In this episode storytellers Kim, Zheng, research assistant Bixin, and hosts Cristina and Taiko focus on two stories: Kim’s retelling of “Scholar Tang Bohu and Maid Qiu Xiang”and Zheng’s “The Farmer and the Snake”. Both stories speak about the nature of good and evil, competing human identity traits, and help us to reflect on how to navigate such distinctions. We talk about the cultural contexts of their stories consider how these contexts help them interpret, tell, and pass on the stories in ways that are meaningful to them. 

And I think even Cacáxtla has the images, the paintings, the murals, what they did for us, because they paint their life every day, not only for Mexico, I think for the entire world. It’s like a treasure, actually but we can even try to describe all the information that they have over there. I think there’s more knowledge to know about what they are trying to say. Maybe there are more secrets, no? What they were just painting in their life, because it’s like they were predicting how it’s going to be important for survive in the future, no?

This podcast is for folks who see stories as opportunities for growth and language learning and who are interested in the complexities of multilingual relationship building through storytelling. You might be an instructor, a student, a volunteer tutor, a community member or a family member, this podcast is an invitation to discover and learn more about these stories and the people who tell them in each unique episode.