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Little Dragons
Little Dragons for a Better World is a project that aims to promote political, environmental and social awareness amongst Chinese American families and youth as well as Chinese cultural appreciation. The project hopes to promote more unity amongst the Chinese diaspora and teach all Little Dragons to have a socially conscious mind wherever they are while cherishing their own heritage. It combines everything that Ms. Butterfly teaches!
Chinese American students learned the basic history of how Chinese-Americans came to America and what they endured throughout the years. This is also in an attempt to appreciate the long history of Chinese-Americans before us and also learn of the importance of being part of the Chinese-American community.
As a way to connect the concept of gratitude to "孝順" or filial piety students learned to create a thank you card that not only thanked their parents for specific things, but also wrote what they would like to do to show their appreciation for their parents. Some students wrote about how they would like to help clean more and give their parents more of a break at home from the chores.
The community came out to put together a great show! We had a karate performer, a boy with a rubiks cube, poetry, little pianists and violinists, singers and guitarists, and world-famous violinist Zhou Xiaofu come play for us! It was extremely wonderful to see the strength of the community.
The neighborhood of over 50 people came to provide a wonderful dinner. Everyone pitched in to help and to give an excellent dinner for us all!
Chinese American students learned the Native American origin story of the land they are on. Then they answered the question how are we connected to the sky and land every day? The answer is our food! They shared their favorite foods, then created a gratitude chain all the way to the Sky.
The Asian American Pacific Islander Political Alliance led a workshop in which parents talked to each other about what they would like to see in their community and what they are grateful for.
The community came out to put together a great show! We had a nunchuck performer from the neighborhood who also taught the community the nunchucks, a Swarthmore alumni Meena Chen created a dance with a Katana, Swarthmore student Ariel played the Chinese instrument Erhu, a student from the community played the piano and Swarthmore Taiko Ensemble performed as well!
Over 100 people gathered for a Mid-Autumn Festival dinner. Ms. Butterfly and Meena Chen performed a bilingual storytelling of Chang E and Hou Yi which can be viewed below.
