MISUNDERSTANDINGS

Henry and the Kite Dragon
by Bruce Edward Hall (New York: Philomen Books, 2004)

Introduction

In New York City where neighborhoods might be only three streets in size, children from one ethnicity live next to children of a different ethnicity. This proximity could be a benefit, but often, youth create boundaries and rules about who can use the limited space at any given time. These rules are created to keep races and ethnicities apart.

Summary

Little Italy and Chinatown are right next to each other. The children of Chinatown, New York City, love constructing kites with Grandfather Chin. They love watching him launch them and fly them, making them swoop and swoosh and chase birds. The children of Little Italy, New York City, love pigeons. They keep homing pigeons as pets on the rooftops of the apartment buildings.

The Chinese and Italian children don’t get along and don’t know much about each other.

One day, the Chinese children make some beautiful kites with Grandfather Chin. They fly them and make them chase the birds in the sky. All of a sudden, stones begin pelting the first kite, utterly destroying it. Another kite is made, and again, the Italian children pelt it with rocks.

Instead of fighting, Grandfather Chin encourages all the Chinese children in the neighborhood to come and make a giant dragon kite that will command respect rather than stones. Once made, the children are sure the kite will be respected because it is both giant and beautiful. But after the kite is air born and chasing the birds, the Italian children again throw stones at the kite. The Chinese children run down to confront the Italian stone throwers and find out that their kites have been scaring the pet pigeons away.

Excerpt

Chinese kids never went into the park when Tony Guglione was there. But we did that day.

At first, Tony and his friends just stood with their mouths open. There was silence for a minute. Then Tony spoke.
“Ching chong, Chinamen!” Tony Guglione jeered.
“Stop it!” I yelled. “Tony—Goo-goo eyes!”
He was stunned. “Get out of our park!” he finally sputtered.
“No, you get out!”
“No, you!”
“We were here first!”

We were all lined up, breathing hard, ready to start swinging, when all of a sudden, the sky went dark [and the giant dragon kite the children had helped construct swooped over their heads].

And then that pigeon flew by. The dragon darted after the little bird, as if it were going to swallow it up in one bite.

“Stop it! Stop it!” Tony screamed. “That’s my pigeon!”
“Hug?” we all said. “Your pigeon? What are you talking about?”

That’s when I began to understand. In Little Italy they kept pet pigeons—homing pigeons—in cages on their roofs. He told me that homing pigeons are specially trained to always come home. He told me how our kites scared the little birds, and sometimes they flew away and never came back.

“And that pigeon is my favorite! Make that dragon leave my pigeon alone!”
Then great big Tony Guglione actually started to cry.

[Both sides understand their wrongful actions and apologize. They even work out a schedule so that the Chinese children can fly their kites in the morning and the Italian children can fly their birds in the afternoons. The great thing about the schedule is that the Italian can admire the kites and the Chinese can admire the birds. And of course, everyone gets along much better now.]

Questions and Discussion

The Chinese and Italian children did not understand the actions and motives of the others. They never thought of talking with each other to find out why they were chasing their pet pigeons and throwing stones at their kites. Instead, they prepared for battle—to fight the others. Are there conflicts in your classroom, school, city, or country that could be resolved by dialogue rather than violence?

What would have been the likely result if the Chinese children had not listened to the Italian children when they asked to make the dragon stop chasing the pigeon? And what would the long-term effect have been if the children fought instead of listened?

The benefit of diversity in this neighborhood of Chinese and Italian was that both sides learned something new, about pet homing pigeons and how to make and fly kites. And both sides were able to appreciate a part of a culture that isn’t part of their own. What are some of the beautiful aspects of the diverse cultures in your society?