Poetic Wanderer: A VR Journey into Classical Chinese Poetry Taking Su Shi’s Linjiang Xian: Returning at Night to Lingao as an Example

This article explores how a Virtual Reality (VR) design approach can transform classical poetry learning from passive memorization into an active, emotion-driven experience. The classical education of poetry has been based on the essence of memorizing, and students are not able to understand the emotional meaning between the lines of the poems. The problem is particularly acute in the case of Chinese secondary learners: they have to memorize classic verses most of the time, but the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) requires them to be capable of learning and perceiving poetry on an interpretative level. Thus, the present research suggests connecting virtual reality (VR) with the traditional classical poetry teaching methods in order to change the passive memorization approach to an active and emotional one. The strategy of enabling students to recreate the poet as the first person and combining it with reflection and discussion led by the teacher not only fulfills the criteria of the exam to memorize the data based on comprehension, but it also trains the imagination of the students to be poetic. This research holds that this immersive VR pedagogical approach would greatly benefit students in their understanding of the imagery and emotionality of poetry and their ability to empathize, improve their desire to learn, and offer a new paradigm of integrating technology and humanities in classical poetry education.