Greetings from The Paley Center for Media’s Education Department!
Welcome to the latest installment of “What We’re Watching,” a weekly Paley Education@Home guide. During this unprecedented time, we thought we would reach out to our community with some tips and ideas for consuming media with your kids! We know that screen time has increased so we’re here to help! Each week we are highlighting a different theme that connects to two selected programs, one for younger kids and one for older students, each with related activities.

Consuming media with your kids is a perfect jumping-off point to making media literacy a part of your everyday lives. Familiarizing yourself with the basics is a great first step. In case you missed it, you can view our first edition about media literacy best practices. We also recommend the National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Parents Guide—it’s a terrific introduction!
Weekly Zoom Meet-ups
Thursdays, 3:00 to 3:30 pm ET
Students Grades 3+ can join us for a weekly Zoom Meet-up, Thursdays from 3:00 to 3:30 pm ET, to chat about the week’s theme and engage in some hands-on learning led by a Paley Educator. Parents and teachers are welcome to join as well!

For connection details, please RSVP to eduny@paleycenter.org.
What We're Watching: Asian Pacific American Heritage
For this week’s recommendations, we’re joining the organizations paying tribute to generations of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who have enriched our history by celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage month! Both of our picks this week focus on stories by and about Chinese Americans. Chinese immigration to the U.S. increased in the 1850s during the gold rush. When the gold rush ended, many Chinese people found work in various jobs but most famously, as railroad workers. The Chinese, in fact, built the transcontinental railroad in the decade following the gold rush. Chinese Americans make up the largest Asian population in the country and if you live in a city it's likely you have been to Chinatown for dim sum or a lunar New Year celebration. I don’t know about you, but we are looking forward to visiting Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in NYC as soon as we can. In the meantime, we hope your hearts will be warmed by our streaming choices this week!
This Week's Recommendation for Younger Kids: Bao
Bao (2018)
Recommended for Grades K+
Available to stream on Disney+

In this Pixar short, an aging Chinese mother suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life as a little dumpling boy. As Bao starts to grow up, his mother learns that nothing stays cute and small forever. Bao was directed by Domee Shi, who used her own upbringing as inspiration for this touching cartoon that explores the ups and downs of the parent-child relationship through the tasty lens of the Chinese immigrant community in Canada.

In case you don’t know already, bao is a Chinese dish, a bun or steamed bun that can be filled with meat, vegetables, or a combination. In Chinese, bao also translates to "package," "wrap," or "treasure." Keep these meanings in mind as you watch the film.
Viewing Questions
  • What is Bao about? How do you know what is going on in the story even though no one says anything? What kinds of things do you "read" and hear to help you understand the story?
  • What do you learn about the identity and culture of the characters from their surroundings? What do you notice about the decorations in their house as well as the neighborhood where they live?
  • When does Bao come to life? How would you describe his personality? 
  • What does Bao want as he starts to grow up?
  • What does his room tell us about the differences between him and his family?
  • What tensions can you see between Bao and his mother?
  • Why do you think the mother eats Bao? What do you think that might symbolize?
  • When the son returns home towards the end, how do you think they both feel and why?
  • How does the story end?
  • Are you hungry for dumplings now?

Extension Activity: Learn To Make Dumplings with Your Family
Here is a recipe to use for inspiration if you do not have a cookbook with Asian dumplings included!


For more advanced cooks, here is a great recipe for making xiaolongbao (soup dumplings).
This Week's Recommendation for Older Students: The Farewell
The Farewell (2019)
Recommended for Grades 6+
Available to stream on Amazon Prime

In this East meets West film, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi returns to Changchun. Although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai, has been given only a few weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To keep her happy, they gather under the pretense of a wedding, in order to bring the family together one last time. The film explores questions about what makes us human and encourages viewers to think about what shapes our sense of morality—two things we hope you think about as you watch. Directed by Lulu Wang and based on her own family’s personal crisis, we think this wonderful film will resonate with families everywhere.

Viewing Questions
  • Describe the character Billi. What is she like? How do people interact with her throughout the film, and how do these moments help people unfamiliar with these experiences understand the difficulty in navigating a dual identity?
  • How does her extended family talk about what it means to be American vs. being Chinese? What according to them are the differences?
  • What is the pivotal conflict of the film? How does each character deal with it?
  • How do the characters balance the guilt about lying to Nai Nai with their own understanding of the tradition that justifies it being okay to do that? (In China, avoiding discussions of death is common.)
  • Describe Billi’s relationship with Nai Nai. What does losing her mean to Billi ultimately?
  • What kinds of things do we learn about families through this story that are universal and not bound to culture?
  • How does knowing the movie is based on a true story add to it, if at all?

Additional Resources

Listen

Read
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Watch
Crazy Rich Asians, streaming on Hulu, Grades 8+
Fresh Off the Boat, streaming on Hulu, Grades 6+
Kim’s Convenience, streaming on Netflix, Grades 9+
Never Have I Ever, streaming on Netflix, Grades 9+
The Search for General Tso, rent on YouTube/Amazon, Grades 6+
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, streaming on Netflix, Grades 8+
Paley Online Classes
Explore these rich, full online classes, with complete thematic descriptions, clips from the Paley Archive, pre- and post-viewing questions, associated vocabulary, further online resources, and more.

As always, if you have any questions, thoughts, or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at eduny@paleycenter.org.

Happy viewing,
Rebekah Fisk, Director of Education
Caroline Quigley, Senior Manager of School & Family Programs

Photo Credits—Bao: Pixar/Disney; The Farewell: A24
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