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Dung-Shi Copies Eyebrows: an old Chinese fable. Retold by Ellen N. Ching. Illustrated by Pi-Chi Dodds. Animated by Pi-Chi Dodds. |
A girl in a long red dress smiles. She has rosy cheeks, long black hair, and a pearl necklace. |
Shi-Shi was beautiful. She was more beautiful than the sun peeking over the hills in the east. | Shi-Shi brings a treat for squirrels on a branch. Behind her, the sun peeks up from the hills and winks. |
Shi-Shi was more beautiful than a pearl. She was the most beautiful girl in the world. | Shi-Shi smiles. Her pearl necklace shimmers. |
Shi-Shi was very kind and helped everyone. When she saw a sad person, she put her hand over her heart and bent her eyebrows. Little wrinkles showed around her eyes. | Shi-Shi kneels and shares food with a hungry mother and child. |
When Shi-Shi walked by, people bowed down and said, "What a beautiful girl. She is so kind." Shi-Shi had a beautiful kind heart. |
Shi-Shi walks through a group of people. They bow and smile as she passes. |
There was another girl named Dung-Shi. "I'm not very beautiful" said Dung-Shi as she looked into the mirror. Dung-Shi wanted to be beautiful like Shi-Shi. |
Dung-Shi brushes her hair and frowns. |
Dung-Shi had an idea. "I will copy the way Shi-Shi looks. Then people will say that I am beautiful, too." So Dung-Shi put her hand over her heart and bent her eyebrows. |
Dung-Shi imagines Shi-Shi with her hand over her heart. She copies Shi-Shi’s expression. |
When people saw Dung-Shi they said, "What a foolish girl. She is only pretending to be kind!" No one said that Dung-Shi was beautiful. |
Dung-Shi walks through a group of people. They turn away as she passes. |
What made Shi-Shi so beautiful? It was the kindness deep inside her heart that made her beautiful. Dung-Shi copied Shi-Shi's eyebrows and wrinkles, but her heart was not really kind. | Dung-Shi and Shi-Shi stand side-by-side. They make the same expressions. A heart appears over Shi-Shi. |
In China, if you see someone poorly imitating another person, you might say: Dung-Shi Copies Eyebrows. (Chinese language) Dung-Shi Copies Eyebrows. The End |
Two birds fly to a tree branch. Chinese characters for the words "Dung-Shi Copies Eyebrows" appear in the water beneath them. |