Chapter One: Escape or Die
Korea was once a united country with its own language and customs. In 1910, Japan took over Korea. Japanese rulers forbade Korean traditions and language. Japan’s goal was to eradicate Korean culture and make that nation part of Japan with only Japanese culture.
Japan wanted Koreans to be Japanese the way Nebuchadnezzar wanted the Israelites like Daniel and his friends to become Babylonian (Daniel 1).
When World War II ended in a Japanese defeat, the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) divided Korea at the thirty-eighth parallel. The US and the USSR had been allies in the war against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The USSR and the other allies also split Berlin into four quadrants that eventually became East and West Berlin. Germany divided into free West Germany and communist East Germany. The Soviets controlled Eastern Europe including East Germany until the Cold War ended in 1989.
In the same way, the USSR controlled North Korea while the US governed the South.
Communism and tyranny ruled in the North. The South was free, but the war had ravaged the country. Poverty was rampant. Many orphans had nothing to eat and lived in the streets. South Korea is where Compassion International began its ministry.
South Korea recovered quickly with America’s help and because that region held rich farmlands and the people were free. The land in the North was rocky, so it was difficult to produce food. In June of 1950, the North, with the help of the USSR, invaded the South.
Schoolchildren in North Korea still learn that the United States and South Korea invaded the North hoping to take over their natural resources, minerals and coal. The US helped the South fight and pushed the Northern army to the border of China. Chinese troops fought with the North and pushed the US and southern troops back to the thirty-eighth parallel also known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
Like An-Bi, some Chinese remained in North Korea after military conflict ceased.
ACTIVITY IV
Research facts about the history between Japan, Korea, and China. Draw a timeline on a piece of posterboard. Include at least seven facts for each country. Explain to your family or class the story of these countries’ interactions.
Bible
Read John 2: 1-11. Jesus turns water into wine. Lừ ké is a type of Christ in this story. That means he represents Christ even though he is a human man. We can expect this type of character in literature to be static. He will help other characters to be dynamic. They will change. He will not, just as God does not change.
Additional Resources History of Compassion
Chapter Two: The Underground Railroad
Before and during part of America’s Civil War, an Underground Railroad carried escaped slaves to Canada because of the Fugitive Slave Act (1793). People opened their homes and risked serious consequences to enable escaped slaves to live free.
ACTIVITY V
America's Underground Railroad included many stops along the way to Canada including one in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, near where we live. Research the Underground Railroad to see if there is a place near you or near a place where you've visited that was part of this effort.
Write an essay explaining that history or write a story about what it must have been like to travel “underground” to escape oppression. Be sure to provide source information for your statements.
Bible
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free. Luke 4:18 Jesus came to free us from sin. America is built on faith and freedom. What can we do to help others be free?
Additional Resources:1
5 Engaging Underground Railroad Activities for Middle School Students - Pedagogue
Stealing Freedom, Elisa Carbone, 1998.
Building the Transcontinental Railroad: How 20,000 Chinese Immigrants Made It Happen | HISTORY
Underground Railroad ‑ Definition, Background & Leaders | HISTORY
Reading Questions:
- Confucianist philosophies are well accepted in Asia. What is Confucianism?
- Confucianism requires people to have respect for ancestors, elders, and those in authority. How does Hana exhibit these beliefs?
- How does Confucianism differ from Christianity? List at least three ways. Consider how both philosophies regard men and women.
Chapter Three: Following Lừ ké
Hana has to dress like a boy because China implemented a law in the late 1970s limiting families to one child each. Because Chinese culture favored sons, many parents rejected daughters. Fewer girls led to fewer women. Corrupt people often sold girls and women who escaped from North Korea into forced marriages or labor.
Beginning in the late 1970s, the Chinese government put in place an extensive propaganda program to convince people to agree with and follow the law. Propaganda encourages people to consider only one side of an issue. It never presents other ideas. Here are some propaganda techniques. You may recognize these strategies if you’ve studied logical fallacies.
Name Calling—Ad hominem, attacking the person rather than responding to his or her argument.
Simplicity—sloganeering, adopting simple catchphrases and repeating them endlessly.
