The Writing Game

By You Jin [Singapore]

The description of a man—especially his looks, should be focused on his delicate facial features.

It’s easy to understand it, and put it into practice as well.

With my special teaching method, I showed the students how to describe faces.

Following my instruction, the students seated themselves into a big circle in the classroom, selected someone in their mind, and then watched him for a while to find out his distinguishing features, which they could highlight with the help of a vivid analogy.

For example, a thick-lipped person could be described in this way, “Slice his lips for a stir-fry, and they can fill three plates.”

Or a thin-lipped person could be described in words like “His lips are so thin that only a line can be detected when they are closed.”

Students all found this game interesting because they used their pen as a gun to level at the target of a person receiving a description.They watched and studied in appreciation and thought before they put pen to paper.Some students even chuckled as they wrote.

After they finished, they read their descriptions in turn for all the students to guess.

It turned out that they could create many amazing sentences from their wild imaginations.

“He has skin as dark as a piece of burned meat.”

“He has a wide mouth, with zigzagged teeth.”

“The moment she laughs, it’s thundering and lightening in the sky, and the dying plants on the earth soon come back to life one after another.”

“He has such light eyebrows, as if they forget to grow.”

“She is as quiet as an unpopulated island.”

Oh, who dares to say that children are too weak to be taught?

(FromThe Philosophy of Epiphyllum, Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House.Translation: Wang Wen)

寫活你

文/[新加坡]尤今

描寫人，尤其是五官，最重要的是抓他們臉上最突出的特征來寫。

道理很簡單，實行起來也不困難。

把這個秘訣以靈活的教學方式傳授給學生。

我讓學生們在教室里圍坐成一個大大的圓圈，然后，暗暗選定一個自己所要描寫的對象，默默地觀察，找出他與別人最大的不同在哪兒，再借用一個生動的比喻，把這特色“顯現”出來。

比如，寫嘴唇厚的人，可以這么說：“把他的嘴唇切下來，足足可以炒上三大碟。”

比如，寫嘴唇薄的人，可以這么寫：“他的唇皮兒非常薄，合起來時，只看到一條細細的直線。”

學生們都覺得這項“游戲”很有趣，把筆桿當槍桿，悄悄地瞄準自己心目中的獵物，觀察、研究、欣賞、思索，然后，振筆直書。有些性格活潑的，還邊寫邊“咯咯”地笑出聲來。

寫畢，我叫他們輪流把寫好的句子念出來，大家一起來猜寫的是誰。

結果發現，學生們的想象力天馬行空，許多句子可愛得叫人驚嘆：

“他的皮膚，好像烤煳的肉。”

“他有一張大口，牙齒崎嶇不平。”

“她一笑起來，天上雷鳴電閃，地上死去的植物紛紛復活。”

“他的眉毛，淡淡的，好像忘了長出來。”

“她像是一座無人居住的島，靜得驚人。”

呵，誰能、誰敢說“孺子不可教”？

（摘自《曇花的哲學》浙江文藝出版社）