Customer Reviews

Families of China (Families of the World) [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This dvd is about a 9 year boy named Zhu Kun and a girl named Yu Qinbo who live in or near or in Ningbo and shows 1 day in their lives following them from getting up in the morning to going to bed. It is very interesting to see how other children live and alike and different their lives are than ours here in the US.

Zhu Kun lives in a montain village called Xiku Town near Ningbo. Kun wakes up early sometimes before his parents. Kun washes his feet, then his face and neck then brushes his teeth in the kitchen sink... probably their ownly sink. He has breakfast at home or buy something on the way to school. Kun gets up early so he can go to school 1 hour earilier. Kun's dad is a Bonsai farmer and it show his father walking throew a bamboo forrest on his way to where the family grows the bonsai trees and then shows his father shaping the 2 year old trees with wire so that the trees will look like miniture trees when potted and sold. Kun's grandparents do not live in his home.

On Kun's way to school during his 30 minute walk to school he sees people washing clothes and vegetables, picking tea leaves. You then hear Kun talk about tea. Before school Kun and his classmates wash their rice which he will eat for lunch, there is ping pong, then reading a loud before class. There are Chinese Characters to learn and repeat and reading, and he talks about the 56 different languages in China. Lunch is served in the classrooms and everyone has metal lunchboxes that don't look anything like our plastic lunchboxes!

While Kun is in school his mom washes clothes downstairs in their families washing machine and then hangs out their clothes to dry outside and then walks to the market to buy tonights dinner. On the way home from school Kun picks bamboo shoots which is mom will cook for dinner. Kun's grandparents come to dinner. There is time for play and a little time to watch tv and then there is homework. It looks like Ku's family lives in a small maybe 2 room home with 1 bedroom for the family. Then Kun goes to bed around 9pm.

Yu Qingbo lives in Ningbo and lives in an apartment where she has her own room and looks like there is a living room and small area for cooking and a tiny table for dinner. Her story starts with people doing Tai Chi and shows her dad making breakfast. Before school Qingbo feeds her silkworms and then tells everyone about silk worms and how important they where to China long ago.

Qingbo's parents leave work on their mopeds her mom to the Education building and her Dad works to teach people how to inspect items that comes in to the Ningbo port. It shows shipping containers being picked up by a giant crane and then placed on top of a semi trailer. QIngbo wears a uniform to school that looks like a track suit. Qingbo and a friend take a bus to school and upon entering school and how everyone salutes their school and classmates. Before school starts everyone goes outside for showing thier respect to China. She talks about how the Chinese people are taught to believe that everyone does for their country and how everyone has only 1 child only and how China has a lot of people living there. Qingbo's classroom shows a lot of girls and boys to a total of 58 students in her class.There are group exercises and lunch in class. The school cooks their lunch for the students and today they have rice, chicken and soup. Qingbo speaks about how people eat rice and how other people eat wheat or noodles. Lunch is eaten in their classroom with chopsticks. Then there is recess and it show QIngbo playing Chinese jump rope. After school there is art, music and English class - todays class has them singing Jingle Bells. Qingbo's mom pickes her up from school and then her mom goes to the market which is only a few blocks away. Qingbo's Dad cooks dinner, then friends come over to sing Karoke. Qingbo washes her feet before bed and then goes to sleep. It is also interesting to see how other people live on a day to day basis. Qingbo's grandparents also do not live with her and her family.

**** If you are worried about this dvd mentioning the 1 child rule do not worry, it is only mentioned rather quickly and then moves on to her classmates.

The dvd is about 30 minutes long and looks like it was filmed in 1999. The 1st time we watched this we ended up watching it 3 times, my daughter really liked it and I pointed out how thing where the same as in my daughter's life and what things where different. I would greatly recommend!

Neat things our family likes:
Seeing a bamboo forrest
Seeing people pick tea leaves
Going to Market for Dinner
Cooking all of their dinner in 1 wok
What a classroom and school is like
Eatting dinner from big dishes with no plates
That Chinese people have great respect for education

I first stumbled upon the Families of Japan segment on a local channel. I was quickly fascinated and drawn to the series because it followed real children (usually one from a rural area and one from an urban area) and depicts how they typically live. I purchased the video on China since I had to teach it for my Social Studies unit. My students were fascinated to learn that classes in China usually had fifty students. They were also fascinated with the games they played, the foods they ate and the way they got around. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a teacher.

This movie is touching in the very ordinariness of its details: the children featured wake up, get dressed, play with friends, go to school, eat meals at school and home, wash their feet very carefully before bed, and are cherished by their parents -- just the way that children here are.

I did find myself questioning a few odd details in this film: the "country" child clearly comes from a wealthier family than most in his village (his family seem to be the only ones with a washing machine)... and the fact that, despite the village's poverty, all the children in the school have shiny new uniform track suits. And then there's the city child, who sounds almost robotic in her defense of China's wonderful socialist government where everybody co-operates towards the country's wellbeing.

