Celebrate Chinese New Year with Dragons, Dumplings, Drums…and Books

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Joy Fleishhacker, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 02/02/2010

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Bringing in the New Year
(Lin)
© 2006 by Yongsheng Xuan

In China and across the globe, billions of people are preparing to celebrate Chinese New Year, which falls on February 14, 2010, and ring in the Year of the Tiger. Determined by the Chinese calendar, this important holiday begins on the night of the first new moon of the year and ends 15 days later with the Lantern Festival, when the full moon is welcomed with cheerful parades of lights.

All over the world, people are cleaning their homes and purchasing new clothes for a fresh start. Bad luck is being swept out the door. Bright-colored decorations intended to bring wealth and good fortune adorn houses and communities. Individuals are thinking about reconciling differences and making new beginnings. Filled with festivities and fun, Chinese New Year is also a time for gathering together with family and friends, remembering and honoring one’s ancestors, and celebrating cultural heritage and traditions. Share these books with your students to introduce this holiday, explore elements of Chinese culture, and invite discussion about cherished family observances.

Holiday Basics
Packed with spectacular photographs, Celebrate Chinese New Year (National Geographic, 2009; K-Gr 4) enthusiastically invites readers to become part of the action. Carolyn Otto’s clear and engaging text describes holiday preparations (cleaning, shopping, decorating, cooking), family observances (eating special foods, paying respect to elders, getting presents), and community events (parades and pageants), while providing history on various customs. The luscious, large photos depict celebrations in different regions of China as well as in other countries including Brazil, Japan, and Canada, indicating this festival’s global significance. The vibrant visuals and upbeat narrative make the book an audience-grabbing read-aloud. Additional facts about the Chinese calendar and zodiac, a Chinese lantern craft, a fortune cookie recipe, and a list of further resources are appended.

Celebrating Chinese New Year (Hoyt-Goldsmith)
©1998 by Heidi Chang

In Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith’s appealing photo-essay, 10-year-old Ryan Leong, a fourth grader who lives in San Francisco with his family, is busy preparing for and Celebrating Chinese New Year (Holiday House, 1998; Gr 1-5). Readers follow along as he helps to clean house, shops with his parents, tends his grandparents’ gravestone, and writes New Year’s messages in calligraphy at Chinese school. Festivities culminate with a 10-course family feast, an exciting parade in Chinatown (complete with lion dancers), and opening the lai see (bright red envelopes containing money) received from friends and relatives. Lawrence Migdale’s colorful photos document events and depict a loving family. Ryan’s you-are-there perspective adds immediacy while the well-written text provides detail about the history and symbolism of various traditions and insight into the family’s immigrant experience.

Author/illustrator Demi bids readers Happy New Year!/Kung-Hsi Fa-Ts’ai! (Crown, 1997; K-Gr 4) with a delightful picture book that highlights holiday fundamentals. On each themed spread (“Decorate!” or “Cook!”), succinct text is paired with delicately rendered, playful artwork depicting traditionally clothed Chinese children and adults preparing for and enjoying the festivities. Topics covered here include the animal zodiac, New Year’s poems, special foods and their meanings, gods and celestial beings, and the spiritual symbolism of trees and flowers. Children will enjoy dipping into this book and looking closely at the intricate illustrations.

D is for Dragon Dance (Compestine)
© 2006 by Yongsheng Xuan

In D Is for Dragon Dance (Holiday House, 2006; K-Gr 3), Ying Chang Compestine provides an alphabetical look at holiday customs from “A is for Acrobats” to “Z is for Zodiac.” Yongsheng Xuan’s large-size artwork, rich in sun-bright hues, conveys anticipation and exuberance as two children participate in family celebrations. The paintings are layered atop uniform-colored backdrops of Chinese calligraphic characters, adding depth and texture. Some of the entries include brief explanations, facilitating classroom discussion. An afterword offers “Tips to Ensure Good Fortune in the New Year” and a recipe for dumplings.

A Child’s-Eye View
A young girl describes her family’s preparations for Bringing in the New Year (Knopf, 2008; K-Gr 2) as “Jie-Jie sweeps the old year out of the house,” “Ba-Ba hangs the spring-happiness poems,” “Ma-Ma makes the get-rich dumplings,” and “Mei-Mei gets a fresh haircut.” After the narrator dons her fancy “new qi pao dress,” the big moment finally arrives with firecrackers, lions “to scare away last year’s bad luck,” and the appearance of a dragon (spread gracefully across a lushly hued three-page fold-out).

Grace Lin’s simple text is accompanied by color-drenched artwork that deftly depicts the excitement of the festivities, the ornate detail of objects and clothing, and the characters’ shared affection. An author’s note provides background, including the ceremony of “waking up” a new dragon by opening (painting on) its eyes. Follow up this endearing offering with Lin’s Dim Sum for Everyone! (Knopf, 2001; K-Gr 2) as the family members visit a restaurant and choose their favorite “little dishes” from a taste-bud-tempting array of dumplings, cakes, and buns.

