A 16-year-old student has won a televised Chinese poetry (诗歌) competition, winning fans over with her rich knowledge of Chinese ancient culture and works.
Wu Yishu, a student at High School Affiliated to Fudan University (复旦大学附属中学) in Shanghai, beat other competitors in the second season of the Chinese Poetry Conference on China Central Television (CCTV) on 7 February, 2017. More than 100 competitors took part in the show.
"I get feelings from ancient poetry that modern people cannot give me. I pay little attention to the competition result, but I love poetry, and it is enough as long as I enjoy the happiness brought by the poetry," Wu said. In the final, Wu performed strongly in many sections, such as competitors recalling poems by looking at sand paintings and reciting as many poems as they could think of relating to the Chinese character "Jiu", meaning liquor.
As early as 1 February, 2017, when Wu recited an ancient Chinese poem about the months of a year, the judges estimated (估计) that Wu must have remembered at least more than 2,000 Chinese ancient works.
The 1.8-metre-tall Wu said that she kept only one ancient poetry book on her bookshelves at her dormitory room instead of other books such as Maths, Physics and Chemistry books that her classmates have kept on their bookshelves. She is known among her classmates and teachers as she loves reading poetry and wearing ancient Chinese clothes.
Wu's talented performance in the Chinese ancient rhythm works earned her many fans and inspired others to learn ancient works. Zhou Hong, a professor from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of East China Normal University, said that he had read some of the girl's poetry in 2015, and had published some on his blog.
"I wish my daughter will, like Wu, show to the world the self-confidence of our great culture in the future," a web user with the username of "shudonglidexingxing" wrote on WeChat, a leading social networking service in China. Another WeChat user "Fangzhanbo" said that the beauty of both Chinese culture and the girl champion is "glamorous (迷人的)."
