四世同堂 / Si Shi Tong Tang -- Four Generations Under One Roof by Lao She 1957; Four Generations of Americans Study Mandarin in Panda Land by Judy Wang Bedell 2009.
On a rare sunny day this month, I walked into downtown Salem, where I saw the owner of the Lotus Gift shop setting up her shopping cart with traditional Chinese children’s outfits. She is a well known and respected Chinese lady in Salem. I said hello to her and told her about my new endeavor of teaching Mandarin Chinese. She was very interested and asked who was learning Chinese from me. I told her that this summer I started to teach a girl age 3, a gentleman age 77, and others of many ages in between. She exclaimed with a big smile: “Oh, you teach 4 generations!” I felt so delighted and took that as the best compliment. Only a Chinese would praise my teaching in this way since a family of 4 generations would be considered a very happy, prosperous family.
The phrase of “Si Shi Tong Tang” echoed in my head. Si Shi Tong Tang was a novel by a famous Chinese writer, Lao She, describing the life of the Chinese during the Japanese Occupation. I am tempted to adopt this phrase to describe my students in Panda Land (Panda Land’s Chinese name is 熊猫学堂/Xiong Mao Xue Tang) as四世同堂 / Si Shi Tong Tang--four generations of Americans study in Panda Land.
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