Month: August 2020

crafts, Culture, Holidays

The Story Behind Chinese Valentine’s Day

echenvw

This year, Chinese Valentine’s Day or 七夕/Qīxī falls on August 25th, 2020. This is the one day in the entire year that the two lovers (the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl) are reunited. It is romantic and tragic and a good reminder to cherish those we love. It is also a fun explanation to why the stars Vega and Altair seem to stare at each other from across the Milky Way.

I created a printable you can use at home to share this story with your child. It is not only a coloring page, but a folding page–one that hides and reveals parts of the image to tell the story.

My daughter loved to fold the page over and over to retell the story. She was a little concerned about how sad the story was and felt it was unfair. She tried to think of various hypothetical situations where the two lovers and their children could be together all the time. We had a talk about it, and it was a good way to connect. After you tell the story, consider discussing the following questions with your child:

  • Why do you think the Queen Mother of Heaven disapproved of the marriage?
  • Why did the magpies want to help? What can you do to help someone when they are sad?
  • If you could only visit your family one day in the year, what activities would you choose to do?

You can download the printable below in English, Traditional, or Simplified Chinese.

cowherd-and-weaver-girl-folding-english-tchDownload
cowherd-and-weaver-girl-folding-chinese-traditional-tchDownload
cowherd-and-weaver-girl-folding-chinese-simplified-tchDownload

I hope you have fun exploring the story behind this Chinese holiday!

Products

New Book Release: Turkey Rides a Rocket

echenvw

The inspiration for this book came from one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, “Hop on Pop.” I loved how he introduced just two words and used these words to create a simple sentence–all while telling a funny story. It is more challenging than it looks. I decided to take this idea–this challenge–to create story that utilized the unique nuances of the Chinese language. I like how Chinese words are made up of components that describe the word quite literally. For example, “balloon” in Chinese is “air-ball.” “Train” in Chinese is “fire-car.” So I made a book centered around the word, “fire” and all the words that stem from it.

Hence, “Turkey Rides a Rocket” was born, and I’m excited to share it with you and your family. It follows a turkey on a dangerous adventure, one that will have you laughing.

Here are previews of some of the inside pages. You can see the book uses a big font and colorful illustrations to engage young readers. Each story also is supplemented with parent tips and a game at the end to encourage further application of the vocabulary you have just learned.

There are two other stories included in this book as well. The second story, “Where is Little Brother?” is a finding or I-spy story, where you can encourage your child to find an item in a detailed 2-spread picture. This has been very effective in teaching my daughter how to say, “Where is_____” in Chinese, even if she does not know how to say the item in Chinese, it has made that phrase useful to her.

The last story is called, “Mama’s Tea.” This one is a rhyming story, and works to reenforce reading and pronunciation. The mom in this story goes crazy after she finds that the dad has been drinking her tea. Perhaps it is how I wish I could act if I could let my emotions fly loose.

All in all, it is 66 pages of easy, useful Chinese. If you are not a Chinese speaker, you can listen to the online audio for this book and never miss a beat. Below is a video where I read the book, cover to cover.

I hope this book gets you excited to use more Chinese in the home! Let me know your thoughts and if you get the chance to review it on Amazon, that would help me to be able to produce more books for you.

Happy Learning!

Available in paperback on Amazon!