Dreaming of China

I recently submitted my application to participate in the 2007 Faculty Seminar to China, Tibet and Taiwan. The Faculty Seminar Abroad has been in existence since 1989 and has taken place 13 times. Seminar groups have gone to the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Peoples’ Republic of China, Ghana, Senegal, Jordan, Yemen, Syria, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, India, Vietnam and Thailand, Turkey and Cyprus. In these countries, the groups met with academic counterparts, political and business figures, journalists and people ‘on the street’. They visited universities and important cultural sites.

I have been dreaming of China ever since the announcement. In fact, during a fall semester road trip, I told a colleague I would give my two front teeth to travel to China and India in the next few years. I am so excited about this opportunity that I could bust! My interest at this point is largely related to the following second grade Standards of Learning in history and social science:

• The student will explain how the contributions of ancient China and Egypt have influenced the present world in terms of architecture, inventions, the calendar, and written language.
  
  
• The student will develop map skills by
  
  • locating China and Egypt on world maps;
    
  • comparing the climate, land, and plant life of these regions;
    
  • describing how people in these regions adapt to their environment.

I address the study of China and Egypt as well as ancient Greece, Rome and Mali in my Integrated Curriculum Methods course, though it really is just a cursory glance. I am hoping to develop a more thorough approach for the study of China if my application for the trip is accepted.

To this end, I have been thinking about ways to engage young children in the study of China, and think that folk tales are a good place to start. I read Tikki Tikki Tembo many times as a child, and read it often now with my son. We even listen to it on my iPod some evenings before bed! I have also been reading the stories in The Rainbow People by Lawrence Yep.

My own fascination with China was kindled when I began teaching and read Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz to my students. I found it fairly romantic that she spent her childhood in China, even if you knew otherwise from the very first page of the book. Here is an excerpt:

In my father's study there was a large globe with all the countries of the world running around it. I could put my finger on the exact spot where I was and had been ever since I was born. And I was on the wrong side of the globe. I was in China in a city named Hankow, a dot on a crooked line that seemd to break the country right in two. The line was really the Yangtse River, but who would know by looking at a map what the Yangtse River really was?

While the SOLs limit study to written language, inventions and architecture in China, I think that the economics standards on barter and trade would lend themselves to an integrated study of the Silk Road. I am quite taken with the newest Russell Freedman book, The Adventures of Marco Polo. I also love the travel books written by Laurie Krebs and think We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road is a wonderful choice.

Finally, I have found and become enamored of the books written and/or illustrated by Grace Lin. I love using the book Kite Flying to introduce kites, and absolutely adore her illustrations in One Year in Beijing, and use it to look at daily life in China while examining its rich cultural history.

I'm sure there are many more good books about China. I have several nonfiction pieces in my teaching library, but would like to find more stories for kids, folktales and perhaps some young adult works. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way!