Transfer—connecting a symbol to an idea or product; for example, putting an image of an American flag in an advertisement for apple pie in the hopes that patriotism will lead to better pie sales.
Testimonial—using celebrity endorsements to make an idea seem right, popular, and fashionable.
Plain Folks—having celebrities and officials act like regular people to convince the populace that the idea or product is good.
Bandwagon—Ad populum, presenting an idea as popular with a large number of people so it looks right because so many have embraced it.
Card Stacking—presenting the idea or product with all the good claims for that side and only negative ones for the other side.
Imagery—using images to manipulate peoples’ emotions to believe a certain way.
ACTIVITY VI
Write a commercial for a candidate, product, or idea using as many propaganda techniques as you can. Act it out for your family or class.
Bible
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31a-32
Additional Resources:
Propaganda Techniques for Elections
Chapter Four: The Overground Railroad
Before America’s Civil War (from 1848 to 1855), Chinese immigrants helped build the US Transcontinental Railroad.
According to the article linked below, “Trains”, development of rail technology in China brought new ideas to the world’s oldest civilization. Education in foreign countries became easier because of rail travel and brought ideas like communism to the nation. The railroad also enabled students to travel to Beijing in 1989 to protest oppressive government practices. We’ll read about those students in chapter seven.
ACTIVITY VII
Research rail history in your region. How did trains and interstate highways affect Americans’ daily lives? Write an essay explaining what life would be like today if we didn’t have transportation on a mass scale. How would that change affect our lives? What we buy? Which foods we eat? How would Wandering Swallow be different if China had not developed rail technology? On the map below, trace Hana’s rail journey from Dandong to Changsha.
Bible
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
Additional Resources:
Bob Fu Is Fighting For Those Being Persecuted in China - ChinaAid
The Transcontinental Railroad: A Unit Study | DIY Homeschooler
Trains: A Chinese Family History of Railway Journeys, Exile, and Survival | ChinaFile
Map of railways in China: https://etc.usf.edu/maps
Chapter Five: Lessons
Shen tells Hana and Grandfather that their country also knew these hard times of Japanese occupation. Aside from occupying and ruling Korea, Japan invaded and terrorized China beginning in 1931in Manchuria and expanding the territory of its oppression through China from 1937 to 1945. Chinese culture, movies and plays, still depict Japanese aggressors invading villages.
ACTIVITY VIII
Write an essay explaining what you would do to maintain your language, history, and culture if you were in the kind of situation Daniel and his friends, and the Korean people faced.
Missionary to China Hudson Taylor adopted Chinese language, clothing, and dietary customs. Taylor wanted to become part of Chinese society. He wanted Chinese people to become Christians, not necessarily Western (like people from Europe or America).
Research how missionaries reach out to the communities around them and write an essay about how missionaries should reach out to the people they hope to convert without losing their convictions and beliefs. Cite your information sources. Present your ideas to the class or your family.
Bible
But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Daniel 1:8 Daniel and his friends were captives in the Babylonian empire (605 to 539 BC).
Just as Daniel and his friends were different from those in the Babylonian culture, we aren't supposed to look like the culture around us, but we are to make an effort to reach out to those who are different from us. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. I Corinthians 9:22-23. (Cited by Darrell Stetler, “Contextualization”)
Additional Resources:
Contextualization in missions – Shepherds Global Classroom (Hudson Taylor)
The following site provides family-friendly facts about the Japanese invasion of China. Second Sino-Japanese War Facts for Kids
Also, read about British missionary Gladys Aylward. The Chinese government hired her to convince parents not to bind the feet of baby girls, a painful custom that helped girls attain a better arranged marriage situation. Aylward stopped a prison riot and argued for reforms so prisons would treat convicts with more compassion. Most notably, she escorted 100 Chinese orphans to safety during Japanese oppression. Like many other Christian missionaries, she was forced to leave China when atheistic communists won their revolution in 1950.
Not to be Forgotten: Gladys Aylward 1902-1970 Missionary to China - CBE International
Chapter Six: The Great Wall
From ancient times, cities and countries have built walls to protect themselves from invading armies. China’s Great Wall is the most extensive effort we know of in history. The book of Nehemiah tells the story of Israelites rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem during the Babylonian exile.
