Hmong Stories 儿童玩具设计
Categories: Wood Toy Design / Illustration /
Narrative / Educational Interaction
Art Director: Bryan Satalino
Photography: Yige Zhang
Hmong Stories is a set of educational story-building toy. The concept is telling the myths and legends of the minority Hmong to American children. I used their elements to illustrate four Hmong stories. In the set of toy, there are a total of four cubes and each side of the cubes has a narrative scene (except tops and bottoms), every four scenes form a complete story. I respectively used a color to represent each story and marked each scene with a number. And I also designed an instruction booklet with story text. Children should build stories based on the guide of the booklet, the colors and the numbers. I hope children enjoy learning Hmong culture by this playful way.
Hmong Stories（苗族故事）是一套具有教育意义的讲故事的玩具。它的概念是把苗族的神话传说讲述给美国的小朋友，我的设计灵感来源于一个可惜的事实：苗族是一个只有语言没有文字的民族，他们的文字在5000年的流浪中丢失了，于是聪明的苗族人就把他们的文化和故事刺绣在衣服上，以此流传下来。我选择了几个有趣的故事，并从苗绣中提取了很多元素，重新为这些故事绘制了插画。我分别用一个颜色代表一个故事，并把这些故事情节拆开，小朋友可以在家长的帮助下通过我设计的故事书来匹配故事的情节顺序，构成一个完整的故事。（本作品的故事和元素参考均来源于《中国贵州民族民间美术精粹·刺绣》）
The Dog Gains the Seeds 狗取粮种
One evening, in a Hmong village, the granary caught fire and the grain was all burned. The seeds floated to the sky with the smoke as well. The sky and the earth were separated by a sky river so that the mortals could not swim through it and take their seeds back. However, their dogs could. Then, people asked one of their dogs to swim across the sky river and take five-inch-long stalks and five-feet-long spikes. But when the dog arrived the sky, he remembered people’s request wrong. What he took was five-inch-long spikes and five-feet-long stalks. Although the dog made a mistake on the way, people were still grateful for him. Until now, dogs are still Hmong people’s good friends.
《狗取粮种》讲述因为粮仓失火，种子顺着烟雾跑到天上去了。人们由于天河的阻隔，无法上天去取，只能派会游泳的狗游过天河去取“五寸长的杆杆，五尺长的穗穗”的粮食种子。但是，狗到了天庭后把人们的要求记颠倒了，取回来了“五寸长的穗穗，五尺长的杆杆”的粮种，虽然出了一点小差错，但狗还是帮助人们找回了种子。到了今日，狗依旧是苗族人的好朋友。
The Epoch 开天辟地
One day, after the sky and the earth appeared, the sky fell to the ground and people could not live normally. At this time, a good monster, Fufang, supported the clouds by his back. Then, his owner, a Hmong hero Paopa, split the cloud by his axe and it float to the sky. Finally, the sky and the earth completely separated as they are now. People were happy and never worried the sky would fall to the earth again.
《开天辟地》讲述天地产生以后相叠在一起，于是有一个叫“剖帕”的英雄“举斧猛一劈，天地两分开”。继而，有一位长着八只手和四只脚的怪物“府方”，“把天撑上去，把地踩下来”。天地分开以后万物得以生存，百姓安居乐业。
The Tale of the Dragon Boat Races 龙船节传说
A long time ago, there was a warrior named Paul in a Hmong village. One day, his son was playing by a river, but a dragon in the water discovered the boy. Then, he dragged the boy into the river because he wanted the boy to be his pillow. After Paul heard this bad news, he became very sad and angry. In order to avenge his son, he dove into the water and killed the evil dragon. People felt very happy when they knew the monster was killed. Therefore, they made many canoes by the imagery of the dragon and held Dragon Boat Festival to commemorate their hero.
苗族勇士“保”的儿子有一天在水边嬉戏，却被龙拖到水底当了枕头。“保”得知后愤怒又伤心，于是他潜入水底杀了恶龙为子报仇。人们得知这位勇士杀了恶龙都很感激，从此大家按照龙的形象做成独木舟，每年都举办龙舟比赛，以此来纪念他们的英雄“保”。
Shooting the Suns and the Moons 射日射月
The god made twelve suns and twelve moons. But when they appeared together, people could not tolerate such high temperature. Then, they decided to ask a giant to shoot eleven suns and eleven moons, and this job took him eleven years to finish. After knowing this news, the last sun and the last moon turned to be very scared. Hence, they escaped and hid so that people could not find them anywhere. Many a few days, the last sun and the last moon appeared again with a rooster crowing on a stone. Finally, people’ s life was regained as well as the sun and the moon would never worry to be shot.
从前，天上有十二个月亮和十二个太阳，他们一起出现的时候，晒焦了大地，百姓苦不堪言。于是他们派了一个巨人花了十一年时间射下了十一个太阳和是一个月亮，剩下一个太阳一个月亮吓得躲了起来，大地陷入一片黑暗，人和动物们都出来寻找呼唤日月，都没有成功。后来在一只漂亮的公鸡的呼唤下，日月才重新露面，大地才恢复了光明。
