Holiday Reading: Starry River of the Sky

My daughter (age 7) and I just finished reading Grace Lin's newest novel Starry River of the Sky (Little and Brown, 2012). This magical story is about a young boy, Rendi, and the people he meets--both human and mystical--in the small, remote Village of Clear Sky. Who is Rendi? Who are these people he meets? And where did the moon go? These are some of the questions that you will ask yourself as you read this mysterious tale.

Lin's book is considered a companion book to her 2010 Newberry Honor novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Like her earlier book, Starry River of the Sky is full of Chinese legends, which have been adapted by Lin and told as stories by the main characters. Lin seamlessly alternates between Chinese legends and the plot unfolding at Village of Clear Sky. The effect is spellbinding and also gives the story a timeless quality--as if the story takes place in a time long past, but resisting to be tied down to a particular era (or dynasty).

Colorful, jewel-tone illustrations, which bring to mind traditional Chinese papercuts, mark the beginning of each chapter. And six full-color illustrations, resembling Chinese wood block prints, intersperse the story text.  The warm, vibrant illustrations are beautiful works of art by themselves. They bring to life in the reader's imagination a magical world the reader will be reluctant to leave.

My daughter was enchanted with the main characters in this story--Rendi, Peiyi, Madame Chang, Master Chao, and Mr. Shan. When we reached the last page, she asked me, with concern in her voice, "Is that it?" As a side note, she asks me this every time we reach the last page of one of Grace Lin's novels--I think this is a sign of an excellent book!

Starry River of the Sky would be a wonderful book to read with your child or grandchild over the upcoming holidays. Not only is it a page-turner, the magical story will be sure to provoke much conversation afterward.

Be sure to check out Grace Lin's website where you can view her mini-documentary "Behind the Story" and related activities--including instructions on how to make a toad lantern!

Celebrating Togetherness with Dumplings

The hustle and bustle that precedes Christmas has already begun, and if I'm not careful, I find myself lost in the busyness and missing out on the joy and thankfulness that marks this season.

Last year, I actually sacrificed treasured traditions (making gingerbread houses with friends and family, attending Christmas concerts) because I was too overwhelmed with unrealistic demands I was making on myself (homemade gifts and cookies for everyone!)

"This year will be different," I vowed to myself. I will prioritize time spent with family and friends, or tuántuán yuán yuán (团团圆圆)--which is a Chinese phrase often translated as "the family is happy and together," but I like to understand it as "togetherness."  

One of my "go to" togetherness activities is cooking.  Before Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law taught my daughter how to wrap dumplings (jiǎozi, 饺子).  It was a "win-win" activity for the two of them: they spent quality time together, my mother-in-law shared a Chinese tradition with her granddaughter, and my daughter gained confidence by learning a new skill.

Some things to keep in mind when you want to try this "togetherness" activity at home:

1. If you are working with pre-made wrappers (found in the freezer section of your local Chinese supermarket), choose your wrappers carefully. We found that using pre-made dumpling wrappers worked best when cooked by boiling, but we preferred wonton wrappers (they are thinner) for dumplings that are fried.

2. There are many different techniques for wrapping dumplings. My mother-in-law taught my daughter the pleat method (right). In this technique, each side of the outer wrapper is pleated toward the center. Pleats are then pressed firmly to the bottom wrapper. (See my blog post from last year, Jiaozi-making Party, for folding methods we created at our dumpling party last year, and also don't miss Beijing Gourmand's explanation of the "one fold" and "crimp and fold" techniques.)

3. No matter how you fold your dumplings, each method seems to require a little extra moisture for a tight seal (this seems especially true with frozen wrappers). Dip your index finger into a small bowl of water, and run your finger along the edge before starting to pleat the wrappers. 

*Chinese dumplings do not need to be eaten right away. They freeze wonderfully (in freezer bags, for at least a month). Make sure to date and label the bag! 

How will you celebrate "togetherness" with family and friends this holiday season?

No Turkey? No Worries!

Not having turkey for Thanksgiving? Don't worry! Going sans turkey is nothing to be ashamed of.

This is the message of Duck for Turkey Day by Jacqueline Jules. Tuyet, a young Vietnamese American girl, is upset when she learns that her family will be having duck for Thanksgiving instead of turkey, which she believes is the "rule" for the holiday. Tuyet's disappointment continues on the holiday, despite actually enjoying the duck with spicy sauce with her family. When she returns to school, though, she discovers that she is not alone, and that many of her classmates also did not eat turkey on Thanksgiving.

My daughter pointed out that this book would have come in handy last year when we ate Chinese food with my in-laws last Thanksgiving (see A Stir-fried Thanksgiving). Not being a turkey eater, I was thrilled to eat stir-fries and crab on Thanksgiving, but at the time, my rule-abiding daughter, was not as convinced that it was okay.

Now, my daughter is one year older, and she is not worried about whether or not we'll have turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.  We'll have a feast, that's for sure--a spring greens salad with cranberries, toasted pine nuts, and goat cheese; a pancetta, kale, and acorn squash risotto; a roasted-to-perfection chicken; an assortment of roasted root vegetables; and a simple yet always delicious apple crumble--but the focus will be on enjoying our time together.   

