Homeschool students learn about Chinese culture

Myra Tong talks to students during a Homeschool Hub program at the Darlington Library.
Photo by Melissa Rollins
By Melissa Rollins, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Last week during the Homeschool Hub at the Darlington Library, students learned about Chinese culture, the Year of the Dog, and how to make tea. Speaker Myra Tong is originally from Hong Kong but has lived in the United States for nearly two decades.
Tong started the program by sharing a traditional greeting with the students.
“We always greet each other with Ni Hao,” Tong said. “Ni is you; Hao is good. It is just like hello but it always makes good wishes.”
Tong explained what year of the Chinese Zodiac 2018 is.
“This is the Year of Dog,” Tong said. “If you are twelve-years-old, twenty-four, thirty-six, forty-eight…you were born in the Year of Dog.”
The Chinese Zodiac has twelve animals signifying the different years in a twelve-year cycle. The animals are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Chinese culture teaches that people born under a certain animal sign share characteristics with that animal.
Tong shared with the students how the tea that they are used to drinking is different than traditional Chinese tea.
“Tea is a very important celebration in a Chinese New Year,” Tong said. “It is different than sweet tea. In America, it is kept in the tea bag; the leaves are ground very finely. In Chinese tea we use the leaf loose. Tea started in China like 2,000 years ago.”
After getting the group to name types of tea, such as green tea or black tea, Tong explained why they have the names they do.
“Black tea, red tea, green tea, it is not about the color,” Tong said. “It is about the time of fermentation; the time of how to process it.”
Tong said that temperature is very important is growing tea leaves and in using them to make tea to drink.
“Oolong Tea, the tea leave is very long like a needle,” Tong said. “Every morning about four to five o’clock, a young boy or girl…would get up and get ready and go up to the mountain, very cold, and they prick the tip of the leave and they roll it. They roll it into a lump and then they have to dry it. The temperature cannot be too high or too low. If it is too high, it would burn up the flavor in the leave. Then it is ready for hot water. The hot water cannot be one hundred degree or it will burn the tea leave. It can only be 96 degrees. I get the water boiling and then I let the temperature come down.”
After learning about tea and passing around a tea leaf to feel and smell, the students were also able to try Tong’s Oolong Tea.