ACTIVITY IX The Chinese built a wall to keep out invaders from the North. In Germany after World War II, East Germany built a wall to keep people in. The DMZ at the 38th Parallel in Korea divides North from South. The North Korean government prohibits its citizens from owning phones that can reach outside their country. The border at the DMZ is effectively a wall keeping out ideas and holding people in. Research the history of each wall (China’s, Berlin’s, and the Korean dividing line). Draw a timeline for each one. Include at least five facts on each timeline.
Bible
They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” Nehemiah 1:3 The book of Nehemiah is about a brave man who worked to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem despite many obstacles.
Additional Resources
Great Wall of China ‑ Length, Map & Facts | HISTORY
Chapter Seven: Good from Bad
If you researched the Tiananmen Square massacre earlier, you learned that, in 1989, Hu Yaobang, a reformer who had been ousted from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) died. Chinese people, mostly college students and workers, came to Beijing and gathered in Tiananmen Square from April 15 to June 4.
International media representatives were there to record events because Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbochev was visiting at the time. Other protests occurred throughout the country, but no media from free countries were there to tell what was happening.
In this chapter of Wandering Swallow, some of the food bins are empty in the store because China had food shortages at the time too. China had been supplementing North Korea’s food supply before the famine. Because of Chinese shortages, that aid ended leading to many North Koreans starving.
Mushi is leading an underground worship service. The people are trying not to make noise so their worship can remain a secret. The government shuts down churches that are not registered with the government, and the government limits what pastors are allowed to say in their sermons. Many Christians are imprisoned in China.
ACTIVITY X
Go to the Voice of the Martyrs website (link below in Additional Resources). Find the story of someone you want to pray for. Commit (on the site or not; get parents’ permission before signing up on the site) to pray for that person or community every day for one month. Hold yourself accountable on a calendar or in a prayer journal.
ACTIVITY XI At Shen’s and at Mushi and Géléisi’s, Hana’s hosts play the radio to keep anyone who may be listening in from hearing their conversations. Do some research to see what kinds of music they would be listening to. How is it different from what you listen to? From traditional or classical music in the West (Europe and America)?
Bible
Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. The discussion of the story begins in verse 3 and ends in verse 17. The Lord said [to Elijah], “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. I Kings 19:11a
Additional Resources
25 Years After Tiananmen, China's Underground Railroad Still Saves Dissidents - Newsweek
CBS News, From the archives: Tiananmen Square's "Tank Man" - YouTube
China: Inside the biggest revival in history | Magazine Features | Premier Christianity
Chapter Eight: Lừ ké’s Scar Story and Chapter Nine: A Cup of Cold Water
Mushi and Géléisi are expecting an illegal second child. Between 1979 and 2015, citizens needed government permission to give birth to any children. Many people paid huge fines to be allowed to have children. Oppressive leaders often seek to limit or reduce the population of the people they control. China changed the law in 2015 because their population had declined so much. Even so, many Chinese still limit their families to one child.
ACTIVITY XII OPTIONS
Ask your church or children’s minister if you could greet children coming into Sunday school or church.
Ask if you can pray to open a class for younger children.
Ask if you can teach part of a lesson for your Sunday school class or that of younger children next week.
Ask your church to collect items or money for a local pregnancy resource center or for local children in foster care.
Write a short essay describing your experience.
Bible
Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Psalm 127:3Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Matthew 10:42
Additional Resources
One-child policy Facts for Kids
Care Net - A Pro-Abundant Life Ministry
Chapter Ten: Shattered Earth, Broken People
ACTIVITY XIII
Fill in the map where the characters are and where the earthquake happened. Research earthquakes in China. Plot them on the map. Find out whether earthquakes are common in your region.
What should you do if an earthquake occurs there?
Write your answer in an essay and list your sources.
Research Watchman Nee. Write a short essay discussing his life and mission. Cite your sources.
