"My Beloved Potatoes"
by Chi Zijian

"How is it possible that you have such a kind hearted man?"

Vocabulary

1. to astound:     (v) to surprise
2. cheongsam:    (n) traditional Chinese dress that has very high slitls on both sides of the dress.
3. curable:           (adj) capable of recovering
4. envious:          (adj) resentful
5. hemorrhage:    (n) blood loss
6. inadvertently: (adv) accidentally
7. oblique:           (adj) slanting or indirect
8. quagmire:        (n) difficultly
9. to reap:            (v) to harvest, to pick the crops
10. to sow:            (v) to plant
11. wan:                 (adj) pale,sickly
12. yuan:                (n) the name for Chinese money

Materials:

• Excerpt from “Beloved Potatoes”, by Chi Zijian (Husband and Wife) Chi Zijian and others, eds. Contemporary Chinese Women Writers VII (Chinese Literature Press, 1998), 64-90.
• Graphic Organizer

Procedures:

• Students will work in pairs, using context clues to identify vocabulary that is within sentences.
• Students will predict what they think the title of the story “My Beloved Potatoes” may refer to and which Confucian relationship they will be looking at in this story.
• Students will read the story as either a group, in pairs, or silently.
• Students will write answers to the questions as they read, sharing them with the class.
• Students will complete the graphic organizer for this story after they have finished.
• Students will discuss the husband/wife relationships in this story.

Questions:

1. Who helps Li Aijie find a place to stay while her husband is in the hospital?
2. List three actions or quotes that show that Li Aijie and her husband care deeply for each other.
3. Why is Sister Ping envious of Li Aijie and her husband?
4. What actions of the two wives demonstrate that they are both following the Confucian standards expected of a wife?
5. What was Sister Ping going to say she wished her husband would do? Why does this astound Li Aijie?
6. Why does Li Aijie say she, “felt that she had suddenly dropped into a dark well, denied all presence of sunshine”?
7. Why does Li Aijie lie to her husband about his diagnosis?
8. Where did Qin Shan go when he left the hospital?
9. Why didn’t he tell Li Aijie that he was leaving?
10. What is so unusual about Qin Shan’s funeral?
11. Why did Li Aijie choose to bury her husband this way?

Writing:

• Compare and contrast the two wives marriages.
• Pretend you are Li Aijie and write a letter to Sister Ping, telling her about what happened after you left the hospital (finding your husband harvesting the potatoes back home and then his death).
• Write about what you think Li Aijie will do after her husband’s death.What do you think Confucius would have expected a widow to do? Is this what you would do?
• Compare Li Aijie’s marriage to what you think most marriages are like today?