Primary Sources 1A.01—I Get Up 我起來了

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Primary Sources."
One year ago on Round and Square (23 April 2011)—The Prologue of the Canterbury Tales
Click here to access Round and Square's "Primary Sources" Resource Center  

[a] First RF

Over the course of the next year or so, Round and Square will take readers step-by-step through a very particular kind of primary source—the elementary school readers used in the mid-1980s in the Republic of China educational system. Every schoolchild on the island of Taiwan read these texts back then, and they are the foundation for understanding matters of education, acculturation, language acquisition, and translation. They were also the source of a very large chunk of my early anthropological and historical education. 

I encourage readers of Round and Square to follow these posts whether or not they read Chinese. It is clear enough where I begin speaking to language learners (the section called "Language Notes" at the end). Everything else, with the exception of the actual Chinese text, can be understood by anyone who takes the time to think about what an entire education from the ground up might be like. The introduction to this series explains these matters thoroughly, and will be posted soon. In the meantime, take a look at how first-graders (for that is where we begin) started to read their world in Taiwan a generation ago. This is "textbooks from history," and there is much to learn.

The first semester of first grade starts with the beginning of the day. The sun rises "early" and our young student wakes up early, as well. The very first text a student read back in 1985 focuses on getting up and getting started. It is a quintessential beginning (like sunrise on Mt. Tai). Learning the first sets of characters begins with the cycles of the cosmos, and good human habits begin by following the patterns of nature. 

1 —I Get Up

The sky brightens, and I get up; the sun also gets up.

I rise early. The sun also rises early.

I get up early every day. The sun also gets up early every day.

一     我起來了

天亮了，我起來了，太陽也起來了。

我起得早，太陽也起得早。

我天天早起，太陽也天天早起。

來     了     天     太     也     早

                 我     起     亮     陽     得 

Text in Simplified Chinese (简体字)*

一 我起来了

天亮了， 我起来了，太阳也起来了。

我起得早， 太阳也起得早。

我天天早起， 太阳也天天早起。 
*A simplified text is unthinkable in an ROC worldview. I don't "work" for them, though, and am including it for two reasons. First, an almost disturbingly large number of my students these days can't read traditional characters. This is a travesty, but I acknowledge (grudgingly) the reality. Second, it should be an eye-opener for students on either side of the "simplified/traditional" divide. Just look. Finally, if you want to read anything written before 1950, you need to learn traditional forms. Get over it. It's not political. It's literature...and politics and history. If you can only read simplified forms, you can read what (Mao) wrote, but not what he read. Think about it.

History and Culture Notes

Never forget that this is the start of everything—the beginning of a life of reading for a little first-grader on the island of Taiwan. It would be roughly October of 1985, and students would already have learned the basics of pronunciation over the course of the early autumn. Only with this text does the long path to reading Chinese characters begin in earnest. This is the beginning.

It should not be lost on anyone that themes of earnest effort and drive are embedded in this first text. Ben Franklin had nothing on the Republic of China first-grade readers. 

Language Notes

Note the heavy use of 了 in this text's first lines, and do not forget that it is the first full character-reading text a first-grader would have seen (or at least on which she would be tested). The emphasis on completed action is significant. The English translation seems clunky to me with "I got up," and that underlines all sorts of interesting issues with language, culture, and translation.

It is also noteworthy that first-graders are being introduced here to the adverbial use of 得. Many "de"s will follow and (remember you heard it here) some of them will be highly problematic.

Note the play on words from the second to the third lines. 我起得早 gives way to 我天天早起. The play of these three grammatical patterns on the first page of Chinese reading signals just how important they are.

[b] Sunrise RF