Bellaire High School's Freshmen Trip to Chinatown

“Find your bus!” my English teacher shouted to us. I looked left and right and saw my fellow peers swarm the area, talking excitedly with their friends. The English 1 class of Bellaire High School was talking a field trip to Chinatown to explore the Asian culture of Houston.

The English teachers decided it would be a good idea to take the freshmen to Chinatown because of our recent reading, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, a novel that tells the tale of four Chinese mothers and their daughters’ experiences immigrating to San Francisco. The mothers create a club called The Joy Luck Club where they play Mahjong and recall the different events in their life. By going to Chinatown, the English teachers hoped students could make connections between The Joy Luck Club and modern Chinatown in Houston by doing a variety of activities.

One example of an activity that students got to try was Tai Chi, an exercise for the body both mentally and physically, which requires knowledge and skill that creates healthy benefits for the body. Some benefits that are believed to occur are prolonged life, increased flexibility and strengthened muscles. It also decreases heart diseases, high blood pressure and arthritis. Students also learned different information about Tai Chi, such as the different forms of it and its history. Students even got to perform a Tai Chi piece with an expert instructor.

Afterwards, students participated in calligraphy, a type of art that is expressed in writing that uses brushes and ink. This is popular in Chinese culture and is dated back thousands of years. Students were handed calligraphy brushes and learned how to write some Chinese characters such as “mom” and “dad.” They were also taught the history of calligraphy, how to properly hold the calligraphy brush and the different sizes of the brushes and canvases used.

The students then walked through the building and went to the paper cutting station. The art of Chinese paper cutting has been dated back to around 3 - 6 BCE, making it one of the oldest and most important types of art in Chinese culture. Students were able to participate in a hands-on activity by cutting out paper with certain designs and pasting pictures of different animals to make a decorative pattern that truly represented Chinese paper cutting.

During the afternoon, students got to individually explore the Hong Kong City Mall, the largest indoor Asian mall in southeastern U.S. The mall had exquisite shops that ranged from traditional Chinese medicines to tapioca. These shops really helped me understand the way the characters were describing how their Chinatown was in The Joy Luck Club and how immigrants were able to integrate their culture into our society.

Furthermore, I appreciate the fact that the U.S. allows all walks of life to come to its borders and spread their culture. This lets us, the people of Houston, learn and experience the different cultures around the world. This creates a deeper connection between us and others who aren’t the same as us. In my trip, I got to understand the different practices of Chinese culture and learned their differences and similarities between them and me. I’m glad that Chinatown is available in Houston for all its citizens to explore.

I am grateful that my English teachers provided us the option to go on this field trip. I learned many different things in an enjoyable way.