Chinese New Year is a time for visiting relatives and Amy’s mother is missing loved ones who live “on the other side of the world.” Then a package arrives from China containing A Gift (Boyds Mills, 2009; K-Gr 2) for the young girl. In the accompanying letter, Aunt Mei describes how Uncle Zhong unearthed a beautiful stone while plowing his field, Uncle Ming polished and carved it until he released the dragon he saw hidden inside, and the siblings fashioned the piece into a necklace for their niece.

As a result of this thoughtful act, Amy and her mother are lovingly reminded that family members can remain close even though they live far apart. Yong Chen’s earth-toned watercolors accompany the spare text, depicting the two main characters as well as the action in China. An endnote provides further explanation of the cultural traditions highlighted in the story.

Welcome to Chinatown

Chinatown (Low)
© 1997 by William Low

Two gorgeously illustrated picture books provide interesting glimpses into New York City’s Chinatown. In William Low’s Chinatown (Holt, 1997; K-Gr 2), a boy describes the sights and sounds of his neighborhood during a walk with his grandmother. Awhirl with color and detail, the evocative oil paintings depict a “musty” smelling herbal shop, a bustling outdoor market, the “clang” and sizzle of a seafood restaurant, and more. This street tour culminates on New Year’s Day with an exciting parade, as grandmother and grandson wish each other, “Gung hay fat choy.”

Kam Mak’s My Chinatown: One Year in Poems (HarperCollins, 2001; Gr 2-5) is narrated by a boy who has just moved to New York City from Hong Kong. Though it’s New Year and the streets are filled with scraps of red paper, “a snowfall the color of luck,” the homesick youngster is sure that “It must be someone else’s luck this year./Not mine…how can it ever be a good year/thousands of miles away from home?” However, as the seasons pass, the youngster begins to adjust to his neighborhood, finding that it offers things that are familiar as well as enticing new experiences. The year’s cycle is completed with a much more exuberant welcoming of New Year’s Day that includes a breakfast of noodles, “A red envelope stuffed with money,” and “lions in the street outside./…leaping, pouncing,/prancing, roaring,/jumping, dancing.”

Mak’s lyrical text shines with childlike candor and his luminous photo-realistic paintings provide poignant snapshots of both the young narrator’s surroundings and his emotions. In addition to offering a vivid look at life in Chinatown, this book provides opportunities for discussing an immigrant’s experiences and changing perceptions.

Share a Tale
Two captivating picture books transport readers to China for tales that encapsulate the spirit of the holiday. In Catherine Gower’s Long-Long’s New Year (Tuttle, 2005; K-Gr 3), a young boy accompanies his grandfather to town to sell a cartload of fresh cabbages and earn money for the family’s celebration, but everything seems to go wrong: their bicycle gets a flat tire and a dishonest merchant steals away all of the customers. Though it looks like they will return home empty-handed, Long-Long’s kindness, perseverance, and entrepreneurial skills—and perhaps a bit of New Year’s luck—ultimately guarantee a happy ending.

The spirited narrative portrays day-to-day details while capturing the excitement of the festival. Set against tan rice paper, He Zhihong’s pastel-colored paintings charmingly evoke the bustling setting. An author’s note tells the story of the first Spring Festival and introduces Chinese words used in the text.

Ying Chang Compestine’s The Runaway Rice Cake (S & S, 2001; K-Gr 4) has the pleasing cadences and timeless themes of a folktale. Because a drought has made food scarce, Momma Chang has only enough flour to make one nián-gão (New Year’s rice cake). Just when the hungry family is about to dig in, the rice cake springs to life with a cheerful cry (“Ai yo! I don’t think so!”), rolls out the door, and leads the Changs on a merry chase through the village, finally grinding to a halt after colliding with an elderly woman. When Da, the youngest son, realizes that she is starving, he respectfully offers her the cake, to the dismay of his hungry brothers. Hearing about this act of generosity, the Chang’s neighbors bring them what little food they have, but there still isn’t much to go around. Then, magically, bowls and baskets overflowing with tasty fare appear on the table, and everyone sits down to share a proper feast.

This tale of compassion, self-sacrifice, and joyous celebration is illustrated by Tungwai Chau in vibrant acrylic paintings. An author’s note provides additional info about the holiday along with two recipes. Children will be drawn in by this story’s emotional range (from humor to heartfelt kindness) and delight in making comparisons to “The Gingerbread Boy.”

Explore the Chinese Zodiac
Extend your Chinese New Year celebration by sharing tidbits from Demi’s The Dragon’s Tale and Other Animal Fables of the Chinese Zodiac (Holt, 1996; K-Gr 4). Stunningly illustrated spreads present brief stories, each starring one of the 12 animals of the zodiac, followed by a suitably instructive maxim. Short and entertaining enough for fill-in read-alouds or quick discussion-starters, the tales are told with an approachable folksy quality and warm humor, yet they reveal universal truths that encourage further contemplation. Demi’s artwork whimsically combines opulent colors with finely rendered animal figures. From endpapers depicting the constellations to scattered stars and spherical motifs in the interior, the celestial imagery adds a magical, ethereal quality.

Begin with “The Tiger’s Tale” (appropriate for 2010) and use these stories to introduce the Chinese calendar and zodiac animals (and their very distinctive personality traits). Children will enjoy figuring out which animal reigned during the year they were born and determining whether or not the designated characteristics ring true.

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