K-12 Chinese Language Teaching, Issue 5

invisible in school curricula. Prejudicial and stereotypical representation of Asian Americans in
school and society causes barriers to equity and reinforces racism. Hence, students are limited in
their knowledge and understanding of Chinese culture and they might bring their partial and
distorted images of Chinese people that they saw or heard from the media or other influences
into the classroom.
In consideration of these challenges, the Chinese classroom can be established as a safe,
open, and inclusive learning environment, in which teachers open dialogues with a critical
reflection and examination of stereotyping and racism. Reflection is an active, persistent, and
careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds
that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends (Dewey, 1910). According to
different cultural topics in thematic units, teachers can encourage students to ask relevant
questions that they are interested in. Teachers can use open ended questions to guide the
conversations with students and help them reflect on how their prior knowledge, past
experiences, and influences from the surroundings have shaped the way how they see Chinese
culture as well as their own. For example, while learning cultural products, practices, and
perspectives on the topic of food in class, students could be provided with a short reading of
Amy Tan’s Fish Cheeks. In Amy’s personal story, a fourteen-year-old Amy was embarrassed by
her family of Chinese descent and the dishes from Chinese culture when the minister’s family
came over for Christmas Eve dinner. Amy’s narratives vividly reveal her inside feelings and
struggles of her racial/ethnic and cultural identity. Teachers can ask open ended questions to
facilitate in-depth discussion with students, such as Why did Amy feel shamed about the Chinese
food that was prepared by her mother? What was the purpose behind her mom’s menu? Do you
have favorite Chinese food? If yes, what is it? Have you been encountered with a similar
situation that Amy shared in her story? If yes, would you like to describe it? What are your
perspectives on food and the dining customs in Chinese culture? Students can be engaged in
comparing similarities and differences between Chinese American food, food in China and the
U.S., and their home food along with the dining customs in different cultures. They can be
guided to see where their perspectives or stereotypes on the topic of food are from, why they
think in that way, and how people from Chinese background see things differently. They can
further discuss the interplay of minority people’s racial/ethnic and cultural identities in their
interaction with the mainstream society.