argue that we didn’t analyze deep enough (I noticed that in literature, there isn’t really a limit to how much you can analyze from a text, because every well written text just has too much substance to it), there was something that we did that was a success. We ignited a spark of curiosity within these Chinese immigrants. A few of the immigrants even stayed behind and praised our remarkable analysis of Shakespeare. Ultimately, this spring camp was just as successful as the winter camp. However, after the course was over, after I returned to school, I noticed that there are still students who find Shakespeare daunting. It was fear that held them back from becoming passionate in Shakespeare. So together, with Bingxuan, we decided to embark on another ambitious journey.
We’ve decided present the beauty of Shakespeare by blending his texts with works from different genres to create unique, double-genre videos — videos that we translate into Mandarin and post to numerous different platforms online. This idea stemmed from an ELA IB class assignment, where my group and I reimagined a scene from Macbeth by merging it with elements from another genre/movie. When we watched every group’s screenplay, I was completely fascinated by each screenplay, how they seamlessly integrated two completely distinct genres into one, and how this inter-genre work allowed me to appreciate Shakespeare’s brilliance through a different lens of curiosity and marvel. And so, I’m ambitiously creating more of these inter-genre videos to inspire a broader audience with the wonders of Shakespeare. Find Shakespeare boring? What about a fantasy version of Macbeth’s Act III Scene IV? Through this creative approach of combining different genres with Shakespeare, I hope to rip away the fear that students associate with Shakespeare, and replace it with curiosity. I hope to make Shakespeare's works more compelling and fascinating for those who find them challenging to understand.
I would like to acknowledge all those who worked with us on this project:
- Qinkai Li, Gr 12 Sir Winston Churchill High School student who volunteered as an instructor for the Macbeth Spring Camp
- Selina Zhou, first-year university student who volunteered as instructor for the Macbeth Winter Camp
- Bolo Wang, Gr 12 Access Academy student who volunteered as technical support for both of our camps
- Elina Yuan, Gr 10 Queen Elizabeth student who volunteered as technical support for both of our camps
- Cheryl Zhang, first-year university student who volunteered as student supporter for the Macbeth Winter Camp
- Michelle Huang, Gr 12 Sir Winston Churchill High School student who re-wrote the Macbeth Screenplay with us.
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