'Chopsticks-Fork Principle' Author Speaks at McDaniel College, 4/6

Cathy Bao Bean, author of the humorous "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: a Memoir and Manual," will speak on "Living and Laughing by the Chopstick-Fork Principle" at 6:30 p.m. April 6 in Decker Auditorium.

This event is free and open to the public.

An immigrant from China, Bean says her memoir "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle," as a story rooted in the telling of one family's life, is a story for all families. In it, she recounts how she learned to be herself, as well as raise a son whose artist father did things like paint the lawn.

Her memoir, she says, provides "a unique window into the experience of a bicultural family." Bean - a philosophy teacher, writer and education consultant - describes the book also as a manual that seeks to demonstrate how people can benefit from greater awareness of the diversity in themselves and others.

Bean is also co-author of "The Chopsticks-Fork Principle x 2, A Bilingual Reader," for learners of English as a Second Language and Chinese as a Foreign Language.

She is president of the Society for Values in Higher Education, adviser to the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, and a board member of the New Jersey Chinese Cultural Studies Foundation as well as the Claremont Graduate University School of the Arts and Humanities. She also helped found the Ridge and Valley Conservancy.

McDaniel College, a private four-year college of the liberal arts and sciences, was founded in 1867 as Western Maryland College. Students pursue more than 60 programs of study, including dual majors and student-designed majors. The 1,700 undergraduates and 1,300 graduate students receive personal attention and take advantage of leadership opportunities in the close-knit community, where the average class size is 17 and professors are dedicated mentors. The 160-acre campus is located in Westminster, Md., 30 miles northwest of Baltimore and 56 miles north of Washington, D.C.

For more information, visit http://www.mcdaniel.edu/.