Escape to Gold Mountain/Jade Peony Reflection Page

Connecting my own experience to the characters

Please respond with paragraph answers.

1. What have you learned in the book about the importance of the role of family and
community for the Chinese people? (How did they help each other? Why was it
necessary?) They help each other by giving them a place to stay and food to eat if they
can't afford them. Also help them find a job so that they can get themselves back on their
feet if they lost their old job or couldn't afford to pay for their own place. Lastly, make
sure they are safe and have all the stuff that they need.

2. How is the Chinese family and community similar and different to your own?
They are similar because the Chinese people respect their elders and me and my family
respect the elders too because they are a lot older and wiser than us. Also they send
their elders' bones back to china so that their spirits can be set free, we bury or cremate
them so that they can be free to roam around in the heavens.
3. What role do cultural traditions and beliefs play in Chinese society?
Cultural traditions and beliefs play an important role in Chinese culture. Throughout jade
peony there are a lot of examples of the importance of cultural traditions. Like everyone
respects the elders because they are a lot older and wiser than everyone else. Another
tradition is that they send their ancestors' bones back to China so that their spirit can be
set free so they won't be trapped. Lastly they always help out each other in need of if
anything is happening.
4. How is this similar or different in your extended family?
This is similar to my family because my family always helps each other out even if they are in
the wrong or in danger because they are family they mean the world to us. Also we always
listen to people that are older than us because they have a lot more knowledge than I am, and
they always mean good telling you if you did something wrong or helping out.

Reflecting on Major Themes: What have I learned? What are my thoughts? Can I
Extend My Prior Knowledge?

1. Choose three of the following themes from the book and explain your reflections on
them, times you considered them, or times you considered character’s experiences of
them, when reading the text. What are your thoughts about these words in relation to the
text? Use examples, explanations and quotes with page numbers to support your
answers.
Racism: There was a lot of racism in this book between the Chinese and
Japanese. The Canadians didn’t let the Chinese work in certain fields. Some
examples of this were on page _40_ when they called him monkey man because
he looked like one so everyone calls him that. Gender roles: there were a lot of
 gender roles between the men and women like how the women were supposed to
stay home and care for the kids and cook while the men went out and worked for
them to get money for them to pay the bills.
Immigration- There was not a lot of immigration in this book. I couldn't really find
any.
Racism Immigration Ethnicity Religion Language
Gender Roles Age Ability Class

Identifying Bias: Who had it? Toward whom? One sided or two sided?

1. Identify times in the book where you were prompted to consider: Privilege, power
struggles, or bias. Please elaborate and provide evidence from the text with page
numbers to support your answers. Privilege- when they named the turtle a canadian
name because his friend said it was not a chinese turtle so it needed to have a canadian
name.
Power- The Canadians had power over the Chinese by making them pay a head tax
because they wanted to discourage the Chinese to not work so they could get more
money for the canadians.
Bias- they assumed that the turtle was Canadian not Chinese because they didn't know
how long the turtle has been there so they guessed the turtle was canadian.
Struggles- The chinese has a lot of struggles with the japanese because the japanese
was named dirty people so they chinese and japanese hated each other.
2. SS section:

1. Describe several ways the Chinese overcame adversity. Always explain your examples. (Cause
and Consequence) examples - Old timers' tales describe things which the mother should avoid
in order to not have something bad happen to the baby. For instance, rubbing the belly will make
the child spoilt. Also poh-poh the grandmother has to deal with her declining health and loss of
her husband she overcomes this by helping out her grandchildren.
2. Describe in detail what the Chinese were able to help contribute to Canadian and American
society? (Significance) they worked hard to bild new lives for themselves and their families in their
adopted countries. Also they are able to overcome the challenges of living in a new country,
including discrimination and poverty, and find ways to thrive.

3. Why was it difficult for younger Chinese generations to balance being both Chinese and
Canadian? Give me three reasons and explain them. (Perspective) 1. It's hard to navigate the
cultural difference between their heritage and the country they grew up in.
2. It's also challenging for them to reconcile their families traditions values with the modern,
westernized values that they are exposed to in canada. 3. They feel like they don't belong to
either culture, which can be isolating and confusing.