These details aside, though, this video is a cute way to introduce kids ages 5-10 to the big wide world outside their own experience -- and to drive home the lesson that other cultures aren't so different from our own.

We will definitely be seeking out the other videos in this series -- Families of Japan, Israel, Ghana, etc... and we're all looking forward immensely to the journey!!!

I love this updated addition to the *Families of the World* video series. Like the other films from *FOTW,* it profiles two children---one boy, one girl, one who lives in a city, and the other who lives in the countryside. And like the others, *Families of China* encourages viewers to compare and contrast their own way of life with that of these kids and their families.

The two kids profiled here are Qinbo and Kun. Kun is 9 and lives with his family in a gorgeous mountain village near Xiku, outside Ningbo. They grow bonsai for a living, and his father's efforts in training trees with wire to grow this way are highlighted. The bamboo forest where the bonsai trees grow was something to see! To get ready to start the day, Kun washes up in the kitchen sink, which might be the only one his family's two-room house has. Kun walks a half-hour to school (the subject of much discussion in our family, too, because he sees people washing clothes in streams along the way, and others picking tea leaves). The lunches Kun and his classmates bring from home are steamed for him by a school lunchroom cook. But Kun himself knows how to wash the rice he's going to eat for lunch, and he and his classmates do this together routinely. Every day they eat lunch in their classroom, not in a cafeteria.

Kun's narration (in a boy's voice, in English) includes some background about tea and about the many languages (56!) spoken in China today. The resulting importance of Chinese kids learning one written language made a big impression on the folks we watched this video with.

Qinbo's life in the port city of Ningbo is quite different. She has her own room in their apartment, and the family cooks and eats in a modern (though small) kitchen. (For each kid's video profile, the food shopping, cooking, and communal cooking and eating were much commented on by our family.) Qinbo raises silkworms and talks about this traditional pasttime, which our folks thought was fascinating. Qinbo's mother is a educator in the public schools, and her father helps train port inspectors for the Ningbo shipping authority.

Qinbo's school day was something we talked about quite a bit after watching this video. She wears a uniform, studies in a classroom with almost 60 other kids, and is routinely taught some ideas that were thought provoking to our viewers. These include the one-child rule (mentioned only in passing) and each child's role as part of the greater society. This training is perhaps not so different in theory from the way children are taught about their countries around the world. But as an American watching this video, I thought it was both interesting and sobering to see how a modern non-democratic society (can China still be called communist?) teaches its children about their role in a huge, ethnically diverse country with more than 1 billion people and few of the noneconomic freedoms we take for granted.

But some things remain universal in this video: Family life has a daily routine, a rhythm that each family finds suits its own. Our kids loved this video and have watched it several times, and we've lent it out to others (some of whom would be traveling to China for pleasure or business).

The Teacher's Guide that is included has a complete transcript of the video and various actities, background materials, a map, a glossary, and other supplements that will help kids and adults learn more about Chinese life. For trailers from this video, go to YouTube and look for "Families of China (Families of the World" and then "Rural Trailer" or "Urban Trailer." I'd recommend this video to librarians and to elementary, middle-school, ESL, social studies, and geography teachers as well as to families. This is a great addition to this terrific video series.

I love this updated addition to the *Families of the World* video series. Like the other films from *FOTW,* it profiles two children---one boy, one girl, one who lives in a city, and the other who lives in the countryside. And like the others, *Families of China* encourages viewers to compare and contrast their own way of life with that of these kids and their families.

The two kids profiled here are Qinbo and Kun. Kun is 9 and lives with his family in a gorgeous mountain village near Xiku, outside Ningbo. They grow bonsai for a living, and his father's efforts in training trees with wire to grow this way are highlighted. The bamboo forest where the bonsai trees grow was something to see! To get ready to start the day, Kun washes up in the kitchen sink, which might be the only one his family's two-room house has. Kun walks a half-hour to school (the subject of much discussion in our family, too, because he sees people washing clothes in streams along the way, and others picking tea leaves). The lunches Kun and his classmates bring from home are steamed for him by a school lunchroom cook. But Kun himself knows how to wash the rice he's going to eat for lunch, and he and his classmates do this together routinely. Every day they eat lunch in their classroom, not in a cafeteria.

Kun's narration (in a boy's voice, in English) includes some background about tea and about the many languages (56!) spoken in China today. The resulting importance of Chinese kids learning one written language made a big impression on the folks we watched this video with.

Qinbo's life in the port city of Ningbo is quite different. She has her own room in their apartment, and the family cooks and eats in a modern (though small) kitchen. (For each kid's video profile, the food shopping, cooking, and communal cooking and eating were much commented on by our family.) Qinbo raises silkworms and talks about this traditional pasttime, which our folks thought was fascinating. Qinbo's mother is a educator in the public schools, and her father helps train port inspectors for the Ningbo shipping authority.

