A huge crowd gathered at Tzu Chi Singapore branch on the 26th of July. Over 500 people filled the prayer hall on the 3rd floor and the mezzanine on the 4th floor for the Second Annual Primary-Secondary School Tzu Chi Sign Language Contest. Immersing in one lyrical song after another, the 2-hour long concert was a deeply spiritual experience for all. Picture: Although it was the first time Methodist Girls’ Primary School participated in the sign language contest, they sent a total of 3 teams. The team which performed the eco-friendly song “Planting Trees” clinched the first prize (gold medal) in the lower primary section.

Gan Eng Seng Primary School clinched the 3rd prize in the upper primary section with ‘There is Love in the World’.

The judges were touched by the lively team from Princess Elizabeth Primary which put on “A Small Happy World” and awarded them 2nd prize in the lower primary section.

The first prize winner in the secondary school category , Chung Cheng High (Main), chose a song that touched the team members deeply. They were fully immersed in the meaning of the song lyrics, which greatly moved the audience.

Manjusri Secondary School won the 2nd prize with “Waltz of Life” .

Tzu Chi Teenagers’ Class presented a graceful and moving performance of “Kneeling Lambs”, which highlighted the importance of filial piety.

A group of kindergarteners from Columbus Childcare and Development Centre was one of the groups of guest performers. They put on a lively and neat performance of “Kind-hearted Little Froggies” which showed how well the beauty of Tzu Chi Humanity Education could be absorbed by young minds.

Singapore branch’s CEO, Brother David Liu, presenting a gold medal to Methodist Girls’ Primary School, first prize winner in the lower primary section.

The Mee Toh School students replied “Yes!” in unison when they were asked if they wished to participate in the contest next year.

Mr She Li Chen, who came to support his daughter, was exposed to Tzu Chi sign language for the first time. He found listening to 22 Tzu Chi songs of goodness and beauty a spiritual-inspiring experience which touched his heart.

A huge crowd gathered at Tzu Chi Singapore branch on the 26th of July. Over 500 people (students, teachers, parents and volunteers) filled the prayer hall on the 3rd floor and the mezzanine on the 4th floor. They immersed themselves in one Tzu Chi song-cum-sign language performance after another in the 2-hour long concert.

The teachers were moved by their students’ performances while the parents were surprised to find how well-mannered and bright their children were when they saw them displaying excellent team effort on the stage.       

In this year’s contest, the primary school category consisting of 14 teams was separated into two sections, i.e., lower primary and upper primary, while the secondary school category consisted of five teams. All the teams displayed very high standards of performance. Two out of the top three winning teams in the lower primary section tied for second place. Hence, the judges decided to award two silver medals to the teams.       

The trainer of the team from Princess Elizabeth Primary School, Chen Jing Jing, decided to let her students participate in the contest as she thought that it was a very meaningful activity. It takes much more effort to train the younger students in the lower primary and the bigger the team is, the tougher the job of the trainer will be. Chen, undaunted, took whoever expressed interest in participating in the contest. As a result, the team from Princess Elizabeth Primary had the largest number of participants. They performed ’A Small Happy World’. The judges were touched by the joyful spirit they displayed and awarded them second prize in the lower primary section.     

Methodist Girls’ Primary School, which joined the contest the first time this year, was a dark horse - thanks to their trainer, Chen Guo Zhi. Chen does not belong to the school actually. She is hired to conduct Chinese extra-curricular activities for the students. She trained a total of five teams for the contest. Three of her teams were from Methodist Girls’ Primary and the other two teams were from Geylang Methodist Primary. Under her painstaking instruction, her teams clinched the first and second prize in the lower primary section and the first prize in the upper primary section.    

Most of the teachers and students, as well as parents, came to Tzu Chi for the purpose of supporting the contest. It was Mr She Li Chen’s first visit to Tzu Chi Jing Si Hall. He came with his family of four to support his 8-year-old daughter She Zhi Rui, and even brought a complete set of photographic equipment. Zhi Rui is a Primary 2 student from Princess Elizabeth Primary School. It was also the first time she went on stage to compete in the sign language contest. Her father felt very excited even before the contest started. Although he had no prior knowledge of what kind of performance would be staged and had never seen his daughter performing sign language, the father was deeply moved by what he saw on the stage. He realized how bright and capable his daughter was after watching her perform. Listening to 22 Tzu Chi songs of goodness and beauty was a spiritual-inspiring experience which touched his heart. Such was the positive energy generated by true goodness and beauty.                

