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AnonymousI was in our school library last week and found the Tiki Tiki Tembo by A. Mosel. Since we are covering Folk tales in 3rd grade, I read it to the class. They really enjoyed the connection of the boy falling in the well and the reason children are given short names.
AnonymousI just read the book Miranda recommended "Big Breasts & Wide Hips". I highly recommend it!!
AnonymousAnother good book about China is the book by Ma Bo regarding the Cultural Revolution called Blood Red Sunset. Its an autobiography and documents his life and events during the Maoist upheaval brought fourth by the Cultural Revolution.
AnonymousI have continued reading Pearl Buck books to get some more historical information (in a more personal way), and it has been really helpful to me. I have found that through this class, I feel like I have a giant puzzle with just a few pieces filled in. These books have helped to fill in some of the pieces. However, the books are rather depressing. I have found that most of the books I have read are so sad- especially in terms of the women. Their lives are inspirational for their sacrifices. Any ideas on more uplifting titles in historical fiction?
AnonymousThis book is a cultural resource guide book for elementary school teachers to get ideas, hands-on activities, and resources from Chinese culture. There are many simple activities that you can do with your students in the classroom for them to experience Chinese culture. It's published by Milliken Publishing Company which also publishes a series of resource guide book from other cultures.
AnonymousThis is an alphabet book for Chinese culture. It's a very interesting book for kids to know something about Chinese traditions, food, culture, festivals, and so on. I used this book as an example and required my Chinese III class to make a similar alphabet book in both English and Chinese to introduce a specific Chinese cultural theme as a group project. They did a wonderful job. One group did Chinese music instrument; one group did Chinese cities and provinces; one group did Chinese tea, herbs, and medicines; one group did Chinese food with stories; and one group did Chinese food and recipes. Now, these books become my collections in the classroom library as well as my next year students' reference books. Students like this project and spent quite a long time to collect information and translate between two languages. I really appreciate their efforts.
AnonymousAfter a long weekend of reading the Colors of the mountain all about a young boys journey through a anything but typical year under the Mao regime i came up with a great lesson idea. You could have your history students compare the lifes of an American child of there age in my case 14 to the life of a Chinese child of the same age and as the teacher you can choose the year the comparing will take place. 1940's would be great to compare. What do you think?
AnonymousI also loved Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. It is through historical fiction that I have learned the most about the Asian culture. The slow, painful process of foot binding is detailed and excruciating to read about. The strong women characters in the story show, as so many other novels about China, how much the women keep the traditions together. The men seem to generally float about, while those women agonize over pleasing them and with continuing with their tradition. Of course, I don't think they would want it any other way. As I have learned in this course, things are changing quite dramatically there, but no doubt it is difficult for the older generation to see it change.
AnonymousAfter our lecture about the labor conditions in China, this book caught my attention. It is a very readable first person account by a former Financial Times journalist, Alexandra Harney called "The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage". She spent many years in China and now has written a book that explores the ramifications, primarily for the Chinese, of the consumer demand for cheaper products. The book is loaded with lots of personal stories of Chinese laborers. This book points out the intense competition "within" China, such as the clusters of industries within a region producing specific products (eg. socks, microwaves, jeans). There may be up to 1,000 factories competing with one another in one city. Harney focuses her reserach on Shenshen which is a city in the Guangdong province that has grown from 500,00 to 12 million in 20 years. Just as was pointed out in our lecture, inspectors are overloaded and often corrupt, managers have learned to deceive American inspectors and Chinese workers endure deplorable conditions. Harney predicts that this manufacturing will eventually shift away from China as labor price rise to other nations (eg. Viet Nam, India) and she issues a call to consumers to become more aware of our GLOBAL supply chain...not just the China connection. A good read!
AnonymousTsukiyama, Gail. Women of the Silk. New York: St. Martin’s, 1991.
Gail Tsukiyama’s Women of the Silk is a sophomore core novel. Women of the Silk is about a group of women working in the silk factory in China during the 1920’s. This is the second year I have taught this novel and have received positive feedback from both students and parents. In fact, one student recently expressed that her mother had to take away the novel because she was spending too much time reading. I believe the mother wanted to read the novel herself since her daughter does not usually finish a book or enjoy reading. For this novel, I found it especially difficult this year to stay within our schools library rotation timeframe due to the following: Media coverage of the Olympics and knowledge gained from the East Asia seminars, library materials purchased from last years grant, as well as personal stories from last years China 2007 field study trip. I highly recommend this novel.
AnonymousAn excellent coming of age novel that tells of a young woman sold into the silk trade due to the plight of her poor parents. The limited options for young women provide the backdrop for comparison/contrast discussions about the role of women in Asia versus the role of women in America. An excellent read and as Lea commented - an appealing story that crosses generations with regard to interest.
Anonymous"China's Transformations" by Lionel Jenson and Timothy Weston includes a chapter titled "Fictional China". Howard Goldblatt writes the essay explaining the "two worlds of Contemporary Chinese fiction," as he explains, "one that in recent years has captured large, sometimes vast, numbers of readers in Chinese, and the one that includes works read by considerably smaller numbers of people outside China in translation."
Of course I read many of the books mentioned in translation but he explains that only certain books get 'into translation'. Not all bestselling books in China deserve to be translated, some are not worthy, according to Goldblatt but it makes me think about my perception of China through literature is determined by the what is translated not what is written.
Read this chapter in the class text. There are many book title suggestions to read this summer--on the beach.
AnonymousMy high school students are reading Pearl Buck in great numbers. I'm happy they like the books. I'll have to read them this summer.
AnonymousCan I recommend this book to my high school students? Anything really questionable? Since it comes highly recommended, I'll add it to my summer book list.
AnonymousIron and Silk by Mark Salzman.
I finished the book. Excellent. I highly recommend it for young adults and adults. Nonfiction. Set in the 1980s when Salzman lived in China to teach English at a medical college. While there, he studied martial arts. The book is a series of vignettes about his experiences. Most importantly, Salzman reveals the cultural differences that he experienced, but always, he was respectful of the Chinese views, never poking fun at them, only at himself at times. The perceptions that each culture has is different. One Chinese friend commented on Salzman's very large nose as four dimensional--kind, but honest, and rather funny. Although he was there in the 1980s, the story is timeless in the sense that the cultural differences still exist. He was in China right after it was opened up for travellers, so many of his experiences in the more rural areas involved Chinese people who had never seen a foreigner, let alone a Caucasian. Recently, a high school librarian asked for suggestions of titles for nonfiction books of a global nature. I immediately recommended this. I will also recommend it in a few weeks to our English teachers who asked for recommendations of books for summer reading, especially as they think about new books to replace older titles. This book has appeal to both guys, too, because of the martial arts interest that Mark has, and sometimes it is difficult to find a book that both guys and girls will like. And it is very easy to read and understand. Teenagers like books that are easy to read and understand.[Edit by="willoughbyak on May 22, 6:34:59 AM"][/Edit]