Personal Literacy Story: Angel Yeung

Why I'm Proud to be CHINESE!

How a book changed the way I view my identity 

To Live (1993)By Yu Hua

•  This novel describes the struggles endured by the son of a wealthy land-owner, Fugui, while historical events caused and extended by the Chinese Revolution are fundamentally altering the nature of Chinese society. The contrast between his pre-revolutionary status as a selfish fool who (literally) travels on the shoulders of the downtrodden and his post-revolutionary status as a persecuted peasant are stark.
• This book is very sad and thought-provoking, and it was based on what actually happened during this historical period in China. This book shocked me as a reader and I was so devoted into reading, I cried multiple times reading this book. I gained  tremendous knowledge about the past of China and understanding of how people view this period by reading this book. 

I read this book during my second year of University, during this time I was having a hard time identifying myself as a Chinese living in Canada,I was very sick of all these Chinese racists jokes in the popular media, and I was feeling ashamed of being Chinese. Reading this book shocked me out of the sudden as I started to learn more about Chinese culture, I started to read more Classic Chinese literature. Before this time, I refuse to read anything in Chinese as I viewed Chinese as less valuable than English.Reading To Live by Yu Hua opened my eye and guided me to respect my own heritage. 

Why Teaching Heritage matters in a Classroom 

How would I promote Multicultural Literature/Literacy  

As educators, I want to promote students to respect their own heritage and try to read different literature from different cultural background. The world is a big place, and I hope readings will take my students to different places and understand the world better.