Exploring Chinatown: A Children's Guide to Chinese Culture
(Hardcover)
A Parents' Choice Honors Award
By Carol Stepanchuk, Illustrated by Leland Wong
Would
you like to know why dragons parade for the Chinese New Year? Or where
to buy mooncakes and lichis? Do you want to visit an herb store? Or
have dimsum for lunch? Would you like to write in Chinese? Or create a
traditional painting? Or, maybe, to learn to play Chinese chess?
Come along on a trip to discover Chinese culture. You’ll learn about
family, religion, celebrations, music, food, martial arts, and more.
You’ll discover how Chinatowns came to be, and how today’s lively
neighborhoods are home to culture and traditions more than 2,000 years
old. Welcome to Chinatown!
This is a book for kids, families, and teachers who’d like to get more
out of their visit to Chinatown than an “I escaped Alcatraz” t-shirt or
oversized pencil. It’s a guide to what makes Chinese culture, well,
“Chinese.” It covers almost everything, from how to order in a
restaurant, and what not to do with chopsticks, to how to write
characters in Chinese and how to make potstickers. It tells about
herbal medicine shops, temples, and tearooms. It explains musical
instruments, the designs on dishes and paintings, and the costumed
characters in the New Years’ parade. It describes traditional holidays,
how people celebrate and what they believe. More, it shows how, and
why, North American Chinatowns were established, and why these proud,
lively and vital communities exist today.
A book for ages 10 and up.
Hardcover, 64 pages, full color, bibliography, index,