The message of Duck for Turkey Day resonates with wise words spoken by Marcie on the beloved Thanksgiving animated classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving after Peppermint Patty criticizes the Thanksgiving feast (a piece of toast, pretzel sticks, and popcorn) Charlie Brown has prepared, "Thanksgiving is more than eating...We should just be thankful for being together." 


Here's to togetherness and popcorn, toast, duck, or whatever you will be eating on Thursday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Books for Babies and Toddlers about Chinese Culture

            

As I perused my local library for new books to read my kids, I stumbled upon Round as a Mooncake: a book of shapes (Chronicle Books, 2000) and Red Is a Dragon: a book of colors (Chronicle Books, 2001), written by Roseanne Thong and illustrated by Grace Lin.  Here's a quick review in case you are searching for a good book with themes of Chinese culture for your baby or toddler.

They are two books of a three-part series that introduces basic concepts (shapes, colors, and numbers) to young children in a multi-cultural (Asian and Western) context. I was bummed that my library didn't have the third in this series is One is a Drummer: a book of numbers (Chronicle Books 2003).

With their beautiful illustrations and lilting text, I would have loved to have read these books to my children when they were little.  According to her website, Thong's inspiration for these books was her own daughter, Maya. She wanted to read books about shapes they found in Hong Kong but could find none that fit this description so she wrote Round as a Mooncake. This was followed by Red Is a Dragon, a story about colors, and One is a Drummer, a book about numbers. 

What I love about these books:

• Grace Lin's illustrations. I can't help it. I adore Grace Lin's illustrations; they are a feast for the eyes with vibrant colors, beautiful patterns and scenes full of charming details.
• Basic colors, shapes, and numbers are introduced using things commonly found in Hong Kong, China, or even a Chinese American family: a yellow incense stick, a round rice bowl, one dragon boat.
• The rhyming text is sing-songy (in a good way) and decorated with fun phrases like "crunchy kale" and "a bowl of goldfish."
• At the end of each book is an author's note where Chinese items mentioned in the story are defined and explained, making these books accessible for non-Chinese families as well. 

 Which multi-cultural books do you enjoy reading to your baby or toddler?

Coping...when a parent is abroad

"How do you help young children cope when a parent is abroad?"

This is what I found myself googling two weeks ago when my husband was away on a ten-day trip to China (see my previous post on his trip).  This was a trip to visit family: his mom and dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins, and to also do some genealogy research with some distant relations whom he met for the first time.

This was the first time since we were married ten years ago that he made this trip by himself.  The last time we went to China, all four of us travelled together. Our daughter was four, our son was one, and the trip was more difficult than we had imagined (with the twelve-hour time difference, unexpected illnesses, traveling hardships, etc...). This time, my husband would go by himself so he could cover more ground and see more relatives in a shorter period of time. It would be easier...

...or so we thought.

The day my husband left, I witnessed a huge change in my three-year-old son's behavior.  My normally happy, goofy boy became defiant and angry, ready to throw a major temper tantrum at the mere suggestion of a purely normal activity (such as getting into the car). 

This behavior continued non-stop for four days, when during his longest, angriest tantrum he began screaming, "I want to go to China with Daddy" and "Why didn't Daddy take me to China too?" 

Gulp. I suddenly realized that this wasn't a normal tantrum phase as previously thought. My son was experiencing real anger and sadness because his daddy was in China and he was not. 

How could I help him? My mind frantically searched for something that might bring him comfort. After drying our tears (seeing my son cry for his daddy broke my heart), I suggested that we go home and that he draw a picture of how he felt. 






To my surprise, he willingly got in the car, and after we got home, spent about 20 minutes drawing his picture (right).

Later that evening he was able to share his picture with his daddy on Skype. He explained how he was sad but all of the people in China were happy.  
My poor little guy!



The next day he told me that he was going to write a letter to his daddy explaining how he felt sad and angry.  After finishing his "writing," I had him "read" his letter to me and I wrote down what he said (he's just learning to write the alphabet so his letter required adult interpretation).  Again, we turned to Skype as a means to share these words "face-to-face."

From this point on,  I began to see gradual improvements in my son's mood. He still  felt angry or sad at times, but instead of immediately throwing a tantrum, he was able to tell me that he was angry and sad that Daddy was in China. By the time my husband returned on the tenth day, my son had returned to his happy, silly self, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Both my husband and I had thought that this trip would be easier than those in the past because he would be making the trip alone. We had never anticipated that this actually might be harder for our kids and could lead to complex feelings of sadness and anger because they were left behind. 

This trip was an eye-opener for me, and will certainly give us something to think about when we plan our next trip. It wouldn't surprise me if we make the next trip together!

Chinese Characters--look for the story

I’m teaching my daughter and her friend how to write Chinese characters as part of their weekly lesson (see my post from last week about our new Chinese language co-op).  Since they are also encountering new vocab and grammar patterns almost every week, I try to introduce only one or two new characters at a time.

