"How Chang Kuo Lau Obtained A Donkey"
from Spotlight on China: traditions old and new

Vocabulary:

1. bribe:      (v) to influence a person by giving money or a favor to the person
2. grotto:     (n) a cave
3. immortal: (n) one who is excused from death
4. meteor:   (n) a small particle of matter from the solar system that appears as a streak of light in the sky as it falls into the earth's atmosphere
5. petty:      (adj) having little importance
6. unicorn:   (n) an animal that looks like a horse and has a single horn in the middle of it's forehead

Materials:

• “How Chang Kuo Lau Obtained a Donkey” (Elder Brother and Younger Brother) Hazel Sara Greenberg, ed., Spotlight on China: traditions old and new (The American Forum for Global Education, 1997), 128-130.

• Graphic Organizer

Procedure:

• Students will discuss the genre, fable, and its qualities by completing a genre chart.
• A fable is a story told to teach a lesson about human nature or about the world.
• The characters may be animals that speak and act like people.
• The setting may be real or fantastic and contain magic.
• Students will learn the vocabulary through context clues and the dictionary.
• Students will read “How Chang Kuo Lau Obtained a Donkey” as a class, answering the questions individually as they read and listen to the story.
• Students will complete the graphic organizer for this story, looking at the Elder Brother and Younger Brother relationship and comparing this to the Confucian ideal.

Questions:

1. How did Chang Nan and his brother’s relationship change after their parents died?
2. What happened to Chang Kuo after he left his home?
3. Why were Chang Nan and his wife jealous of Chang Kuo?
4. How did they try to harm Chang Kuo and the wolf?
5. What did the wolf tell Chang Kuo in his dream about becoming immortal?
6. Why did you think Chang Kuo wanted to become immortal?
7. What is the lesson this story is trying to teach?
8. What do you think happened to Chang Nan and his wife?

Writing: In class, explain how you think the wife of Chang Nan would have treated Chang Kuo if her husband’s parents had not died? Students will share with the class.

Homework: Write your own fable teaching a lesson about how you think siblings should treat each other. Make sure you fable contains the fable elements gone over in class.