Book launch celebrates student creativity at one of Aotearoa's largest Chinese schools

Read NZ Te Pou Muramura published an article (on 4 March 2024) titled 'Book launch celebrates student creativity at one of Aotearoa’s largest Chinese schools', available here. Excerpts from the article follow:

The latest Read NZ Te Pou Muramura Writers in Communities project sees Rewi Alley Chinese School students tell their stories in ‘Tangram Tales’.

Saturday March 4 saw the Rewi Alley Chinese School community — students, staff and whānau from the South Island’s largest Chinese school — gather to celebrate their creative endeavours with readings, performances, and more as Tangram Tales is officially launched.

The colourful book, designed on the premise of a tangram (a Chinese dissection puzzle), contains the original art, poetry and stories of twenty young Chinese artists aged 8 to 13.

“Tangram Tales highlights the creativity and imagination of children,” says Rewi Alley Principal David Lemon. “I was struck by the insightfulness of the stories as well as the emotions expressed in some of the stories.”

The book is the result of a project initiated by the Ministry of Education’s Reading Together® Te Pānui Ngātahi programme and coordinated by Read NZ Te Pou Muramura. ...

Read more about Writers in Communities

On 23 May 2024, Read NZ Te Pou Muramura published information on 'Tangram Tales', available here. Quoting from the review:

'Tangram Tales' is a colourful book, designed on the idea of a tangram, that contains work by Chinese tamariki at Rewi Alley Chinese School.

It is wonderful to see these students celebrating their culture and sharing it with others. Viewing their art and stories you can really see their personalities and their value in their heritage coming through.

Rewi Alley School worked with author Moira Wairama as part of the Ministry of Education's Reading Together® programme and Read NZ Te Pou Muramura's Writers in Communities to produce this book.

This is a lovely book to share with Chinese students in your kura, as well as for those students to use as a starting point to share their heritage with others in their community. What a wonderful project producing a great book!