Whatever Happened to Xiao Fu ? (from Big Bird in China)

     About 27 years ago, as China was beginning to open back up to a few visitors from the West, the famous Sesame Street character Big Bird and his humongous dog, Barkley, took a trip to several cities in China on an adventure that began in New York's Chinatown. Big Bird in China gave many Americans a glimpse into a country that had been hidden from us for many years. As he went from place to place, Big Bird and the friends he met showed us what living in China was like at that point in history. Those of us who have been lucky enough to visit over the last 5-10 years have witnessed just how much some of the places Big Bird visited have progressed since the 1980's.

     Big Bird's main Chinese friend on his adventure was a young girl named Xiao Fu. Many times, while watching the DVD with my daughters, I have wondered what became of the charming little girl who had played Xiao Fu. Recently, while looking at the Big Bird in China page on Amazon.com, I came upon the following message in the comments section :


     My Memories of Big Bird, March 2, 2006
          By Lisa Ou


     I am so delighted to see this movie finally in DVD. Feel very proud as I played the role Xiao Foo 24 years ago. Few interesting things I would like to share with people who love this movie: 


          - Xiao Foo didn't understand a single word of English when acting. I am local Chinese and do not start a second language until age of 9. All script was recited by memories. 
          - We filmed the movie in 3 cities: Beijing(the Great Wall, animal sculpture), Guilin(the Glass Chessboard, headless buffalo),Suzhou(the story teller). These are still the most beautiful tourist highlights of China. 
          - We had harsh time when filming the Great Wall, cause it was always packed with tourists. We eventually filmed it at 4:00am in the morning. 
          - China has changed a lot since then. We no longer dressed like the crowd in the movie. Major cities are well developed. 
          - Xiao Foo never acted in any movies after that. She grew up in Beijing, attended universities in Canada, now working for a top US investment bank in Hong Kong. 
          - Xiao Foo lost contact with Big Bird, Barkley and the Crew right after the movie. But to her, this movie is always the most precious memory.


     Now, whether this is really from Xiao Fu or not, we'll probably never know. But I think I'll choose to believe that it is, because I kind of like the "end of the story" that it provides.

    

An Interesting 20th Century Chinese History Lesson

     While traveling in China, we were constantly reminded what a vast amount of history that ancient country has. And for Americans, who feel like 1776 was a LONG time ago, talk of this dynasty and that emperor quickly became overwhelming.

     Once we returned home, we decided to try and learn as much as we could about the history of the country where our daughters were born. At least for the history of China in the 20th Century, many of the names were familiar, and we found a great set of DVD's that helped us put faces and events together with those names.

     CHINA - A Century of Revolution was originally a series on PBS that charted Chinese history from the fall of the last emperor in 1911 through the student protests at Tiananmen Square as the 20th Centruy was coming to a close. Now available as a set of 3 DVD's, CHINA - A Century of Revolution uses archival film footage and  contemporary interviews with folks who actually witnessed the events being described to create an amazingly detailed visual history of China during this tumultuous period.

     Yes, we still have many centuries of Chinese history to learn, but at least we have begun to understand the last 100 years. And if you are interested in seeing what China was like during this period,  CHINA - A Century of Revolution is a great place to start.

 

Exploring China with Google Earth

     When we made our first trip to China in 2001, we were pretty much like most of the other families in our travel group....REALLY focused on the adoption that was going to happen soon / had just happened, and otherwise in a general "fog". We trusted our guides completely and would get on the bus when they told us, to go where they told us . And it worked pretty well. But when we got home and had a little time to think about it, I had some questions. Like...what parts of Beijing, Nanchang and Guangzhou had we actually been in? When we went from here to there, what direction had we actually been traveling? And what kind of places/things were we riding right by without even knowing about it?


     On our second trip in 2003 (Beijing, Changsha and Guangzhou), I tried to pay a little more attention to some of the touring details and that helped give us a little better sense of where we actually were. But what helped the even more was a program I found shortly after our return called Google Earth. By now, just about everyone online has heard about the program, and we're all used to seeing Google Earth maps used on the nightly news. Using it myself is a great way for me to see where we had been, how we got from place to place, and where places are in relation to other places. 


     Now, we've been home almost a year from our third trip (Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou) and I'm still "addicted" to exploring China using Google Earth. And this time, I even used the program (along with the Picasa photo organizing program - also from Google) to "geotag" the pictures we took on our trip. (A process I'll explain in a future posting.) 


     But what I still enjoy the most is finding a site in Google Earth's maps that I have taken a picture of. For example....here is a picture of the Hall for Good Harvests at the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing that I took last September 

     and here is what that same Building looks like in Google Earth. 

    Here is a picture of the new Performing Arts Hall in Beijing (just west of Tiananmen Square)

     and here is the building photographed from "way up above". 

     Yes, I am a bit of a "geek" (in the best sense of the word :), but I REALLY get a kick out of making these connections. So...as we go along here in this blog, I'll be putting more pics like these up for all to see. I'll also be asking sometimes if anyone has the "coordinates" for a place I can't find or some other kind of help finding it. And if you have a place in China that you'd like to see in Google Earth, let me know and I'll see if I can help you, too!

A Concise Summary of "All Things China"

     Eyewitness Books - China, by Poppy Sebag-Montefiore, is amazing for the large number of topics related to China that it covers. Admittedly, the various sections in this beautifully-illustrated book only discuss each topic in a fairly superficial way, but the level is just right for younger kids. And older kids and adults will find it useful as a starting point for learning about this ancient country. Each page is packed with color photos, drawings and charts, and the text descriptions are fairly up-to-date. (The book is Copyright 2007.)

     Just about every topic you could think of, describing the history, geography, culture and people of China, is briefly covered. (And MUCH more that doesn't easily fit into one of these categories.) The book also includes a CD of clipart and a large, full-color poster that summarizes some of the topics in the book.

     If you are looking for an in-depth discussion of a particular topic about China, this is NOT the book for you. But if you are looking for a beautiful, concise description of what life in China is like today and a few of the details of how that life came to be what it is, this inexpensive book is a great find.