Search - Families of China on DVD

A day in the life of two children in Ningbo, China

KSL | Florida, USA | 07/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This dvd is about a 9 year boy named Zhu Kun and a girl named Yu Qinbo who live in or near or in Ningbo and shows 1 day in their lives following them from getting up in the morning to going to bed. It is very interesting to see how other children live and alike and different their lives are than ours here in the US.

Zhu Kun lives in a montain village called Xiku Town near Ningbo. Kun wakes up early sometimes before his parents. Kun washes his feet, then his face and neck then brushes his teeth in the kitchen sink... probably their ownly sink. He has breakfast at home or buy something on the way to school. Kun gets up early so he can go to school 1 hour earilier. Kun's dad is a Bonsai farmer and it show his father walking throew a bamboo forrest on his way to where the family grows the bonsai trees and then shows his father shaping the 2 year old trees with wire so that the trees will look like miniture trees when potted and sold. Kun's grandparents do not live in his home.

On Kun's way to school during his 30 minute walk to school he sees people washing clothes and vegetables, picking tea leaves. You then hear Kun talk about tea. Before school Kun and his classmates wash their rice which he will eat for lunch, there is ping pong, then reading a loud before class. There are Chinese Characters to learn and repeat and reading, and he talks about the 56 different languages in China. Lunch is served in the classrooms and everyone has metal lunchboxes that don't look anything like our plastic lunchboxes!

While Kun is in school his mom washes clothes downstairs in their families washing machine and then hangs out their clothes to dry outside and then walks to the market to buy tonights dinner. On the way home from school Kun picks bamboo shoots which is mom will cook for dinner. Kun's grandparents come to dinner. There is time for play and a little time to watch tv and then there is homework. It looks like Ku's family lives in a small maybe 2 room home with 1 bedroom for the family. Then Kun goes to bed around 9pm.

Yu Qingbo lives in Ningbo and lives in an apartment where she has her own room and looks like there is a living room and small area for cooking and a tiny table for dinner. Her story starts with people doing Tai Chi and shows her dad making breakfast. Before school Qingbo feeds her silkworms and then tells everyone about silk worms and how important they where to China long ago.

Qingbo's parents leave work on their mopeds her mom to the Education building and her Dad works to teach people how to inspect items that comes in to the Ningbo port. It shows shipping containers being picked up by a giant crane and then placed on top of a semi trailer. QIngbo wears a uniform to school that looks like a track suit. Qingbo and a friend take a bus to school and upon entering school and how everyone salutes their school and classmates. Before school starts everyone goes outside for showing thier respect to China. She talks about how the Chinese people are taught to believe that everyone does for their country and how everyone has only 1 child only and how China has a lot of people living there. Qingbo's classroom shows a lot of girls and boys to a total of 58 students in her class.There are group exercises and lunch in class. The school cooks their lunch for the students and today they have rice, chicken and soup. Qingbo speaks about how people eat rice and how other people eat wheat or noodles. Lunch is eaten in their classroom with chopsticks. Then there is recess and it show QIngbo playing Chinese jump rope. After school there is art, music and English class - todays class has them singing Jingle Bells. Qingbo's mom pickes her up from school and then her mom goes to the market which is only a few blocks away. Qingbo's Dad cooks dinner, then friends come over to sing Karoke. Qingbo washes her feet before bed and then goes to sleep. It is also interesting to see how other people live on a day to day basis. Qingbo's grandparents also do not live with her and her family.

**** If you are worried about this dvd mentioning the 1 child rule do not worry, it is only mentioned rather quickly and then moves on to her classmates.

The dvd is about 30 minutes long and looks like it was filmed in 1999. The 1st time we watched this we ended up watching it 3 times, my daughter really liked it and I pointed out how thing where the same as in my daughter's life and what things where different. I would greatly recommend!

Neat things our family likes:
Seeing a bamboo forrest
Seeing people pick tea leaves
Going to Market for Dinner
Cooking all of their dinner in 1 wok
What a classroom and school is like
Eatting dinner from big dishes with no plates
That Chinese people have great respect for education"

Showed this to my 6th grade students and they loved it!

Elaine | NYC | 09/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first stumbled upon the Families of Japan segment on a local channel. I was quickly fascinated and drawn to the series because it followed real children (usually one from a rural area and one from an urban area) and depicts how they typically live. I purchased the video on China since I had to teach it for my Social Studies unit. My students were fascinated to learn that classes in China usually had fifty students. They were also fascinated with the games they played, the foods they ate and the way they got around. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a teacher."