China Literacy Map

Claudia Santana

TAL 203

April 15th, 200804 Aurora.wma

Chinese Culture Literacy Map Lon Po Po

A Red-Riding Hood story from China

In-depth Analysis

The First Transcontinental Railroad

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Other Books

Dragonwings

Cat and Rat

Coolies

Rabbit’s gift

Pictures and Information adapted from…

The Golden Mountain

Dragonwings• Laurence Yep, 1975. New York: Harper

Trophy.• Grade:5th-6th.

Dragonwings is the story of a Chinese boy who moves to America during the 1900’s to live with his father, who he had never met. He has to adapt to having a father, adjust to a new culture, learning a new language, being discriminated against, and following his own traditions and culture . It is at the same time the story of the father who has a dream and his fight to make it come true.This book is about friendship, understanding, perseverance, acceptance, and love.

Lon Po PoA Red-Riding Hood story from

China

• Ed Young, 1989. New York: Philomel Books.

• Grade: 3rd-4th

Lon Po Po is a tale about three children whose mom leaves for a day to visit their grandmother. During that time a wolf visits them pretending it is their Po Po (grandmother). They children realize this and fool and kill the wolf at the end.

Cat and Rat

• Ed Young, 1995. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc.

• Grade: 3rd.

Cat and Rat is the legend of how the Chinese Zodiac was developed. According to the story, the Chinese Emperor invited all the animals to a race. The first twelve to make it to the finish line will be added to the Chinese calendar. The book also explains how and why cats and rats do not get along due to this race.

Coolies

• Yin, Chris Soentpiet. 2001. New York: Philomel Books.• Grade: 3rd-4th.

Coolies is the story of two Chinese brothers who travel to United States to work on the construction of the railroad in the mid 1980’s. China was going through a rebellion against the government and the people were starving. The two brothers decided to leave their poor family in the search for work to give their family a better life.

Rabbit’s Gift

George Shannon, Laura Dronzek. 2007. Florida: Harcourt, Inc.

Grade: 2nd

Rabbit’s Gift is a folktale which is attributed to the Chinese culture, even though, stories like it have been found in many other cultures (Irish, Spanish, French, etc.). Rabbit’s gift is a story about friendship, sharing and being generous. The Rabbit finds two turnips during his search for food for the winter. He realizes than one is more than enough for him, so he decides to share it.

Other Books

• My Mei-Mei by Ed Young.• I, Doku by Ed Young.• Yeh Shen, A Cinderella story from China by Ed

Young. • The Golden Mountain Chronicles by Laurence

Yep.• Henry’s First-Moon Birthday by Lenore Look.

Illustrated by Yumi Heo.

1906 San Francisco Earthquake• In Dragonwings, the author writes

about the earthquake that shook San Francisco in 1906 and its effects not only on the Chinese people, but everyone in general. The earthquake struck on a Wednesday at 5am on April 18th, 1906. The epicenter occurred two miles from the city of San Francisco, but was felt form Oregon to Los Angeles and even Nevada.The earthquake was caused by the rupture of the San Andreas Fault, a distance of 296 miles. The magnitude was of 7.8 on the moment magnitude scale.What was more devastating that the earthquake were the fires that were caused by it and went out of control. Most of them because of natural gas mains that broke.

San Francisco after the earthquake

Fires devastating the city

The First Transcontinental Railroad

• In Coolies, the author tells the story of two brothers who travel to America to work on the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.The two companies building the railroad were the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroad. The Union company employed mostly Irish men, war veterans and Mormons (built the tracks in Utah territory). The Central Pacific decided to employ Chinese after realizing that they were hard workers, even during the winter time and bad conditions. They were paid less than the others, they were treated badly, exposed to many dangers and were looked down upon. The Union Pacific started building from Omaha, Nebraska and the Central Pacific from Sacramento, California. The two routes met in Promontory Summit, Utah were the railroad was completed. The Chinese were not even acknowledge when the railroad was finished.

Both railroad companies meeting at Promotory Summit, Utah

The Golden Mountain

• In Dragonwings, the characters kept referring to San Francisco, California, as the Golden Mountain. This name was given to the city by the Chinese after gold was discovered there on 1848. Many immigrants, including Chinese, traveled to the state looking for gold during the California Gold Rush.

San Francisco’s Chinatown

In depth Analysis-Characterization

• Dragongwings

Laurence Yep’s description of the characters in the book makes us better understand the Chinese culture, and its traditions. The adults act in a more conservative way, always following their traditions even though they may be in a different country. It is harder for them to adapt to the new culture and its people. The younger ones keep with their traditions but are more flexible and more understanding of others.The author reveals the hardship of an eight year old boy who moves to a different culture and is exposed to things and people he had never seen before. Not having heard about anything pertaining this new world (America) he has his own beliefs of how things may be. When talking about an American lady, who he had never seen before, Moonshadow thinks, “I had expected her to be ten feet tall with blue skin and to have a face covered with warts and ear lobes that hung all the way down to her knees…” He is surprised by things like the telephone, electric light, a horse, etc.

Characterization cont.Adaptation to another cultures is emphasized in the book, how the characters struggle to accept a new culture, but not forget nor change their own. “Perhaps the truth about dragon lies somewhere between the American and the Chinese version.” This is Moonshadow trying to understand that different views are not necessarily wrong; they are just different.Yep also thoroughly describes the struggle of Windrider to live by the Chinese traditions and follow his dream of building and flying a plane. Even though he is criticized by many, he is perseverant and does not give up and tries its best to accomplish his dream. His wife, even though she is in China, and his son support him until the end. “… your father has undertaken no small task; but since I cannot be there, you must love him doubly hard. You must give him not only your own support, but also try to give him mine as well.” She is not only showing understanding, but also love.In many ways through characterization, the author reveals the minds and souls of the characters that are brought lo life in Dragonwings.

Pictures and Information taken and adapted from…

• www.wikipedia.org• http://www.mppl.org/kids/caldecott.html• http://www.vickiblackwell.com/lit/lonpopo.html• http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/BookDe

tail.aspx?isbn13=9780064400855• http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Coolies/Yin/e/9780142500552• http://www.storyplace.org/eel/activities/readinglist.asp?id=40&themeI

D=11• http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Provinces/• http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/r/RAILROAD.html• http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/79fall/railroad.htm• http://www.american.edu/bgriff/dighistprojects/boyle/chinatowns.htm• http://www.carolmendelmaps.com/mapsf/downtownsf.html• http://www.warriortours.com/links.htm• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Transcontinental_railroad_route.pn

g• http://www.harcourtbooks.com/bookcatalogs/bookpages/978015206

0732.asp• http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/images/country/china-flag.jpg• http://chineseculture.about.com/library/symbol/np/nc_fox.htm• http://www.chinesenames.org/chinese-tattoo.htm• http://www.orientaloutpost.com/shufa.php?q=rabbit• http://picturechina.net/category/portrait/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1906_San_Francisco_Earthquake