“Little White Rabbit”—An Internationally Known Chinese Children’s Song

“Xiao bai tu, bai you bai, liang zhi er duo shu qi lai…” This afternoon in the second floor reading room at the Salem Athenaeum, a group of children were reading a song in Chinese with me, “little white rabbit, white and so white, two little ears go up upright…” The beautiful chorus of voices sent my mind back to my own kindergarten in Beijing. The voices seem the same, but the faces of children are different. Here these 6 cute children age 5 to 7 are all Americans, but they are speaking Chinese with me. I felt like I was in a wonderland.

I actually don’t remember if I learned this very song in my kindergarten since then we spent so much time learning Chairman Mao’s poems. The first time I heard this song was when I lived in Paris. One day I went to a friend’s house for afternoon tea. My friends told me that her son was studying Chinese in school. Then she asked her son and his school friend to recite a Chinese song to me. That was this song of “little white rabbit.” The two boys were French, now this group of children is American. I must say this little white rabbit is quite international.