For those who don't know, Flat Stanley is a character in a book of the same name - read more about the Flat Stanley Project here.
And so it was that we spent some time with Flat Stanley before sending him on his way back to his class - along with a few gifts for him to help him remember his visit to China and an invitation for him to come back anytime. Although I intend to post about the activities we have done, I also want to show you the report we sent back with him. Now that I look back at it I cringe as it was something I dashed off quickly so as to send it off - and there are a few errors plus things I would write differently, or structure differently...perhaps first graders aren't so critical. But, here it is.
Flat Stanley visits China!
We are an Australian family and were lucky to meet Flat Stanley when we visited friends in Champaign-Urbana in Illinois. We had lived there for six years and this was our holiday to visit our friends before we returned to where we live now - China!
And so Flat Stanley came with Alex and Sebastien (and their Mummy and Daddy) to the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province.
It was school holiday time for us in Xiamen but Alex still needed to do her English homework. She goes to school here but it is in Chinese so she is practicing reading and writing English at home. Flat Stanley helped her make good choices.
Alex also learned to ride her bicycle without the training wheels with almost no spills! In Australia we must wear helmets when we ride bicycles but in China there is hardly a helmet to be seen. Flat Stanley was there to remind Alex to ride safely.
Do you see Alex holding up two fingers in the photo? This is a very typical Chinese pose for photos and she learnt it at school. Do you see that she is wearing a short sleeved shirt? Although it is winter here in February, the lowest the temperature gets is around 10 degrees Celsius (or around 50 degrees Fahrenheit - we had to teach Flat Stanley about the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit). Further north in China, for example in Harbin, it snows in the winter and is much colder with some days only having a high temperature of only -13 degrees Celsius or 9 degrees Fahrenheit.We were excited that Flat Stanley was able to stay long enough to help us celebrate Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival). The traditional Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar which means that Chinese New Year is on different dates each year. This year it was on Valentine's Day!
First we decorated our house. Usually you use lanterns and symbols like chili peppers, mandarins, and fish. Many people also stick up posters of traditional wishes for happiness, fortune and prosperity around their doors. Flat Stanley helped Alex and Sebastien stick Tigers (for the year of the Tiger) on their bedroom door.
All around the city there are decorations for the New Year. We took Flat Stanley to see Zhong Shan Lu (Zhong Shan Street) in Xiamen with all the posters of tigers and money around. He was a bit scared until we told him that the tiger is a friendly tiger. The symbol on the tiger's forehead is 王 (wang) which means king - and the tiger is the king of the jungle.
Chinese New Year is the time when the family gets together - very much like Thanksgiving in America. A big meal is eaten and the rest of the week involves visiting family and friends, eating and drinking and looking forward to a great new year. Because Alex's Daddy is an economics professor at Xiamen University, we were invited to share the students' Chinese New Year dinner - for those students who can't make it home.Flat Stanley and Alex loved the giant cake that greeted us at the door. Cake is something that is quite new to China and is rarely eaten except for some birthdays and anniversary celebrations. Very often you will see cherry tomatoes decorating iced cakes as they are a fruit. Alex is wearing a traditional Chinese vest to celebrate the New Year.
Children are given "red pockets" or hong bao with money in them as gifts for Chinese New Year. At the dinner, one of the students gave Alex a cartoon character toy, Mei Yang Yang or Pretty Goat, as a gift. The television cartoon is called "Xi Yang Yang yu Hui Tai Lang" or in English"Pleasant Goat and the Big Bad Wolf". It is very popular.
Food is very different in China - here is an example of one of the dishes we had at the dinner. A whole duck in a soup.
Another traditional dish that is especially popular at Chinese New Year are jiaozi or dumplings. This is because they are made in the shape of an ingot (gold or silver) which symbolizes riches or wealth for the coming year. It is a family affair to make them and then cook them (steamed, pan-fried or boiled in a soup) for the New Year meals. We were invited to a jiaozi party to make some together with other foreigners and Chinese friends. Flat Stanley didn't like to get his fingers dirty so Alex rolled the dough for him.
Then he watched while she used kuaizi (chopsticks) to put in the pork and vegetable filling. She (and the rest of our family) have become very proficient in the use of chopsticks. 
Finally, before we said goodbye to Flat Stanley, we took him to see a couple of last events. The first was the Lantern Festival which was where hundreds of lanterns of all shapes and sizes were displayed for everyone to come and see in a park. Many of them told different stories.
Next we went to see some ice sculptures. Xiamen is hot - and never has snow. So from the cold north (Harbin) some ice sculptors made some examples of what they do for the Winter Harbin Ice Sculpture Festival.
Where we live in China - Xiamen - has a unique game that they lay claim to. Every year during the Autumn Festival they play something called "Bo Bing". You roll six dice in a bowl and the aim is to get as many fours as possible. Different combinations are required to win different prizes. We took Flat Stanley to Xiamen's Bo Bing museum which has a history of Bo Bing - here Alex and he are standing next to a giant Bo Bing bowl.
We had to say goodbye to Flat Stanley so he would make it back to your classroom before the end of the school year. We included a few gifts with him to help him remember his visit to us. We would love to see Flat Stanley again another time!Goodbye - or Xie xie!
Alex and Sebastien (and their Mummy and Daddy)
April 2010
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