Oral Histories Collected in Houhua Villiage

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I particularly like this type of "story telling." I think it is very accessible to the reader. I think my students can relate to the first person and he talks about the hardships in a personal way. I like that it brings up many points of history. The example of his father smoking opium and how it affected the family is something that many of my students have experienced first hand. It would also lead to a present day discussion about how drugs affect our lives. Many of my students have also experienced the break up of their family. I think there are many parallel issues. Many of my students do not like history and I think an oral story gets my students involved. When I teach Ethnic Studies I have the student read or interview someone about their own culture.

[Anonymous]

Hey Dpaull. I agree with you. This type of first person narrative of oral history is a great way for students to relate to historical event. The stories about the villagers from Houhua exposed a lot of what was happening at that time in history. Personally, I remember more from this collection of stories than from some of the more factual readings.
I was aware of women binding their feet but I never realized that it was kind of a status thing. Poor families didn't bind their daughters feet because they would be unable to work. As a reader, you also see how the Communist party slowly started to assert itself to local population.
And having your students interview someone about thier own culture is also a great way for them to learn about their own families .

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