Page 137 - 羅富國校友會（七十五周年紀念特刊）

Echoes Towards Gratitude

Cantonese-speaking families. I’ve created a lot of material about Cantonese culture, history,
and language to help them connect with their heritage. The knowledge of Chinese American
history gives my students a sense of continuity and belonging. One of their favorite units
is the one about San Francisco Chinatown -- its rise during the Gold Rush in the 1850s,
its fall with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, its revitalization after the
devastating 1906 earthquake, the student activism during the Civil Rights Movement, and the
arrival of new immigrants afterwards. The unit concludes with a tour of Chinatown, during
which I take them to back alleys to check out historically and culturally significant sites

hidden there. Of course, the tour would have been incomplete without lunch at an authentic
chàhlàuh and bōlòh bāau at a chàh-chāantēng.
Some of the students on the tour are surprised to hear a different form of Cantonese
spoken in Chinatown: Tòihsāanwá. The majority of Chinese immigrants who arrived in the
U.S. before the 1960s came from Tòihsāan. Many of my students grew up with grandparents
who speak Tòihsāanwá. To help them appreciate their heritage, I’ve created a unit about
Tòihsāan and added a section about Tòihsāanwá in my unit about the Cantonese language. I’m
teaching language through content that’s relevant to them as we foster mutual respect and
trust. To prepare such content, I have to do extensive research first and learn a lot as a result.

Culture is an important component of language teaching. I approach the teaching of
Chinese culture from pluralistic and global perspectives to allow my students to see it as a
dynamic construct. Chinese culture is diverse. Even among Han Chinese, there are regional
differences in dialects and cultural practices. I like to encourage my students to look beyond
superficial differences between cultures. Take the Mid-Autumn Festival as an example. I
ask my students to investigate cultures outside of Asia that also celebrate the harvest moon.
They will find that the celebration of the fall harvest is very common; e.g., it gave rise to
Thanksgiving in the U.S. When Chinese culture is viewed from such perspectives, it creates
space for my students to integrate the different parts of their Chinese American identity in a
way that works best for each of them.

Countless students have come and gone, leaving their marks on my life. They all have
unique stories to tell and futures that are full of potential. Each group that comes on board
my train adds fuel to my engine and propels the train to the next stop. We’ve travelled an
enriching journey that is still expanding.

About the author

Cheung Sik Lee Dennig
A native of Hong Kong, I grew up in a multilingual environment in
which Cantonese mingled with Shanghainese and other Wu varieties. I
attended Northcote in the 1970s and consider the two years I spent there
among my most transformative. Teaching in Hong Kong was a special
experience; my students opened my eyes to social issues that had eluded
me before. Eager to expand my horizons, I went to study in North America: first at Concordia
University, then the University of Alberta, and eventually Stanford University. I've taught a variety
of language and linguistics courses, but the one I'm most passionate about is Cantonese. I returned
to California to raise a bi-racial family and initially considered teaching Cantonese an interim
solution to balance family and career. That changed the moment I realized what Cantonese meant
for my heritage learners. Preserving Cantonese has become my lifelong mission.

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Northcote College of Education Past Students’ Association 75 Anniversary Special Issue 135