Qinbo's school day was something we talked about quite a bit after watching this video. She wears a uniform, studies in a classroom with almost 60 other kids, and is routinely taught some ideas that were thought provoking to our viewers. These include the one-child rule (mentioned only in passing) and each child's role as part of the greater society. This training is perhaps not so different in theory from the way children are taught about their countries around the world. But as an American watching this video, I thought it was both interesting and sobering to see how a modern non-democratic society (can China still be called communist?) teaches its children about their role in a huge, ethnically diverse country with more than 1 billion people and few of the noneconomic freedoms we take for granted.

But some things remain universal in this video: Family life has a daily routine, a rhythm that each family finds suits its own. Our kids loved this video and have watched it several times, and we've lent it out to others (some of whom would be traveling to China for pleasure or business).

The Teacher's Guide that is included has a complete transcript of the video and various actities, background materials, a map, a glossary, and other supplements that will help kids and adults learn more about Chinese life. For trailers from this video, go to YouTube and look for "Families of China (Families of the World" and then "Rural Trailer" or "Urban Trailer." I'd recommend this video to librarians and to elementary, middle-school, ESL, social studies, and geography teachers as well as to families. This is a great addition to this terrific video series.

I love this updated addition to the *Families of the World* video series. Like the other films from *FOTW,* it profiles two children---one boy, one girl, one who lives in a city, and the other who lives in the countryside. And like the others, *Families of China* encourages viewers to compare and contrast their own way of life with that of these kids and their families.

The two kids profiled here are Qinbo and Kun. Kun is 9 and lives with his family in a gorgeous mountain village near Xiku, outside Ningbo. They grow bonsai for a living, and his father's efforts in training trees with wire to grow this way are highlighted. The bamboo forest where the bonsai trees grow was something to see! To get ready to start the day, Kun washes up in the kitchen sink, which might be the only one his family's two-room house has. Kun walks a half-hour to school (the subject of much discussion in our family, too, because he sees people washing clothes in streams along the way, and others picking tea leaves). The lunches Kun and his classmates bring from home are steamed for him by a school lunchroom cook. But Kun himself knows how to wash the rice he's going to eat for lunch, and he and his classmates do this together routinely. Every day they eat lunch in their classroom, not in a cafeteria.

Kun's narration (in a boy's voice, in English) includes some background about tea and about the many languages (56!) spoken in China today. The resulting importance of Chinese kids learning one written language made a big impression on the folks we watched this video with.

Qinbo's life in the port city of Ningbo is quite different. She has her own room in their apartment, and the family cooks and eats in a modern (though small) kitchen. (For each kid's video profile, the food shopping, cooking, and communal cooking and eating were much commented on by our family.) Qinbo raises silkworms and talks about this traditional pasttime, which our folks thought was fascinating. Qinbo's mother is a educator in the public schools, and her father helps train port inspectors for the Ningbo shipping authority.

Qinbo's school day was something we talked about quite a bit after watching this video. She wears a uniform, studies in a classroom with almost 60 other kids, and is routinely taught some ideas that were thought provoking to our viewers. These include the one-child rule (mentioned only in passing) and each child's role as part of the greater society. This training is perhaps not so different in theory from the way children are taught about their countries around the world. But as an American watching this video, I thought it was both interesting and sobering to see how a modern non-democratic society (can China still be called communist?) teaches its children about their role in a huge, ethnically diverse country with more than 1 billion people and few of the noneconomic freedoms we take for granted.

But some things remain universal in this video: Family life has a daily routine, a rhythm that each family finds suits its own. Our kids loved this video and have watched it several times, and we've lent it out to others (some of whom would be traveling to China for pleasure or business).

The Teacher's Guide that is included has a complete transcript of the video and various actities, background materials, a map, a glossary, and other supplements that will help kids and adults learn more about Chinese life. For trailers from this video, go to YouTube and look for "Families of China (Families of the World" and then "Rural Trailer" or "Urban Trailer." I'd recommend this video to librarians and to elementary, middle-school, ESL, social studies, and geography teachers as well as to families. This is a great addition to this terrific video series.

These Families of the World videos are great, educational tools. However, they use poor materials and are overpriced. For only 2, 30 min. segments, $30 is ridiculous! New, professionally made movies are not that expensive! Taking advantage of educators like this is beyond belief. I own several of these and the material used to make them is very low grade. For this price you would expect better quality DVDs. My copy of Puerto Rico families was only played 2x. When I went to clean the disk it cracked down the middle. I looked at the back and the disk quality is that of a burned disk copy, not the professional grade you expect from a DVD purchase.

This is a great educational DVD. I would reccomend for any educational setting. And for any family to understand the Chinese culture. Good for all ages.