THE SPIRIT OF THE SNAKE SETS SAIL TO CREATE BRILLIANCE AS 2025 DEBUTS!

The golden snake dances wildly to send auspiciousness, and the gongs and drums are noisy and blessed! In the blink of an eye, we will see off 2024 and welcome the arrival of the Year of the Snake in 2025. Chinese people are proud that recently the Lunar New Year – “Spring Festival” – was officially added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and that the status of our Chinese culture in the world has been recognised; these are worthy of great celebration.

In fact, there is a lot about the history and culture of the zodiac snake that can be deeply explored, and in many parts of China there are legends about snake fairies. It is believed that snakes have spirituality and can be cultivated to become a snake fairy. Some legends tell the story of the snake fairy helping the villagers to relieve their difficulties, such as rainfall to relieve drought, the curing of diseases or saving people’s lives. This reflects people’s gratitude and our belief in the power of nature. The most famous story about the snake is “The Legend of the White Snake”. In the story, legend has it that the white snake incarnated as a beautiful woman to repay her kindness and help the people to heal diseases and provide disaster relief, which has become a positive story for the ages.

At this festive moment of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, the students in the art classes were full of energy, actively using their minds to exert their creativity and explore the world of art with their teachers, practicing and completing the series of theme courses of “Painting Snakes in the Year of the Snake”. The students interpreted the history and culture related to the Chinese New Year and the Chinese Zodiac Snake through a variety of visual art forms and welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Snake in 2025 with whimsical artworks.

In Grade 1, the Year of the Snake Painting Project course was combined with the New Year Happy Taotao theme course. After students experienced using three assistant teaching software programs and AI to learn about New Year’s customs and traditional New Year’s greeting culture, they made use of iPads to design and create paintings and collages to create New Year’s greeting stickers with the theme of the Year of the Snake. It was not only an interesting and vivid experience regarding the inheritance and development of culture, but also a way to use visual art forms to show the unique charm of traditional Chinese culture.

The Grade 1 Cambridge class created a vibrant paper-cutting project, designing vases decorated with Chinese New Year elements. This combination of tradition and modern art allowed students to engage with their shared culture, while developing creativity and fine-motor skills. Each student made a paper vase and decorated it with snakes, gold ingots, blessings, and other Chinese New Year symbols, and then created the flowers using paper-cutting techniques. The project was well-received by the students, who enjoyed the art process and learned about the history and traditions of the Chinese New Year.

In the Grade 2 art lessons, a creative art journey unfolded in the “Snake and Flower” unit. The children embraced being little artists, skilfully using paper smudging techniques to give the little snake a flexible texture; the addition of golden tin foil paintings added a unique lustre and modern atmosphere to the wonderful world of “snakes and flowers”. Their creative ideas carefully arranged and combined the works, and the “greedy snakes” of different shapes came to life in front of them: such a lively and interesting activity! In their laughter, the children not only reaped the joy of creation, but also swam in the ocean of art and returned with expanded knowledge.

Grade 2 Cambridge students completed an “Eyewear Design” project, which combined artistic creativity with cultural learning. Inspired by the traditions and symbols of Chinese New Year, this engaging activity provided a unique way for children to explore and express these cultural elements. The project began with learning various symbolic meanings of the Chinese New Year, such as lanterns, dragons, firecrackers and more. Using this knowledge, students created preliminary design sketches that incorporated these traditional elements into their creative visions. Next, they brought the sketch to life by painting, colouring, and cutting out small symbolic decorations. These colourful elements were carefully arranged and pasted onto paper glasses, turning them into festive and imaginative accessories.

Our Grade 3 students immersed themselves in the mystical stories of the 12 Zodiac animals and explored their cultural significance. At the same time, they also learned some rich legends about snakes in China and abroad, which sparked a strong interest in this mysterious animal. In class, students first learned about the body structure of snakes and recognised the uniqueness of snakes. Subsequently, they started to shape clay and made three-dimensional snakes. Each student used their imagination to colour the little snake creatively with acrylic markers, bringing these pieces to life. All kinds of snake images arose in front of them – some were mighty and some were playful, but they were all wonderful. This activity not only improved the students’ clay-making skills, but also created in them a strong feeling of the Chinese New Year atmosphere with hands-on practice, which was both entertaining and rewarding.

Next, the Grade 4 students learned about the technique of Freehand Coloured Ink New Year Painting, with the theme of Snake Spirit in the Year of the Snake. Freehand painting is the most artistic form of Chinese ink painting. Students appreciated the works of artist Han Meilin, which guided them towards imagining the interesting life scenes of snakes. The students’ creative paintings were full of fun. Some snakes were making dumplings, some snakes were drinking tea, some were eating watermelon, and some were enjoying the shade under the lotus leaves. Painting snakes in the Year of the Snake draws children to understand beauty, and encourages them to experience life, accumulate experience in observing the world, and integrate it into their own painting creations.

Grade 5 students learned about the unique style of artist Eric Carle, and used their imagination to reconstruct his work, cutting and arranging the paper to create bold and beautiful Year of the Snake-themed collages. Our students had a lot of fun using cardstock, acrylic paint, brushes, and texturing tools to create their unique colour and texture combinations. They demonstrated a powerful ability to project abstract ideas and concepts onto the final piece by carefully selecting and applying pigments and textures. The works were very vivid and won everyone’s admiration.

These art classes, meticulously planned by the teachers, were wonderful, bringing students into the exploration and expansion of their art journey. They also experienced the joy of creation in learning. Youthful hands were granted the opportunity to create exquisite works that were praised by teachers and classmates, and through their colourful artworks, they conveyed the understanding and love for traditional Chinese culture, the expectation and blessing for the New Year, and the love for learning and life. Some of the students’ artwork was also printed into a beautiful calendar, allowing the gorgeous paintings to be displayed for a broader audience.

The new year is full of charm and positive expectations, and the children are their motherland’s hope for the future. Let us enter the Year of the Snake with passion and may everyone dance like the golden snake in the new year, move forward bravely, and create their own glory.