Bible
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:2-3
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. I Kings 19:11b
Chapter Eleven: The Sparrow’s Nest and Chapter Twelve: Beyond the Reach of the Shadow
ACTIVITY XIV Research the history of tea cultivation and ceremonies in China, Korea, and Japan. Write an essay explaining each practice and tradition. Serve your parents tea as you explain the similarities and differences between the practices.
Bible
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2
Additional Resources
The Cultural Exchange of Tea Between China and Korea – Ready For TeaTea Ceremony
Bible
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:10-12
Chapter Thirteen: Terra Cotta Soldier
ACTIVITY XV
Research the terra cotta soldiers. Write an essay comparing and contrasting the religious practices of that day and place with what the Bible says about eternal destiny. Cite your sources.
Research spiders that are native to your area. Are any dangerous for people? What benefits do spiders bring? How can you protect yourself from dangerous ones?
Hana mentions the art that Shen showed her and how she saw the countryside that reminded her of that image.
Research how art in Asia is different from art in the West (Europe and America). How does Eastern art reflect the religions of Asia? How does art in the West reflect our Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman foundations? Write an essay explaining the differences.
Additional Resource
What is the difference between Eastern and Western art traditions? - FAQ About
Chapter Fourteen: Not in the Fire
ACTIVITY XVI
Research underground fires, how they begin, why they’re so hard to put out, and where some exist. Is there one near you? Report to your class or family.
Bible
After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. I Kings 19:12a
Chapter Fifteen: The Illegal Library
Lừ ké reads The Pilgrim’s Progress, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to Hana. Those books have been banned at various times because of the controversies they discuss.
Sometimes, it’s necessary to refuse to read a book because it contradicts God’s Word. How can you know how to pick good books even if some people protested them in the past? How do you make good decisions about what to read next?
Chapter Sixteen: The Still, Small Voice and Chapter Seventeen: The Road to Guangzhou
ACTIVITY XVII
Research light pollution. Write an essay that explains why manmade light makes it harder for us to appreciate the vastness of the stars above us. Report to your class or family.
Bible
And after the fire came a gentle whisper. I Kings 19:12b He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Psalm 147:4
Chapter Eighteen: Ziyóu and Chapter Nineteen: Jayu and Freedom
Hong Kong is very different from China. When control of Hong Kong transferred from the United Kingdom (Great Britain) to China, Hong Kong was supposed to remain free and be able to have its own government and court.
Even so by 2019, China had appointed a governor for Hong Kong and began to exert more control over the territory. According to at least one source, about two million people, more than 25 percent of the population, took to the streets in protest.
In 1997, Hong Kong was more developed than China and showed signs that Christianity was active with hospitals bearing crosses and churches that openly displayed Christian symbols. Those churches were unlike the government-controlled churches of China which do not appear distinctly Christian. Pray for the people of China and Hong Kong.
Additional Resources
TIME for Kids | Protests in Hong Kong
2019–20 Hong Kong protests Facts for Kids
Administrative map of Hong Kong - Ontheworldmap.com
Epilogue Si escapes to France. According to the documentary on Amazon Operation Yellow Bird, France was key to enabling escapes. Contrary to popular opinion, America’s CIA was not involved, and the US dragged its feet in accepting the dissidents though many eventually settled here. Even so, because of the Tiananmen Square massacre, President George H.W. Bush imposed diplomatic sanctions, and the US later set in place trade sanctions. Many who have escaped from North Korea settle in South Korea. Refugees needed to take classes to understand how to live in a modern, free, technological society.
ACTIVITY XVIII
Research Christianity in South Korea. Why do you think such a small country has been able to send so many missionaries into the world? Write an essay with sources.
Additional Resources
South Korea's Great Missionary Movement—God's Sovereignty, Our Obedience - IMB
Why does South Korea send out so many missionaries? | God Reports
Other Map Sources:
Maps ETC is copyright © 2007-2012 by the University of South Florida.
Educational Use:
A maximum of twenty-five (25) maps may be used in any non-commercial, educational project (report, presentation, display, website, etc.) without special permission. The use of more than twenty-five maps in a single project requires written permission from the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) at USF.
North Korea Map | Detailed Maps of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)
Rail Map: https://etc.usf.edu/maps
South Korea Map | Discover South Korea (Republic of Korea) with Detailed Maps