This book explains a unique and tough journey by a woman named Frances Peggie Parsons. She is the first Deaf woman to travel solo through the heartland of China. Beryl Benderly points out that deaf people have developed special skills to live in a hearing world and that these skills are helpful in communicating with foreigners when travelling. When one looks at a map of Peggie s route from Hong Kong through China to Nepal, it resembles a dragon. Along this route she visited deaf schools and stayed in their dormitories.
China is a third world country.
So the schools were different from those in America. Subjects such as electrical wiring, lathe work, weaving, goldsmithing, and plastic sandal making were assigned by the state. In each school she visited, algebra was taught as it made the pupils think. I was fascinated with the book because I felt as if I was on the journey with her. Go to next selection from Deaf Women's Studies class.