Of course, I probably haven’t written enough to write as good a book as Kelly Yang, but that’s another story. It wasn’t until last year (y’all, I’m 50) after reading Kelly Yang’s book, Front Desk, that I envisioned the possibility that I too could write a children’s book about my experiences as a Chinese-American kid. What I realized just recently is that the lack of representation also affected my identity as a writer. I also refused to eat my mom’s home-cooked Chinese food - I carry many regrets about all the delicious meals I missed. (Fun fact: Sun In doesn’t give black hair blonde highlights it turns orange).
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I did everything I could to try to fit in with the white, dominant culture. I only saw myself in texts and other media as “foreign,” “exotic,” or ”other.” I tell you this because this lack of representation or this distorted representation profoundly affected me as a child and adolescent. It’s so much better now.” It’s true, there are many more books available than when I was a kid, but in my research for this article, I found a video read-aloud of The Five Chinese Brothers from 2017! It wasn’t even the updated version, The Seven Chinese Brothers. You might be thinking, “Well you’re… ahem, from a different generation. Notice the authors of all of these books - none written by a Chinese author. The Story About Ping seems to be an original story with a Chinese duck as the protagonist. Two of these stories are actually folktales: Tikki Tikki Tembo has its origins in Japan, but in this “modern” interpretation, it’s set in China, and The Five Chinese Brothers is an adaptation of an old Chinese legend, The Ten Brothers. If this was supposed to count as representation, that ain’t it, as the kids say. Here are the books I did read that featured Chinese (not Chinese-American) characters: That’s how many books I read as a child that featured a Chinese-American character like me. My experience as a Chinese-American growing up in Southern California. In this article, you’ll read about my experience and what you can do to create a more culturally responsive classroom. Just as I wrote about in this blog post about MLK Day and Black History month, I wasn’t giving my students the whole story. Given my experience with representation in books and the curriculum, it’s surprising that I didn’t see how problematic this was. It was the epitome of “holidays and heroes” teaching. Each year, I’d search through my books to pull out the ones showing how the holiday is celebrated, read Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac, maybe do a related art project, and call it a day. As this new year approaches, it’s reminding me of how I mishandled this important holiday for far too long. |a Folklore |z China |v Juvenile literature.According to the lunar calendar, the new year begins on February 12th in 2021, ushering in the year of the ox. |a Names, Personal |v Folklore |v Juvenile literature. It means, "the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world! " Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo is the name of a mother's first, and most honored, son. When the eldest son fell in the well and most of the time getting help was spent pronouncing the name of the one in trouble, the Chinese, according to legend, decided to give all their children short names. Beautifully illustrated, this perfect read-aloud storybook is one adults and children will enjoy sharing together again and again. |a This humorous retelling of a favorite folktale recounts how the Chinese came to give their children short names.
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|a 1 online resource (1 audio file (21 min.)) : |b digital. |a 1427207259 |q (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book)