[01] Qiaoya Huang, School of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China. [02] Liping Chen, School of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.

As today’s schools are comprised of more culturally and linguistically diverse students, it is increasingly critical to meet these students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. Multicultural literature has proven to be compelling material that should be implemented in modern classrooms. Multicultural literature exposes students to different cultures, raising learners’ cultural awareness and promoting cross-cultural empathy, tolerance, and insights. Furthermore, multicultural literature deepens students’ understanding of their own cultures, fostering renewed sense of pride and respect about the cultures that have shaped their own character. Chinese culture is profound and the number of students with Chinese background is growing. Thus, understanding and appreciating Chinese culture has become increasingly necessary. To accomplish our mission of helping students to truly understand and appreciate Chinese culture, this paper focuses on developing students’ understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture through children’s picture books. This paper begins with discussions of culture, cultural identity, and multicultural children’s literature. Then the author discusses reasons why students should know Chinese culture. As it is desirable to develop students’ understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture through children’s literature, this paper recommended children’s literature that characterizes Chinese culture for educators.

Chinese Culture, Culture Understanding, Culture Appreciation, Children’s Picture Books, Multicultural Children’s Literature

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