Bro KY,
It began on a whim. One day in May as I was walking my elder daugher Ning to school, I decided to tell her the story of "Kong Ming Borrows the Arrows" from the Tales of the Three Kingdom. I remember my father telling me that story all so long ago. And here I was in NYC telling my 6 year old the same story.
She was fascinated!
And from then on, she wanted a new Three Kingdoms story every day. I ran out after day 3, after "Ruse of the Empty City" and some stories about the rivalries between Cao Cao's two sons - Cao Pi and Cao Zhi - detouring on to the story of "Cao Zhi weighing the elephant" and the "Seven Paces Poem".
Then I went to buy a simple book to beef up my knowledge. I decided to focus on Zhuge Liang. So we continued with the Battle of the Red Cliff (East winds and fire boats), Kong Ming and the Wooden Horses, Kong Ming and the Maze, the story of Kong Ming imposters, Sun Quan's three visits to Kong Ming, etc.
In fact, earlier I have told her the legend of the White Snake (having acquired a comic book to freshen up my memory).
Then, we went through a phase of the Journey to the West. We found a book from her library about Sun Wukong and his origins and later his rampage through the heavens until he met his match in the Great Buddha.
Most recently, I also got a book of the legends of the eight immortals (pa xian); so told her the legend of the Yellow Crane, the one about Zhang Liquan acquiring a begger's body, the one about Zhang Guolao and his donkey eating the magic root, the story about a hole dug by an immortal which replicated 20 elderly mothers for a greedy official.
Still, she couldn't get enough of the stories.
So, bro KY, what other stories would you list from the Chinese history and mythology that we can pass on to our younger generations?
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2 comments:
bro hui, this is very good chinese parenting. not too sure if you told the tale in chinese or english.
actually you know more than i do when it comes to legendary and mythical stories.
maybe you can find some 成语 stories relevant. further they would enrich their chinese vocabulary.
analect maybe too boring for a young child but it is the best book on confucianism. some of the tales from spring and autumn period are very interesting as well. I am not too sure if you could find these books in NY. let me shop a few books from beijing and meanwhile you can also tell me the list of books/stories you desire
Bro KY,
Sad to say, my children's Chinese language is still some distance away from being able to tell them historical stories in Chinese! They understand everyday Chinese but would reply in English.
Now they are back in Brunei going to Chinese school for the summer holidays, so I am sure I'd get the chance to share Chinese culture in a more original form. Sometime soon, I intend to take them to visit China so they can appreciate the whole world out there. For now, I am grateful that she is so interested in her Chineseness and history (one of our earlier conversations was about Qing Shi Huang).
Perhaps I told you about this earlier, I come to realise that one job of a parent is to tell your own stories to the children. That is their link to your own life. Because that is how your children will actually know you and benefit from your life's experiences. After all, what is a parent's legacy? What are our children supposed to remember from us?
I just told Ning this morning that when I am back with them in Brunei, we will look through my old pictures and I will tell the stories. I also told her that somethings she can learn anyhow anytime but I would like to tell her more things that only I can tell (because only I know).
BTW, you asked earlier for the link to the Brunei local history blog, here it is http://bruneiresources.blogspot.com/
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