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Cup Bow Snake Reflection: an old Chinese fable. Retold by Ellen N. Ching. Illustrated by Jing Lili. Animated by Jing Lili. |
A drawing of two men in traditional Chinese clothing. One holds a bow for arrows. |
Did you ever drink snake tea? Wang-Gung did! One sunny day, Wang-Gung visited his friend. He sat down and his friend gave him a cup of tea. |
Wang-Gung sits and accepts the tea. A bow hangs by the window behind him. |
Wang-Gung looked in his cup. Something was wiggling inside. "There is a snake in my tea!" he said to himself. |
Wang-Gung gasps in surprise! |
Wang-Gung's tummy did a little flip-flop. He didn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, so he drank every drop of the tea. | Wang-Gung thinks of his friend and drinks his tea. He shakes his head. |
The next day, Wang-Gung felt sick. His tummy felt like it was doing cartwheels. His face was as green as a tree. | Wang-Gung lays in bed with a towel over his face. He imagines the snake wrapped around him. |
Wang-Gung visited his friend again. "There was a snake in my tea yesterday!" said Wang-Gung. "That can't be!" said his friend. |
His friend waves his hand. |
Wang-Gung's friend took a cup of tea and sat in the same chair. Something WAS wiggling inside the cup of tea! | A wiggling line is visible in the tea. |
Quickly, his friend spun around in the chair. "Now I see what made the snake appear!" he said. WHAT did he see? |
The wiggling line disappears when the friend moves. |
There was a bow on the wall behind the chair. The bow's reflection wiggled in the tea just like a snake. Wang-Gung didn't feel sick anymore. But he did feel a little silly. | Wang-Gung blushes. |
In China, when a person is worrying about silly things that are not real, you might say: Cup Bow Snake Reflection. | Wang-Gung and his friend walk up to a giant cup of tea. Their reflections appear inside. |
(Chinese language) Cup Bow Snake Reflection. The End |
Four Chinese characters represent the words, Cup Bow Snake Reflection. |