Project Descriptions
Xochitil Burmeister | Narrative Essay and Poem (Google Drive)
Growing up, I thought that I knew what a father was—until mine disappeared. To this day, I struggle with what a father is and is supposed to be. After reading The Dream Of Ding Village, I came to the conclusion that many of the relationships were similar to those of my own family and friends. It inspired me to continue reading, and it unlocked a part of me that I kept hidden for a very long time. Using the relationships I read about, I’ve decided to write a narrative essay about my similar experiences and also a letter poem to/and about those who have walked out of my life, much like the people of Ding Village did to one another.
Kanijah Carter | Trifold and 3D models
5 Great Diseases
I created a trifold depicting 5 of major diseases, plagues, viruses, etc. to ever take place around the world. My project was made to inform others about the impact of each illness and how we as people dealt with it. I incorporated some hands-on components as well as some props to further help the viewer understand what my project is all about. On the left side of the trifold, you can see that I have 2 flaps of paper with information. Underneath those flaps will reveal the name of the illness. It’s optional, but I intended for the viewer to try and guess what might be under the flap. I also created some clay models to show what your cells would look like if you had any of those diseases.
Matthew Centner | Timeline (Google Docs)
How China Has Dealt With Pandemics in its History
My project contains a lot of information about China and its history of disease, starting from the Antonine Plague from 165 AD to the pandemic we are currently in, COVID-19. The project, discusses AIDS and HIV while also providing information about how China dealt with this pandemic.
Maddie Drews | Website (Website)
My website takes viewers on a journey that explores what is ailing the citizens of Ding Village. The issues of mass hysteria have been present in history time and time again. My piece discovers what has driven people to madness since the 14th century. It also takes an adventure into why it’s important, what makes it credible, and what it has to do with the author—all wrapped up in a hand-coded HTML website.
McKenzie Garza and Drake Moxon | Documentary (Google Drive)
30 For 30: AIDS and Athletes
We hear, we learn, and we know little of HIV/AIDS today, but this documentary takes viewers on a trip to better understand what exactly HIV/AIDS are through the life of athletes. You may ask why athletes The answer to that is their athletic abilities are tested everyday, in and out of practice and in game sports against others top of their game.
Genevieve Haartman | Acrylic Painting on a Canvas (Google Slides)
The Life Cycle of Selling Blood
For my Great World Text Project, I decided to make an acrylic painting. I chose to do a painting because I feel that I can try and tell a story in one image and make it look nice. So, I did a painting showing a “life cycle” of Ding Village and the people who sold their blood to get money. However, I don’t really want to call it a life cycle because it’s more of the life of the people selling their blood to get money who end up being rich but ill with AIDS, which kills them quickly. You will see a glass bubble with gold being sucked from the village to represent the blood being sucked from them. Then the gold goes from the bubble to a blood bag but there’s a hole in the blood bag and there are paint brushes painting the coffins that are on a conveyor belt.
Katie Hilt | Paintings (Google Folder)
Visual aspects for Dream of Ding Village
I painted four different pieces that demonstrate what China could have looked like during the AIDS epidemic. One piece represents the blood in the bags while getting drawn and then to be transferred . My second painting represents a small village that would be visualized in The Dream Of Ding Village. Lastly I painted a canvas to raise awareness. The final painting depicts the lasting image of a blood bag hanging over a tree branch in the fields of China.
Emma Salentine and Henry Hoffman | Informative Website (Website)
History of AIDS in the United States
For our project, we took a look back on the history and progression of the AIDS disease. Our website includes a variety of facts, photos, and timeline points to show how the U.S. was impacted by this disease, and how the U.S. handled it. The hope for this project is that you feel very informed about what this disease did to our country and what we did to slow the spread of it.
Alexis Holovack | Clay and cardboard made AIDS demo with info (Google Doc)
Arms n’ AIDS
This project demonstrates how AIDis transferred through the sharing of dirty needles. In the model, you will see two clay arms, a dirty needle, and a collection bottle. The arm and the truck taking the blood are interactive to help the viewer’s understanding of the process. Yes, you can even draw blood from the arms!
Jeramiah Housworth, Madelynn Kallman | Documentary/ public interviews (Google Drive)
Covid interviews
Our documentary shows how different people in our community have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. It sheds light on how the pandemic has affected people’s business, personal life, life at school, and more. We spoke with teachers, business owners, a police officer, and other essential people in our society. We hope that watching our documentary will open our eyes to how this pandemic has affected people differently just like the AIDS epidemic did in The Dream Of Ding Village.
Mai Lee | Video (Google Folder)
Cupping History vs Modern
My video shows how to use the cups and cupping history. You will see each step of how modern suction cupping works and then compare it to how the older history recorded said it was used. I won’t be using it on anyone just to be safe, but I will show how to use it and how it can help and what parts of the bodies it can help and what are the benefits of using cupping.