Instead of forcing my daughter and her friend to copy the new characters hundreds of times (which was how I learned...and then promptly forgot), I look for creative ways to keep the characters fresh and alive in their minds.  One idea that I've been looking into lately is  imagining the character as part of a larger drawing and/or making up a story about that drawing. 

Illustrator, author, and graphic designer Christoph Niemann does this brilliantly in The Pet Dragon. He illustrates the meaning of Chinese characters by making them part of his illustrations for a story about a little girl named Lin Lin and the little dragon she receives as a gift. For some characters, Niemann employs the historical meaning of the pictograph (i.e. the character for “person” is meant to look like a walking person; Niemann draws this  character on top of a walking Lin).  But for others, Niemann creates his own interpretations of characters (i.e. the character fu, father, becomes Lin’s angry father’s eyebrows and moustache).  

Niemann is upfront with his intentions for this book—it is not to teach Chinese but to inspire kids to learn more. And that's what I loved about the book: it inspired me to look for the story, whether intentioned or unintended, in the characters. By asking my daughter and her friend to help create the story, this will help them remember the character—or at least that's my theory.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

How do you help kids remember Chinese characters?

Will she ever dream in Chinese?

We’ve begun a new year of Chinese lessons in our household. This year my friend and I are trying something entirely new. We’ve formed a small co-op and are team-teaching our girls Chinese.  With my background in the Chinese language, I contribute to the linguistic side of our lessons and she, the master teacher, finds new and creative ways to make our lessons “stick.”

This past week, I watched my daughter process a sentence from a story I was telling them.  “Lùlù yào yī zhǐ xiǎo gǒu” (Lulu wants a small dog), I stated.  

She looked at me quizzically, “Huh?” and held up her index finger, which is our sign for "please say it one more time.”

“Lùlù yào yī zhǐ xiǎo gǒu,” I repeated. 

She looked out of the corner of her eye thoughtfully and held up two fingers (the sign for two more repeats). 

“Lùlù yào,” I broke the sentence up into fragments. “Lulu wants,” she translated out loud.

 “yī zhǐ,” I continued.

“That means one,” she said.

“xiǎo gǒu,” I finished.

“Xiǎo is little and gǒu means dog,” she responded.

“So what did I say?” I asked again.

“Lulu wants a small dog,” she beamed.  And I did too, because she patiently analyzed the sentence, bit by bit, and--despite being confused at first--successfully completed the translation.

Later that night,  I wondered, "Will she ever dream in Chinese?" Will she, at some point, become  fluent in this language that right now feels so strange in her mouth and mind? And when will she be able to transition from translating word for word to thinking and responding automatically in Chinese?

Do I even remember when this happened for me?

I remember sitting in first year Chinese in college, hearing my teacher speak and trying desperately to make the cogs in my brain turn faster.  During the second year, my teacher spoke Chinese only during class and although I quickly began understanding what he said, I struggled in my responses, stuttering and sputtering, as I tried to first translate in my mind what I wanted to say from English to Chinese, and then repeat this phrase as imagined out loud.  At some point during the following five years, my brain made the switch and I started to respond, think, and yes, even dream in Chinese.

I know that my heart will swell with pride if and when my daughter gets to this point, but for the time being, I am thrilled that she is learning the language, even if it is bit by bit.

***The title for this post is from a book I'm currently reading by linguist Deborah Fallows, which is about her experience as an American in China, as seen through the lens of learning the Chinese language. 

Ten Years and Counting

Last week my husband and I celebrated our tenth anniversary with a box of chocolates (from Pure Imagination Chocolatier in the North Market, Columbus for my Central Ohio readers...yum!). As I thought about years past, I realized that the love of good food has played a central role in our romance. 

I knew I was in love when on our first date, a tall, handsome Chinese man made me pasta with sautéed shrimp and set the table with linens and lit candles.  I was a vegetarian at the time, but his cooking was so good that I didn't bring up the subject until much later in our dating relationship (and then I happily converted back to an omnivore--my choice).  

Later, our dates revolved around finding the best fresh-roasted coffee beans and hand-rolled sushi in town.  We dined at fine restaurants and local food trucks, and cooked regularly for friends.


      


 When we planned our wedding, we capped our guest list at around 100 and held the event in the morning so we could afford to serve each of our guests tasty breakfast fare that included peach-stuffed french toast and smoked salmon. In order to afford a delicious cake, we skipped fondant and sugar decorations, and used extra flowers from the florist instead for decoration. 

After we married, we continued to pursue our growing gourmand tastes on a chicken-of-the-sea budget, eating simple noodle dishes throughout the week so we could afford a sushi splurge on the weekend or a yearly trip to our favorite local Japanese restaurant--that was the size of a shoebox and often had a line out the door.  


Ten years down the road, we still enjoy sharing good food. It's a passion, a hobby, a joy, but stronger bonds hold us together--our love for each other, our faith, and our children. In this season of life, we are enjoying teaching our kids to cook and introducing them to new tastes.  

Last night, all four of us watched spellbound as PBS chef Ming Tsai sliced a green papaya. The fact that we each found this simple but precise task amazing tells me that the pursuit of cooking and eating good food is something we will enjoy as a family for many years to come.