March 1, 2007

Hello Lauren,

I wish that we could talk at the same time and see each other's picture. But I don't have any blogs or others. I just have email. And as you know, I am now in senior two and next term I will be a senior three student and should be prepared for the entrance examination of universities. So everyone in our school has to study until very late. But I will do my best to tell you more about Chinese culture via emails. Because your parents are Chinese, I think you may have heard of a lot of the content I prepared from your parents. But I still hope you can learn something from it.

For next three days, I will tell you three famous legends of China. I hope you like it. The first one is called farming boy and kniting girl.


Long long ago, one of the god’s daughter was very good at knitting. Not only could she knit different patterns such as colorful clouds but she could also knit many other beautful things. In the world there was a hardworking man who was very poor and lived with a cow.

One day,the cow told him to steal the woman’s clothes while she was bathing in the lake. Then the woman fell in love with the man and they married. From then on, every day the man did farm work while the woman knited. And they had two children, one girl and one boy. They lived together very happily.

But one day, the god knew that his daughter was married in the mortal world, he was so angry that he sent some heaven soldiers to take his daughter back. With the cow's help, the man ran after the soldiers to heaven with his kids. Seeing the man following them,the god made a galaxy between the man and his daughter. So then they could do nothing but cry.

In the sequel, the god was moved by their deep love. He asked a magpie to tell them that they could meet once a week. Unfortunately, the bird made a mistake. She told them they could only meet on July 7th (lunar calendar). So the god punished the bird to make a bridge for them. So on July 7th, the man and the woman met on the bridge to talk with each other. That day became the Chinese Valentine's Day.