A New Year's Reunion storytelling in English and Mandarin (15/01/2012)
| Venue | ： | Olympian City Branch, The Commercial Press Shop 115, 1/F, Olympian City 1, 11 Hoi Fai Road, West Kowloon, Kln. |
| Speaker | ： | Ms. Pia Wong Ms. Annie Ho Ting |
| Host | ： | Ms. Christa Tam |
Review
A few dozen parents and children had an early celebration at our home base in Olympian City at our A New Year's Reunion storytelling session. Ms. Pia Wong and Ms. Annie Ho Ting from Bring Me a Book brought to life the Feng Zikai Award winning title in English and Putonghua respectively.
Most of the children in the audience hardly ever get the chance to experience Chinese New Year in the countryside where fire crackers and dragon dances are customary or have to endure long separations from their fathers like Mou Mou in this story.
Feng's heartwarming story of family life is brilliantly captured by the illustrator's striking drawings which show a world which seems to be a couple of decades behind ours. She brings to life Mou Mou's shyness when she meets her father again who returns home looking different with a beard and a moustache, her happiness during the time spent with him as well as her sadness when Daddy has to go away again to work.
Our members were delighted to help produce the sound effects with the toy drums, tambourine and bells when Mou Mou and her family watch the dance as part of New Year's celebration. At the end of the English storytelling by Pia, each child had great fun imitating the custom of making sticky rice balls and putting a coin inside for good fortune with the play dough. When Annie retold the story《團圓》in Putonghua, the boys and girls in the audience responded enthusiastically to her questions in the same language as she went along. The interaction and the use of craft to enhance the reading experience together with the additional language in a one session all helped make it a truly enjoyable time.
When we posed for a group picture, all the boys and girls proudly showed off the sticky rice balls they had made and we thanked our storytellers and wished them a happy Chinese New Year in both languages. It was certainly a wonderful way of spending a rainy winter Sunday afternoon.