Lily McKeefry |Diorama (Google Folder)
The Symbolism Within Dream of Ding Village
My project connects and shows the positive and negative sides of the story. The outside of the coffin represents the death, loss, and destruction that’s expressed throughout the book, while the inside conveys hope, happiness, and company. I used elements from the grandpa’s dreams, like the field of flowers and healthy fields of crops to show the positives, as well as the school which was used as a symbol of hope in the book and Liang and his wife’s house.
Autumn Pietz, Emeral Ruedinger, and Codoleeza Thao |Videos and Slides (Google Folder)
Traditional Chinese Medicing
We are all together in one shop, here to help people get healthier and “cure” ailments. Autymn acts as an herbalist, Codoleezza specializes in acupuncture, and Emerald specializes in tui na Massages. Autymn has made a small book of medical remedies and a few recipes to make things. These recipes are for soap, poison ivy/itch cream, hand sanitizer, and bug repellent. There also are different herbs/plants and combinations of a few different herbs/plants and how they can help our bodies.
Allison Tavernier and Alexyiah Simpson | Talk Show (Youtube)
Let’s Talk About it: Celebrities With AIDS
For this project we decided to step outside of our comfort zones and film us talking about the history of AIDS/HIV, as well as celebrities who’ve contracted it. We also covered stereotypes, and common misunderstandings that people have. To have a deeper understanding of HIV/AIDs, it is important to recognize how this virus directly affects humans.
Jaidyn Thao | Slideshow/Video (Google Slides)
Medicine from the Chinese to Hmong
My slideshow/video shows how medicine from both the Chinese and Hmong culture has helped their people and how it affected the HIV/aids epidemic in China. The Chinese people used their medical techniques to help with the spread of HIV/AIDS within China. The Hmong people have adapted to Chinese medicine over the years and now use it in their culture as well. This also tells how the Hmong people were severely attacked by HIV/AIDS when they were residing in Southern China.
Payten Totz | Online version in a slideshow (Google Slides)
Dream of Ding Village (title of book) Tough Decisions (title of game)
The Game provides players with situations where you will need to make a decision on how to proceed with the options given. Most of the situations are serious life situations that anyone could be put through in life. Going along with A Dream of Ding Village, the characters had to make some tough decisions at times. In the game, you will receive 2 different categories of points. One is for morals (did you do the morally correct thing?) and the other one will be based on money and how it will affect you as well as your family. This game helps to give people different ideas on things that can actually happen in life, some may happen within seconds, others may develop over time.
Myles Widmann | Informative video and 3D model (Google Docs)
All About HIV
My project teaches viewers all about HIV. You will learn about the different stages of infection, types of treatment, the many symptoms, the origin, and the timeline of HIV in the United States. It also includes the HIV life cycle, and an AIDS-specific cancer: Kaposi Sarcoma. My project also lets you see the 3D cell structure of an HIV cell via my homemade model.
Anjal Adhikari | Research Project/Presentation (Google Slides)
Corruption of Ding Village
This project explores the corruption in the Ding Village, Communism in Ding Village and other political ideas. This project explores the crimes committed by the character Ding Hui and provides an in-depth look at modern Chinese modern politics.
Arionna Haskin | Group of poems (Google Docs)
Life After Death?
My poems represent how Dream of Ding Village interprets the afterlife, versus how China and various religions interpret the afterlife. I wrote various poems, each one focusing on something different. My first and second poems are about the afterlife in various religions. My third poem is about the afterlife in China. My fourth and fifth poems are about Dream of Ding village, how they see the afterlife, and how it all connects.
Ayden Dombrowski | Informational Poster Project (Google Docs)
HIV Around the World
This informational poster project will go through how HIV/AIDS affected different countries around the world and the effect HIV/AIDS had on these countries. The project will also go over general information about HIV/AIDS and how HIV/AIDS was and has been throughout the years without relation to a specific country. This project is closely associated with the text, Dream of Ding Village due to the fact that the book is mainly about HIV/AIDS and how it affects Ding Village in the book.
Bella Salisbury | Digital Painting Slideshow (Google Docs)
Phases of a Pandemic
My three paintings show before, during, and after the AIDS takeover in China. I used the same reference photo for each painting, changing each one only slightly when appropriate for the time period. Starting out a normal village, you can see that the pictures become less and less ideal for a living space each time you click. I incorporated the Dream of Ding Village into these pieces by adding in bits and pieces that came from the story.
Christian Geffers | Informational Essay (Google Docs)
Pandemics Through the Ages
My essay teaches about the most deadly pandemics throughout history and goes into detail about each one. It shows how they affected the world, how people reacted to them, and how the different pandemics relate to each other. This essay relates to Dream of Ding Village because the entire book revolved around the concept of an epidemic spreading across Ding Village. Similar to pandemics that affected the world the most, the one in Ding Village killed many people and wiped out entire villages.
