What kind of China will emerge from reading "The Story About Ping"? Well, it is a children's book, but not a fairy tale, and not at all deep. It is the adventures of a little duck who, as I said, decides not to go home since he will get a spank as the last duck in line. The moral of the story is facing up to one's responsibilities even if it means getting into trouble.
My children were entranced with the story for several reasons. Ping lived on a boat with Wise Eyes... so we talked about painting eyes on a boat and why someone might do that -- anthropomorphizing the boat as a protector. The little boy who captures Ping used an ingenious basket, which amazed my children -- they were used to thinking of baskets as something just for holding flowers. A basket for a duck?????
Let's see... they learned that some Chinese people live on boats all the time and that the Yangtze River is very, very big. They learned that people are alike around the world, even if they live in different ways. There was camaraderie and concern for Ping and rejoicing when he finally returns (now I've spoiled the ending for you!
). There is no mention of him getting eaten by his family.
That is sort of glossed over, though I'm pretty sure the little boy who catches him in the basket is planning on a duck dinner. I don't have the book in hand, so I can't remember much more about it. It s a classic children's story though, so I imagine many people with children here will have read it to their kids. I remember my daughter desperately wanted a duck after that.
She got chickens instead which she loved very much. If I can find that book again (it was put away to be saved for my children's children and is probably in the storeroom somewhere), I will copy out the words so you know what it was all about.
As for the Chow Chow. I am surprised there are none at all left in China since they are very, very cool dogs. Of course, *I* would think that!
You are right that they evolved into another shape. <so clever of you> The very heavy muzzles of the modern chow is something that has been bred into them since they first appeared in England and is especially pronounced in male dogs. My dogs are both females (they were sisters, remember?) and are not show dogs. Just as well --I don't like that look and in all the earliest photographs and depictions of the female chows they are not like that and look more like more "girls." The most noticable characteristic of Chows is their blue-black tongue. It is quite distinctive.
I have read that Chow dogs were called "Foreign Dogs" in China and may have been brought by the people from the steppes of Mongolia. The "Fu Dogs" or protector dog statues are supposed to be Chow Chows. There is a silk scroll from around 950AD called "The Palace Concert" that shows several ladies sitting at a table with a chow dog sleeping underneath the table exactly as my dogs do and looking a lot like mine. I have this in a book and could probably scan it and show it to you if you are very interested.
I apologize for going on about this -- I don't mean to be usurping your wonderful thread with tales of ducks & dogs. (That's a joke, get it? Tales... tails??) I enjoy your photographs very much and look forward to more ^JB^ views of China.
