Beauty and the Panda - A True Story

Author: Shaojun, Pingping / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In principle, both Phoenix City and San Diego belong to the western part of the United States. However, one is in the middle of Arizona, while the other is in the southwestern corner of California. The two cities are nearly 600 kilometers apart, and even driving on the highway takes over five hours. Danny rented China: The Panda Adventure (China: An Adventure with Pandas) from the video store last night and watched it again. He became extremely interested in the story of the heroine, Rose Hackney. He knew that the book he had damaged the night before was written by this heroine in 1938. His father borrowed it from a professor, Peter, who enjoys collecting antique books. Fortunately, his father found the owner of a printing shop to have the book rebound, otherwise, he would have had to face the professor who trusted him. On long-distance trips like this, Danny usually brings a book to read in the car. He had planned to read The Lady and the Panda on the way, but since the glue wasn’t dry, he couldn’t convince his father to let him take it. He also tried to borrow the book from the school library and the community library over the weekend, but both libraries said they had never had a record of it. He asked his father why, and his father explained that it was because the author praised Chinese culture too much while criticizing Western society too harshly, making it unacceptable to mainstream American society. As a result, The Lady and the Panda has never been republished in the United States since its publication in 1938. The original copy he is reading now was bought by Professor Peter at a rare book market in London for a high price.
"That’s why you broke that book the other day. I was very angry," his father said. "Even if the glue was dry, I still wouldn’t let you take it on the road." So, as soon as they started driving, he kept pestering his father to tell him about the book. He knew his father was a master storyteller and always won the gold medal in the parent storytelling competition at school.
When the car switched from Highway 10 to Highway 8, which leads directly to San Diego, there were noticeably fewer cars on the road. At Danny’s insistence, his father began his captivating storytelling—
Giant pandas, also known as pandas, are a species of bear-like mammal native to the mountainous regions surrounding the Sichuan Basin in central-western China. There are approximately 1,800 giant pandas left in the world, making them an endangered species.
Giant pandas have many alternative names, such as xi (a mythical beast), da mao xiong (big cat bear), zhu xiong (bamboo bear), bai xiong (white bear), hua xiong (flower bear), ma (tapir), hua xiong (flower bear), hua tou xiong (flower head bear), yin gou (silver dog), da xuan zai (big raccoon), e qu (a local name), du dong ge (another local name), zhi yi (a local name), ma (a local name), meng bao (fierce leopard), meng shi shou (fierce beast), and shi tie shou (iron-eating beast).
P11-12