Childhood

         One of the challenges that raising children in a foreign country is that it’s hard to share our childhood books or cartoons to our children. Of course, there would still be generation gap under the same culture, however, cultural difference above it definitely made the inheritance even harder.

        When I recall the stories I liked in my childhood, I would think of Zheng Yuanjie, Bingxin, Journey to the West , A Deer with Nine Colors, YiXiu the smart little monk, The Flower Angel, The Little Mole…

        I tried to introduce these stories to my children, however, it’s hard to impress them as these characters are not commonly known among their friends. What they were talking about were Dr. Seuss, Thomas, Five Little Monkeys, Dora, and Nemo; even Simba was a little out before the film was remade in 2019.

        There were a few exceptions, which are Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Tom and Jerry. It seems numerous stories have been developed on these silly characters over years and there would never be an end. I was so happy to watch the old episodes and new ones together with my kids, and burst out laughing in the same way, which brought me back to those precious Sunday evenings when I was young. At that time, there were no VHS, VCR or DVD; one episode a week was all we had. No matter how many years passed, children’s joy is universal.

        I was glad to go through another childhood with my children in a different culture. Together, we discovered children’s books, learned children’s song, played children’s game. These were all new to me. Sometimes they learned in school or from their friends, then I leaned from them. What a fun experience! Some of the books I remembered reading with my son include: The Cat in the Hat, Five Little Monkeys Jumping in the Bed, The One and only Ivan, Wonder, The Giver Quartet, Masterminds, Where the Red Fern Grows…  Gradually they also extracted a little bit of their parents’ memories, such as The Lion King, ET, Sun Wukong, Mulan… I hope multi-culture will eventually bring them a richer life experience, like what I received, instead of any confusion that makes them lost.