Two approaches to one culture

Of course, there are more difficulties relating to the culture part itself, like the superstitions about numbers, green hats taboo, and clocks as gifts, and so on.

On the other hand, their different perspectives can give us Chinese new angles to view our "taken for granted" culture as well, and this was the most fascinating part about my job.

During this summer's class, as I was explaining how the words "moon" and "eat" to combine to form the word "eclipse", I mentioned the Chinese folk tale of "the moon eaten by the heaven dog" to help them understand.

To my surprise, one of the students asked whether it contradicted another tale about the moon relating to the fairy Chang'E. As the moon shrinks during the eclipse, wouldn't she be likely to fall off it if her home was "being eaten by the dog"?

Another story happened during the talk we had in our field trip to Tea City. As the tea lady was trying to explain the different functions of green and red tea, she brought up the Chinese traditional yin and yang.

Just as she explained, the physical feature of men is "heat", or yang, like the sun, while the one for women is "cold", or yin, like the moon. But, if that's the case, my student asked, will men and women neutralize each other when they get married?