Cindy Wume
Ten Little Dumplings is the story of a family with ten boys. The brothers do everything together:
Ten getting ready in the morning.
Ten playing by the old fish pond.
Ten eating rice at the big round table.
In this scene, they are celebrating Lunar New Year with a traditional feast. You may be able to spot some of your favourite dishes (mine is dumplings, of course)! And if you look carefully, you can see there is another member of the family who appears more prominently later in the book.
Eating together as a family nourishes not just the body but also the soul. It’s especially fun if you make something everyone can participate in. One of my favourite childhood memories is cooking hot pot at the table. The bubbling hot pot was in the middle surrounded by mounded plates of all the raw ingredients. It was such a treat for me and my brothers to each get to choose which ingredients we wanted to put in! Somehow it made the food taste even better.
Dumplings of course are another great participatory meal. I was wrapping dumplings from a young age, gradually improving my technique and the number of pleats. Today making and eating dumplings together is still one of my family’s favourite activities. I hope you will have an opportunity to gather with your family this New Year, even if it has to be virtual. And perhaps you’ll eat some dumplings for good luck!
Cindy Wume
Illustrator
Cindy Wume is an illustrator and picture book maker now based in Taipei. She completed an MA Children’s Book illustration at Cambridge School of Art in 2016. Gouache, linear, ink, dip-pen, and colored pencils are the main materials she uses for the artworks.
She typically draws inspiration from her observations of humanity, a sense of place, loving of nature and her own imagination for the book projects. Her works have been exhibited in the Bologna Illustration Exhibition in 2016& 2018. Her picture book “The Best Sound in the World” has been published in the UK in 2018 and the picture book, “Ten Little Dumplings”, she illustrated for the author, Larissa Fan, is published in Canada in Jan, 2021.
Artist Info
Larissa Fan
Author
Larissa Fan is an experimental filmmaker and artist whose cinematic work has been screened at national and international festivals and venues, including the Anthology Film Archives, Images Festival, and Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival. She currently works in social media marketing at the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Ontario College of Art & Design and her MFA in Film Production from York University. Larissa is based in Toronto.
Artist Info
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