The storytelling mom introduces Vietnam
Once, when Cheng’s son was in kindergarten, he was asked to get up on stage and tell a story about his hometown. To help him prepare, Cheng rushed to the library to borrow books and gather relevant materials. That night she even recorded him making his speech, again and again.
It was just a storytelling competition, so why practice so hard? Cheng responds: “It’s because my son once asked me, ‘Why are you Vietnamese and so ignorant?’ When children are in school, they compare themselves to their classmates. When he said that, I really felt sad. So I told myself: I’m going to work harder still.”
Though her son didn’t win a prize for his talk, the experience ignited her fighting spirit, and she decided to enroll him in another competition. Consequently, she herself took a training class at the library for mothers wanting to learn to lead story times. When you fall, she says, you pick yourself right up. That’s how Cheng got involved in storytelling. She even took the initiative to go to schools to volunteer to lead story time. The display of courage surprised even herself.
“After I saw other mothers using picture books as they told stories, I went to a bookstore, but the picture books were expensive. I couldn’t afford them, so I decided to make them myself.” Fortunately, the teachers of her two sons quickly discovered that they had artistic talent, placing them in selective arts classes both in elementary and junior high school. They in turn helped Cheng create illustrations for her books on Vietnamese folk tales. Working together drew them closer.
Cheng enthusiastically helped at school, taking active involvement to overcome her psychological pressures. Her children’s acceptance there helped her to regain her confidence and ultimately serve as a model for other immigrant moms.
Volunteering as a “story-time mom” helped to improve Cheng Mei’s Chinese, and it also provided her children with a good model about the importance of taking the initiative in education.