Children from Malaysia

In a Chinese proverb, 苦尽甘来 (kǔ jìn gān lái) means at the end of bitterness is sweetness. This year the challenges continue from last year. "Niu" (the cow year) was not able to 扭转乾坤 (niǔ zhuǎn qián kūn), which means turn things completely around. After living through these past challenging years with COVID-19, we hope this coming new year, the year of the tiger (hú), will continue the cow's work and persist in fighting until we see the light at the end of this tunnel.

In China, there are many dialects. Certain words are pronounced the same in some dialects but have different meanings. Bitterness (苦) and tiger (虎) have the same pronunciation in Cantonese. In this chant, I replaced the word bitterness (苦) with tiger (虎); sweetness (甘) with tangerine (柑), where both words are pronounced as gān in Mandarin. With the year of the tiger approaching, the tiger's roar (嗷), through the tiger's hardships (熬, áo, has the same pronunciation as roar), this will bring us to the end of the pandemic, when sweetness will finally come.

The last part of this chant lets children create tiger Tai Ji (太极) to chase away COVID-19. Have fun!

Lyrics, 歌词, composed and arranged by Loong Chet-Yeng. 龙籍莹

老虎老虎嗷嗷 嗷。Tiger, tiger áo áo áo (roar roar roar).

Lǎohǔ lǎohǔ áo'áo áo.

别当我是只小花 猫。 Please don't take me for a cat.

Bié dāng wǒ shì zhǐ xiǎo huā māo.

我能守我能 熬。 I can hold, I can bear.

Wǒ néng shǒu wǒ néng áo.

熬到今天还没闪 腰。 I haven't lost my stand till today (in mandarin means I haven't twisted my waist).

Áo dào jīn tiān hái méi shǎn yāo.

老虎老虎嗷嗷 嗷。Tiger, tiger áo áo áo (roar roar roar).

Lǎohǔ lǎohǔ áo'áo áo.

别当我是只小花 猫。 Please don't take me for a cat.

Bié dāng wǒ shì zhǐ xiǎo huā māo.

我能守我能熬。 I can hold, I can bear.

Wǒ néng shǒu wǒ néng áo.

熬到春来穿红 袍。 Áo (roar) till spring and wear red robes.

Áo dào chūn lái chuān hóng páo.

Song with motions

If you are not a native speaker, teach the song, trust me.

Chant (for young children, native speakers)

Children from Malaysia

Xie xie to the children, 8-11 years old.

谢谢陈加韦，余佳佳，黄筱棠，王明镇与陈妡儿。

Xie xie to the children, 4-7 years old.

谢谢邹汶潓, 戴恩婗, 赵振航, 张善童, 张芷绮, 方景曜 , 与王明阳。

Teaching multi-cultural and world musics is more than teaching “music”. By having an in-depth understanding of the music of different cultures ourselves, we will be able to help students sing, play music and gain greater insights into the music of their own cultures as well as other cultures. Once our students have studied their culture’s music from this integrative approach, they will be better prepared to appreciate and respect music from another’s culture. We as music educators, have an important role as carriers of culture. We must present materials to our students through an anti-biased filter and advocate what Derman-Sparks has said, “Differences are good; oppressive ideas and behaviors are not.” (p. x)