Jennifer Swapp | Painting with Factual Description (Google Docs)
Fighting for the Undiscussed
My painting consists of imagery of the activist group AIDS Coalition to Unleash power (ACT UP) protesting the FDA in the early 90’s. The artwork allows you to travel back in time and feel the anger and outrage that compelled people of all genders, ages, and sexualities to stand up against the government’s indolence towards solving the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Julia Bock, Mary Dorschner | Board Game describing events in The Dream of Ding Village (similar to Chutes and Ladders) 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 (Google Drive)
The Up’s and Down’s of Living in Ding Village
This project is an engaging board game filled with both the delightful and devastating events that take place in The Dream of Ding Village. The concept of this game is based on the popular board game “Chutes and Ladders.” Players move across the board aiming to reach the end. Along the path of the board are positive squares such as “you choose not to sell blood.” These squares have a ladder leading up across the board as shortcuts to the end. However, there are also negative squares such as “you marry someone who you didn’t know had the fever.” There are chutes leading down from these squares, causing players to move down the gameboard and further away from winning. If at any point during the game you land on a rare “you die” square, you become a ghost. Ghosts no longer move along the board, but if another player lands on a “ghost square”, the ghost player spins a separate spinner that will affect what square the living player moves to. Once someone reaches the end of the game board the game is over. Try to make it out alive!
Kate Gassere and Maya Walker | Fictional News Broadcast URL & Sources (Google Drive)
KGMW News
Our project gives viewers a fun yet quite informational view of how the experiences of people in the book Dream of Ding Village could have been different with modern-day technology. This is a fictional news broadcast set to target the people of Ding Village during the time that the book Dream of Ding Village took place. The purpose is to provide information regarding HIV/AIDs that could have been useful, using modern information to contradict the unknowns during the time of the story. Our project also includes a historical aspect of HIV/AIDs, which mentions the past knowledge in relation to what we know in the present day.
Kira Smith | Paintings (Google Docs)
Accidents of Deceit
This series of paintings takes the viewer through Dream of Ding Village. There’s grandfather’s dreams which give insight to events, even if not real, that add to the story. There’s a tree with falling leaves, representing the repeated phrase “they died like falling leaves.” In addition, the ‘fever’ was like an unexpected slap to the face, which is represented by a handprint on a face. Lastly, the viewer visits the ending of the book as reality sets in- everyone’s gone.
Max Blake | Emaze presentation on the history of AIDS in China and around the world (Google Docs)
The AIDS Global Epidemic and the Impact Around the World
This project goes through the history of AIDS around the world, focusing on the 1989 AIDS epidemic in China, like in the book The Dream of Ding Village, while comparing it to different AIDS epidemics around the world. This project is going into the effect of AIDS on Chinese villages, the attempts to treat AIDS, and the censorship of the virus in China. This project will also go into the modern day AIDS epidemics, the origin of HIV, and the modern treatments for AIDS.
Ruby Snow | 2D art and poetry/fiction project inspired by the text The Dream of Ding Village and the importance of nature in Chinese culture. (Google Docs)
自然
The project that I created is a combination of both 2D art and poetry/fiction writing inspired by The Dream of Ding Village and the importance of nature in Chinese culture. This nature theme is portrayed through pieces of landscape art that also assist in describing different arcs throughout the novel that I found important. This art is accompanied by correlating pieces of poetry inspired by the events of The Dream of Ding Village.
Sam Meine | URL (Google Docs)
The Best Kind of Offence: Dream of Ding Village & 1984
This project looks into the world of censorship of books and media by looking at how, and why such books such as Dream of Ding Village and 1984 were originally seen as not acceptable for public consumption. The two books were chosen for their varying plots, but similar appeal for those who want such content. In Yan Lianke’s China, Dream of Ding Village was censored due to the disturbing imagery and view of the AIDs pandemic going on at the time. We see a similar story for George Orwell’s 1984, although on a larger scale because of the Cold War. It was banned both in the USSR, and the United States for a while due to its horrifying reimagining of a post-cold war society. It was criticized also for being both pro communism, and pro democracy in its respective regions. This takes a deep dive into the reasons why books are censored, political purposes that they serve, and how radical books like this are hated by governments but loved by the masses.
Sean Xiong | URL (Google Docs)
Project TCM
My project is a display that explores the different methods of Traditional Chinese medicine. Areas that will be covered in my Project are Common herbs, Acupuncture, and Tai Chi. Lastly, my project shows how Dream of Ding Village is connected to Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Steven Clark | URL (Google Docs)
Cause and Effect
I made a colored drawing of the tomato and the boy ate the tomato, with his body sleeping next to the tomato that he ate. Bushes surround this scene as the boy’s soul looks over him. I chose the scene of the boy eating the tomato because throughout the book he is the narrator while also being a ghost. Additionally, the boy is thinking about why he ate that tomato in the first place poisoning him to death, which would change the entire outcome of the novel.
Sue Thao | Digital Illustrations (Google Docs)
Memories of Ding Village
These series of illustrations send the viewers into the world of Dream of Ding Village. With visual representation of multiple scenes from the book, I wanted to let others see how I had interpreted and visualized the book in my own head. Using the different elements and principles of art, I have drawn and painted these pieces to evoke different emotions into the viewers, allowing them to take a trip to the quiet, small, and emotional Ding Village; hoping to show both the light and dark sides of the village and the memories it holds.