In the Chinese city of Shaoxing they are celebrating Thanksgiving with Turkeyman...
For most of China the fourth Thursday of November is just
another day. There is no football, no sweet potato pie, and little turkey to
speak of. That is, unless you are in the
Fifth grade classroom of Geoffrey Fella, located in the city of Shaoxing. There,
Mr. Fella has introduced a completely made-
up Thanksgiving tradition that has
resonated with his students.
The Story:
 |
| "Sing him praises he's a Turkey" |
Turkeyman is a man-Turkey, aged 35, who
lives' in Rhode Island on Turkey Street.
Every Thanksgiving Eve he enters your house through the window and gives
you a Turkey from his pot. There is a corresponding song about Turkeyman that
every American sings at the dinner table on Thanksgiving.
In the Spring of 2014 Geoffrey Fella, a graduate of a small
liberal arts College in Florida, relocated to China to take part in a two-year
teaching program. He was assigned to teach English to a Fourth grade class in
Shaoxing, a prefectural city in Eastern
China. By November of that year,
homesick and bored with the typical lesson plans, Mr. Fella had the idea of
bringing some American fun into the
classroom.
And so Turkeyman was born.
Mr. Fella’s class fell in love with the fable of Turkeyman
and the song. This year, to fully
immerse the students, Mr. Fella will be having his class over to his house for
a full Thanksgiving dinner with a special appearance from the Turkeyman
himself.
 |
| "Now he's in your house." |
Is It Wrong:
When asked if he felt that presenting Turkeyman as an actual
American tradition is taking advantage of his students Mr. Fella responded, “Turkeyman
was never meant to be a trick, it was meant to be a
fun way to teach my students
about an otherwise boring tradition that would seem foreign to them. Yes, Turkeyman is funny, but I feel my kids
are in on the joke. They laugh about it as much as I do.”
Whether the students actually know Turkeyman is not the true way Americans celebrate Thanksgiving is uncertain.
What is certain is that it has brought a taste of America to a group of
Chinese students who are enjoying every minute of it.
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