China Tales II

1.Longlong and the Suanpan

Longlong and the Suanpan tells the story about Suanpan the Chinese traditional abacus from the perspective of Longlong, a primary school student. Longlong’s grandfather ran a silk shop and he calculated his incomes with a suanpan every day. Longlong did not understand why grandfather doesn’t use a more modern electrical calculator. One day, Longlong had a maths problem and he found the secret of suanpan. Longlong began to learn how to use suanpan from his grandfather earnestly.

2.The Sound of Birds Singing

The Sound of Birds Singing introduces the structures and making method of erhu, a Chinese traditional music instrument. Linglong and her grandfather live in a village full of birds and flowers. But in the winter, the leaves of trees fallen down and the birds flew away. Linglong wanted to hear birds and rustling leaves, she thought that is the music of nature. In order to let Linglong heard the music all the time, her grandfather made an erhu which imitate many sounds from nature as well as convey the sound of birds singing.

3.The Story of Silk

The Story of Silk tells the origin of silk, the product of Chinese ancient civilization. Pearl lived with her father and her stepmother. Her own mother had passed away. Pearl’s family was very poor and could only afford a small amount of rice to eat each day while her stepmother made her do most of the housework. Poor Pearl dreamed her mother, who told her to find and raise the silkworm that will help Pearl live a better life. After wake up, Pearl remembered her mother’s words and began to learn raise the silkworm and weave silk cloth. Pearl also taught other people in her village how to raise silkworms. Since then, Pearl lived a happy life with her family.

4.The Monster Who Saw Red

A monster loved all things red. He liked to visit each family in the town on Chinese New Year’s Eve. During his visit, he would secretly take as many red things as possible from each family, such as red flowers, fruits, Chinese New Year couplets and so on. Once when the monster got back home, he found money in a red packet! He was so embarrassed, and returned the money to the boy and apologize to him. The monster learned that putting money by parents and other elders in a red packet is the tradition at Chinese New Year, which represents all their best wishes for children in the New Year.

5.Four Treasures of the Scholar

Four close friends, Zhi, Bi, Mo and Yan were not happy. They argued for who was more important for scholar. Bi said when writing traditional Chinese calligraphy or doing wash painting, the scholar would pick him up first; so without him, Zhi would be useless. Zhi claimed without him, there would be nowhere to write or paint on. Mo added that if the scholar had only used Bi and Zhi, his calligraphy or painting would have been empty. Yan said honestly that Zhi, Bi, Mo were all absolutely special important. At last, the scholar decided their argument by completing a piece of calligraphy with Zhi, Bi, Mo and Yan.

6.Anyone for Tea?

At Mid-Autumn Festival a harvest party was held every year in the village where Feng Lin lived. All the villagers would come together in celebration and share the fruits of their hard work, such apples, grapes and corn. But no one brought anything to drink. One Mid-Autumn Festival, Feng Lin met a tea girl Xiang Ye. She invited Feng Lin to try the teas.With Xiang Ye’s introduction, the villagers all liked drinking tea.The following year at Mid-Autumn Festival everyone brought their produce to share at the party as usual. And Xiang Ye brought tea！

7.The Great Wall

Two little sparrows, Chirpy and Peggy, were desperately looking for food, when they heard a story from the Great Wall. For over two thousand years the Great Wall has been waiting for his friends—several soldiers of the border, who buried their treasures under the Great Wall and vowed that whoever came back after the war would send the treasures back to their hometown. But no one has ever taken the treasures.When the Great Wall was telling, several archaeologist arrived and dug up these treasures. Chirpy and Peggy knew that the Great Wall finally felt peaceful.

8.What Is My Mother Tongue?

Chenyu and his parents came to the most famous restaurant featuring Cantonese cuisine in Chinatown to have breakfast. Mom used Cantonese to order. Chenyu was curious because this language was different from the mandarin he learnt at school. Dad said he was born in Fujian Province and his mother tongue was Hokkien, i.e. Fujian dialect. Chenyu talked with his parents about China’s different dialects and expanded his vocabulary.

9.Knots for New Year

The market was busy in the atmosphere of New Year. Lili and Yanyan were dazzled. They were attracted by the things with tassels on a stall, which were the Chinese knots. They saw that the knots can be used as decorations on brollies and some were made into earrings. Chinese knots have different types such as Pan-ch’ang Knot, Two Coins Knot and Button Knot. They can be made by cotton, twine, nylon or leather. Lili and Yanyan decided to buy some especially the red ones which accord with the theme of New Year.

10.Meng Jiangnü and the Power of Love

Meng Jiangnü and Fan Xiliang were a couple who were very much in love. However, because Qin Shi Huang started to conscript people to build the Great Wall for him, Fan Xilliang had to be separated with Meng Jiangnü. Meng Jiangnü stepped onto the road of finding her husband. Unexpectedly, she was told that Fan Xiliang was dead when she arrived at the foot of the Great Wall. Meng Jiangnü was deeply grieved and some parts of the Wall fell after she cried for three days at the Wall. After she buried Fan Xiliang, Meng Jiangnü jumped into the sea. On Mt. Phoenix near the Shanhaiguan Pass in Hebei Province, you can see a statue of Meng Jiangnü, reminding people of the power of love.

11.The Wife Cake

In a village in the North, Lao Wang and Meilin were a couple who were very much in love. Although they lived a hard life, they were happy everyday. Lao Wang’s father was suddenly ill. Lao Wang bought his father medicines with all his savings, but his father did not recover. To earn money to treat Lao Wang’s father, Meilin took French leave. Lao Wang missed his wife day and night, so he decided to make cakes for her. “The Wife Cake” was therefore named.