21 October 2016 by Stephanie Henwood
The charming tales of The Nine Sons of the Dragon raise some key points on equality. Each son is so unique yet they resemble a tight family unit made up of strong individuals, each with their own set of talents and skills.
I have perceived, that Dragon King loves and treats his 9 sons equally regardless of their differing looks and talents, as he sent all 9 sons to help Liu Po Wen. What I feel particularly touching Is that the sons all appear very close too, for example, their loyalty to their oldest brother, Bi Xi by staying in the human world with him even though they did not like to be there. All 9 sons stuck together.
The Nine Sons of the Dragon shows us that it is ok to be different. It doesn’t matter what the son’s physical appearances are, they are brothers regardless. Another important philosophy of this story is teamwork: We focus on the talents that each son has, rather than their looks. Their individual skills are used to form a strong, supportive team.
This got me to thinking about the Snowflake team; Spread widely throughout Oxfordshire in the UK, Taiwan, and China, each Snowflaker has experienced different upbringings and developing careers yet our team is solid and united by our shared passion and personal values. Working closely together to share ideas and drawing in on one another’s skill sets, our team works because we share an array of experience and skills broadly developed and use these positively to support our shared goals.
I do wonder why the 9 sons did not want to stay in the human world. . . Was this because it was full of judgment and unjust? Perhaps they were not accepted for being so different. The story is an old Chinese legend and thus it is possible that this was the case at the time. Nowadays one would hope that this is changing significantly, or at least we are making progress.
To summarise, this story is the perfect eye-opener for anyone experiencing discrimination or feeling isolated or inferior. This could be someone with low self-esteem or a disability or impairment. By introducing The Nine Sons of a Dragon we can improve confidence and promote equality. This book is saying, ‘we all have our good bits’ let's focus on our qualities and not let physical appearance or the perception of being ‘different’ get in the way.
