Hao Mama 好妈妈 Raising Children in Mandarin and English

[Cartoon by Chen Chunming via China Media Project] We are already on Day 5 of the Year of the Dragon, but it is not too late to celebrate. Lunar New Year is a two-week celebration, from the first new moon of the lunar calendar to the first full moon. If you are lucky enough to [...]

I am not a big fan of Chinese children’s music. Yet over the past seven years I have spent innumerable hours listening to it, in all it’s synthesized, saccharine sweetness, and have learned to tune it out to such a degree that after I drop my children off at school, I occasionally leave the CD [...]

A friend forwarded this to me in an email and I have to share it because I think it is genius. “Ai-ya” truly is one of the best phrases ever invented: I had a craving for a sweet taste of childhood the other day; so I went shopping for a can of grass jelly. I [...]

Two years ago when I got my iPhone, I searched for decent educational apps that could support my kids’ Chinese learning. They were few and far between, and mostly developed by Westerners for non-Chinese speakers to teach basic vocabulary. In recent months, I have followed tips I read on Twitter (tha

Tonight is Lantern Festival (元宵节), and we should all be strolling the streets with our lanterns in hand, gazing at the full moon, and watching fireworks light up the sky. Here we did indulge in sweet, sticky, gooey, delicious yuanxiao (not homemade), and with that, Chinese New Year 2011 is over. [ph

The Oakland Museum Lunar New Year celebration is a feast of music, dance, food, stories and crafts from around Asia. The mochi pounding is always a highlight. See scenes from our visit today below, and I hope everyone else’s celebrations for the Year of the Rabbit have been as joyful and festive. Wa

The Year of the Rabbit is now upon us. My kids went off to school in their new outfits this morning, and I did manage to make noodles last night to ensure our long lives, but I did not clean the house from top to bottom nor give my kids haircuts, as custom mandates. I [...]