MY BEIJING & LITTLE WHITE DUCK ...learn why Ryan hates kids (books)

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February 18th, 2022

32 mins 56 secs

Season 4

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About this Episode

Our journey to China continues...this time, for the kid...friendly? Namely 2 kids comics: "My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder" by Nie Jun,
and "Little White Duck: a Childhood in China" by Na Liu and her husband Andrés Vera Martínez. Both books weave tales of a childhood in China. One idyllic and magical, and one full of innocently lived, yet harsh realities.

"My Beijing" tells four stories in the hutongs...or interior neighborhoods of urban Beijing in mostly the modern day - with a little bit of time travel thrown in for good measure, following the adventures of a little girl and her "Grampa," holding onto idyllic memories of how it once was.
Whereas "Little White Duck" is a series of autobiographical recollections of the writer's childhood growing up in Wuhan during the late 1970s, as China found itself in transition, slowly opening up - especially after Mao's passing.

Both books captured a feeling of China that was both familiar and eye opening.