The “Chine” project is a temporary exhibition created to provide high school students in China and Thailand with an interesting and interactive introduction to Chinese mythology.
'Chine' seeks to accomplish three main goals. By offering an enjoyable and engaging learning environment, it aims to lessen academic stress among Chinese students. The show improves memory retention and reduces stress for pupils by including interactive features.
Through the project’s increased accessibility to Chinese mythology, cultural understanding is improved. The exhibition brings these stories to life through digital animation and games, which many students find boring when they read them in textbooks. As a result, students are able to connect with the stories on a deep level and become genuinely interested in Chinese mythology.
Chinese mythology is an important part of the country’s cultural legacy, however because of educational system shortcomings, many students do not fully comprehend it. This effort ensures mythology’s ongoing relevance by fostering respect among students and outsiders alike by making it fun and approachable, ensuring its continued relevance.
Transcendent Marriage of Dongting Lake 柳毅传
A young man named Liu Yi came across a girl tending sheep. He found her quite beautiful and looked sad, so he went to talk to her. He was trying to approach her and ask for her name, but the girl kept it secret. She asked him to send a letter to her family because her husband abused her and after that she will tell him her name, because her husband was a normal person and he used to beat her and treat her badly. Her husband had lost his confidence once he found out that his wife was a goddess dragon. Out of pity, the young man agreed to deliver a letter from a distressed dragon to her father, the Dragon King of Dongting Lake.
After her rescue and the death of her abusive husband, the beautiful girl transformed into a small dragon and told him her name. The dragon lady falls in love with Liu Yi who had helped her. At first, Liu Yi rejects her, thinking that the girl was too beautiful and that she should get someone better, but the dragon lady believes that there is no difference between humans and monsters. As a result, they got married and lived a happy life together.
Butterfly Lovers 梁山伯与祝英台
Zhu Yingtai was born from a wealthy family who expected her to conform to traditional gender roles, focusing on music and culinary skills rather than education. During that era, the education system was only available for male students. Despite her family’s and social disapproval, she secretly attended school by dressing up like a man where she became best friends with Liang Shanbo.
Their friendship blossomed into love, but when Liang discovered Zhu’s true gender, their relationship was doomed. Zhu’s family was outraged when they discovered her secret and blamed her for her disobedience. The girl was under a lot of pressure to marry a wealthy man from the city whom she had never met before. Yingtai had taken her own life because of her love for Zhu Yingtai, who also jumped from the cliff for her after finding out Yingtai had been Suicide. Whereas the girl’s family had buried her, and the boy got buried somewhere further away, they had transformed into butterflies and met Zhu Yingtai and lived together at last.
Legend of the White Snake 白蛇传
Bai SuZhen, a white snake, lived alone in the jungle. She noticed that people were littering and neglecting the environment, which made her feel upset. However, her anger subsided when she transformed into a human and met a young man on a bridge. She fell in love with him and was touched when he gave her a flower on a rainy day.
They got married, had a baby, and lived happily ever after. As time passed, an abbot named Fa Hai developed feelings for SuZhen and became jealous of her happy family. Fa Hai asked the young man if he had discovered that his wife was a snake, but the man refused because he trusted her. However, he began to pay closer attention when he returned home and found some clues. Eventually, Fahai and XuXian took SuZhen to the temple to punish her. Their child was heartbroken that his family had broken apart, but he later rescued his mother when he grew up.
The location of the exhibition was around alternative cities in both China and Thailand. This is probably because students in major urban centers possess greater access to educational resources pertaining to mythologies and history. However, there were many rural areas which lack education opportunities, the exhibition container truck driven into the school areas.
Which could provide students with more chance to get to know about Chine exhibition. In 2020, approximately half of the schools in Thailand were classified as small schools, 58% of these schools need to reform. It is argued that these small schools provide learning opportunities, especially for students in rural areas, however the scale of the school does not have enough resources for students to learn.
