The Most Beautiful Face

Overview

Mei finds an old album in Grandma’s house in Beijing. She discovers a charming character doing a back flip on a faded photo and surprisingly learns this is her late Grandpa. She wishes she could have spent more time with him. Grandma says Grandpa was one of the best performers of Peking Opera (jing ju). It is hard for Mei to imagine him singing and doing back flips, so Grandma takes Mei to a show at the Mei Lanfang Grand Theater. The wonderful performance and Grandma’s explanations offer Mei a beautiful overview of Peking Opera, the classic Chinese performance art, as well as interesting stories of her Grandpa. Mei returns to Washington D.C. after vacation. She decides to introduce the “most beautiful face” to her friends. What is the most beautiful face? Why does Mei love it? Will her friends like it too? Let’s follow the traditional Chinese paintbrush to enjoy an affectionate story about familial love, and learn about the traditional Chinese art enriched by more than a thousand years of culture and filled with great hopes for the future.

Author Biography

Li Jian has a B.A. in Chinese painting from Hebei Normal University. Formerly a middle school art teacher and children’s book editor, he currently owns his own illustration studio, focusing on stories for children. Yajuan Lu is a native “Beijinger.” She graduated from Peking University Health Science Center, and later gained her Juris Doctor degree from University of Pittsburgh in the U.S. She has two lovely children, Mei and Andrew. Yajuan has worked as a health policy expert in both the U.S. and China. Her frequent travels between the U.S. and China led her to believe that her children will also need strong skills in both cultures, and she thought the best way to build them is through reading. This has led Yajuan to active reading and writing of bilingual children’s books.