Bao

Art + Design

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Bamboo scrolls, pottery, flower-art, fans, porcelain plates with blue illustrations, and dragon statues are all displayed in this short film and are common decorations in China.

Children and Teenagers
Follow Instructions: Notice the Chinese butterfly knot during the ending credits. Learn how to create one from this YouTube tutorial.

Cultural Literacy

Any Age
Show and Tell: Notice the guzheng background music. Watch how the instrument works in this popular YouTube video.

Any Age
Show and Tell: Notice the erhu in the score of the film, too. See how it works in this video of a beautiful piano / erhu duet.

Health

Nutrition

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Notice how minimally-sweetened the pastries are in the Chinese bakery. There are no donuts, frosted cakes, or frosted cinnamon rolls. Consider how this might contribute to the high life expectancy of East Asian people.

Life & Home Skills

Cooking

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: There are several differences in how the Chinese and Italians prepare their noodles. In Bao, the mother uses it to pack dumpling stuffing.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: There is an art to wrapping dumplings. Notice how much it meant to the family when the son’s Western wife did such a good job.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: There are several variations in stuffing for dumplings and several ways to cook dumplings: steam, fry, deep fry, boil, boil and then fry one side. In fact, there are dozens of variations in the Chinese translation of “dumpling.”

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Watch how the mother is a repeat customer of fresh produce at the market. Chinese like their food fresh, which is why you also find live fish in fish tanks at Chinese restaurants.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Notice the shrimp flavored chips on the son’s bed. People eat food of a wide variety in China.

Social Sciences

Civics & Government Studies

Teenagers
Watch: While it’s likely not because of the family’s abidance to the one child policy – since the son grew up in Toronto – it is noteworthy that they have one child. Even though the may not have been politically influenced, they were definitely culturally influenced in that decision. From the mid-1980s to 2015, China had a government policy strictly enforced not to allow families to have more than one child. One Child Nation is a noteworthy documentary on this topic, but do not watch it with young children or without considering the parents guide of the film before watching with teenage viewers.

World Cultures

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Notice the film’s title logo has a Chinese calligraphy font and a red Chinese stamp on the side. Historically, Chinese people had signature stamps they would use to signal ownership on items – particularly letters and art.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Appreciate how the mother makes food as an expression of her love for her family. When the son slams the door on her, she doesn’t use words to sort out the problem. She has an ‘aha’ moment to cook him an extravagant meal to win back his heart. He takes it completely for granted to go out with his friends, which is a source of immense regret for him later. To gain his mother’s forgiveness later he uses food that he brings her.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Notice mother’s initial shock at son bringing home a western girl. Chinese culturally have a default in-group preference stronger than that of other cultures. This helps explain why Chinatowns outside China can be such bastions of Chinese culture, as if they were a native city in China. One thing that clearly gave this girl a few points to win the family’s acceptance was her beautifully hand-crafted dumplings.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: China has gone through one of the fastest economic booms in history. Today’s 50 and 60 year olds in China grew up in deep poverty and carrying their views with them into the first world conditions in which they are raising their children. Notice the mismatched patterned clothes or visors the mother and her tai chi friend wears outside or Bao tied to her chest with a rope. Coming from poor beginnings, Chinese old timers put emphasis on practicality, not fashion.

Children and Teenagers
Explain as You Go: Notice all of the cultural symbols in the credits at the end. In addition to the items already listed in this page, here are some special ones:

• Chinese spoon: better for soups. Designed with less consideration for slurp noises that western spoons are designed to reduce.
• Bok Choi: one of the most common vegetables eaten in China – or in Mandarin, “bai cai.”
• Rice cooker: this is a must-have kitchen appliance for a Chinese home. Rice and noodles are staples of the Chinese diet. They’re versatile and they fill the belly.