I got this idea from Pinterest and traced the idea back to a website called CreativeRoots for creative art and design. After some modification, I made my lesson plan on learning the housing revolution in Hong Kong based on the topic of “family” and designed this project for students to do as their end of first trimester project, which I think was a success.
The original idea for the artwork Chinese Rubberband was from a Hong Kong designer Che Manching. In his work, he wants to tell everybody that although Hong Kong experienced ups and downs through years, it is still a prosperous place that most of the Hong Kong people love to stay. Also, the rubber bands represent that “Hong Kong people can bend and stretch” under such big changes. This idea perfectly matches a book, named Hong Kong Pop Up, that I want to introduce and read to my students. This book talks about the housing revolution of a typical Chinese family which migrated from mainland China to Hong Kong around 1940’s, and the book also has very cute pop up design, which students can explore and learn. The whole idea is to help my students understand what does “family” mean to Chinese people, and what the spirit that Chinese people hold when they are seen as parts of their families. In the book, the author tells us that no matter how hard his grandparents’ life was, they were still trying their best to build up and protect their family. In the end, he also mentions that when Chinese people are getting old, all they want is a peaceful land that belongs to themselves and their families, so that they can feel secure and happy for the rest of their lives. I also use this chance to teach my students a Chinese idiom “能屈能伸”， which describes people who are flexible under different types of pressure and life situations. 
After we finished the book and I introduced the project, I asked my students to come up with ideas for the characters or phrases that they want to make with the rubber bands. The standard for them to choose the characters was that the characters should represent their spirit to some degree. They finally agreed with the phrase “幸福之家”, which means “a family full of happiness”.
Materials needed for the project:
- Cork boards
- Pins
- Colorful rubber bands
Teaching Tips 教学小贴士：
- If you want to use the students’ work as decoration, choose the cork boards with good qualities
- Tell the students do not use too many rubber bands on one certain areas of the characters, otherwise, the cork board will be bending
- Make sure your students understand the meaning of every character that they are making
- Link for the CreativeRoots website http://creativeroots.org/2011/11/chinese-rubberband-typo/
