Published: March 21, 2008 11:10 am      

Storytellers teach life lessons through words

EDMOND — Every story has a message. That’s what about 60 parents and children learned Thursday during Eth-Noh-Tec’s presentation of Asian Treasure Bag at the Edmond Library.

Every year, the Metropolitan Library System chooses a program to present to its various libraries during Spring Fling.

Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, Eth-Noh-Tec owners, tell stories from the Asian culture by weaving music, dance, rhythmic dialogue, lively facial expressions and the spoken word. They are based out of San Francisco and were discovered by the Metropolitan Library System during Winter Tales, Oklahoma’s storytelling festival.

Wang said Eth-Noh-Tec represents its mission and means the weaving of cultures, east and west, to create new possibilities.

“They were entertaining,” said Brooke Daugherty, 11. “There was a lot to learn about other cultures.”

She said it is important for people to learn about other cultures.

“Some people are afraid of what they don’t know,” Daugherty said.

Wang said they choose their stories based on the values they are teaching.

“We chose stories that have universal truths,” she said.

Audience members listened as Wang and Kikuchi-Yngojo told a story of how people looked at certain people as cows and thus treated them as meat. Wang said the lesson of the story is to treat everyone with respect and not like a piece of meat.

“Humans have so much to learn,” she said. “These folk tales tell us how to live.”

The storytellers also told a story of a young boy who became attached to a willow tree. The spirit of the willow tree came to the boy as a young girl. The two fell in love and married, but the boy could never figure out why no one in town seemed to see his wife. When people cut the willow tree down, its spirit died with it and all that was left of the girl was a yellow willow leaf.

“To weep for one was to weep for another,” Wang said.

She told the children to try hugging a pine tree because they would be able to feel the energy that passes between the tree and the human body.

“If you can’t find a pine tree, at least thank your trees for being so beautiful,” Wang said. “There’s a spirit in everything.”

Kikuchi-Yngojo introduced the children to several Asian instruments, including a Kobing or jaw harp. A few children were chosen to try the instruments out. They were introduced to the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, and the ditze, a Chinese bamboo flute.

“I didn’t know it took so much to blow through the pipe,” said Morgan Gregroy, 10.

Iris Hill, 10, said she attended Asian Treasure Bag because her aunt is Korean and she wanted to learn about her relative’s culture.

“I learned that you shouldn’t listen to a foolish leader,” Hill said.