An incident happened on top of the stairway on the fourth floor which alarmed some. Chen Xiu Ling, mother of Wu Zhen Kang, a participant from Princess Elizabeth Primary, had to attend to his son who had an asthma attack. The boy has been asthmatic since young. His condition worsened suddenly a week before the contest and was admitted to a hospital in the middle of the night. He was discharged on Wednesday. However, he insisted on joining the contest. A cheerful and active boy by nature, Zhen Kang was not affected by his medical condition. Xiu Ling said that her son insisted on performing on the stage as he had been trained for a long time. It was indeed admirable of the boy to display such courage and perseverance. He is also very fortunate to have a supportive mother.                    
 
Last year, students from Manjusri Secondary School who participated in the contest benefited a lot. They are students in the Buddhist Studies class. These decent youngsters enjoy connecting with those of high morals. Hong Han Lin in Secondary 2 said that when he came to Jing Si Hall last year, he found the atmosphere “pure and peaceful” and felt that it was very different from the world outside. Indeed, the environment also plays an important educational role without the use of words.

Living under the influence of pop culture, youngsters nowadays mostly listen to pop music which accentuates individuality. They tend to pursue individualism and seldom have the opportunity to connect with the humanities. Master Cheng Yen’s words of wisdom were thus woven into lyrics of tuneful songs to help instil wholesome values like those of family and communal spirit into young people.

The secondary school participants knew the songs by heart after listening to them several times and were willing to spend time practicing the corresponding Tzu Chi sign language. Such a meaningful activity should be further promoted.

This year, two teams from Chung Cheng High School (Main) participated in the contest. The leader of Team A, Zhen Jiang Ping said, “We chose ‘Holding Hands’, which tells the close kinship of the Chinese paraplegic teacher Ma Wenzhong and his wife, because all of us are touched by the song.” The team had, in turn, touched the hearts of the judges and audience and were awarded the first prize.         

After all the participating teams had finished performing, the Tzu Chi Teenagers’ Class, Tzu Chi Children’s Achievement Class and Columbus Childcare and Development Centre presented their items on the stage. Students from the Teenagers’ Class performed ‘Kneeling Lambs’ which highlights the importance of filial piety. The message: “waste no time in showing gratitude to parents” was clearly evident in their presentation. It was an impressive and moving performance. A teacher even commented, ”When would our students able to display such grace and excellent teamwork?”

When the Children’s Achievement Class was presenting ‘The World is Our Classroom’, a group of students from Mee Toh School mimicked the actions merrily. Their teachers, Li Shu Zhen and Zhang Xiu Xiu, brought them here to watch the contest. Mee Toh is the very first school where Great Love Mothers conducted their weekly Jing Si Aphorism Teaching Curriculum during the school assembly on Wednesdays. ‘The World is Our Classroom’ was the first song they learned. The group of Mee Toh students enjoyed themselves thoroughly as they moved their bodies to the music. At the end of the contest, all of them replied “Yes!” in unison when they were asked if they wished to participate in the contest next year.                        

Brother David Liu (CEO of Tzu Chi Singapore branch) commended on the success of the event and took the opportunity to explain the underlying meaning of the sign language contest to the educators among the audience. The Foundation faced some difficulty when they first started to promote Jing Si Aphorism Teaching Curriculum among schools in Singapore. Hence, they decided to introduce Tzu Chi songs cum sign language to the schools and organized two annual sign language contests which have received positive feedback and strong support. Tzu Chi songs are about truth, goodness and beauty, which are universal values. They serve to guide the younger generation and steer them to the right path in life.  

The CEO also revealed that a businessman, Ruan, who is also a Tzu Chi member, was so touched by the performance that he donated $10,000 to sponsor the contest next year. It would be held in a venue that is able to accommodate more than 2000 people, thereby allowing more people to watch the sign language performance and listen to songs of beauty and goodness.