In Our Time Machine,filmmakers S. Leo Chiang and Yang Sun follow Chinese artist, Maleonn’s (Ma Liang), attempt to honor his father’s memory – not his life, his actual memory. Ma Ke, himself an accomplished artist as longtime Peking Opera director, has not yet died, but has Alzheimer’s disease. Using art (his comfort zone), Maelonn is trying to preserve their father-son memories.

He creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. The performance provides teachers and students an opportunity to consider the themes we relate to in autobiography, how it can help us to find and reflect on our own stories, and how we choose to tell our stories.

Students will use the stories that Maleonn chooses to tell as a springboard for telling their own autobiographical story, and in doing so, connecting their own life story to universal human themes.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Dr. Faith Rogow

Adolescents commonly experience feelings that no one understands what they are experiencing. For some, that can lead to feelings of disconnection, isolation, and even alienation. Finding the universal themes in their own life stories can help them understand that they are, indeed, unique, but also connected. At a time when many people are pulling away from those who are different (racially, religiously, ethnically), finding the themes that are common to humanity can provide common ground, helping people better understand those they define as “other.” As an added benefit, recognizing the universal themes in their own stories can help students identify (and perhaps even connect with) themes in the literature they are assigned to read.

Subject Areas

● English/Language Arts

● Art

● Media Literacy

● Creative Writing

Grade Levels:[10-12]

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

● Understand the potential benefits of reading autobiographies

● Explore what makes a literary theme “universal”

● Tell their own parent-child story

● Identify the universal theme(s) in their own personal stories (and through that, see
their stories as valuable)

● Consider various options we have for sharing our stories: writing, oral, film, stage
performance, etc.

● [optional] Investigate how do some people’s stories come to be part of the literary
canon that we study in schools, while other people’s stories are left out

Materials:

● Film Clips from Our Time Machine and a way to screen them

Time Needed:

One 45-minute class period with homework and an option for students to share their work.

Clip 1: Swimming Lesson (9:35 – 13:30, length 3:55)

The clip begins with Maleonn working at his desk and ends with a radio interview.

Maleoon recounts the first time he realized that his father was losing his memory. It was an episode in a swimming pool with Ma Ke asking the same question over and over. Maleonn also reflects: “Dear Child, There comes a moment when we must grow up. We suddenly realize that forever does not exist in this world. We've always known that sense of helplessness. Except now, we finally understand what it means. And then what?” The final scene of the clip is Maleonn giving a radio interview in which he describes the “Papa’s Time Machine” project.

Clip 2: The Performance (1:04:50-1:08:45, length: 4:15 min.)

The clip begins with black and the stage lights coming up to start the show. It ends with a shot of Maleonn with his head in his hands.

The clip treats us to portions of a live performance of the “Papa’s Time Machine,” the show that Maleonn has created to help preserve father-son memories. Maleonn also shares these thoughts: “Dear Child, I've always thought that the important things in life ...even if they are extinguished, can be lit again with my passion. But time is too powerful. More powerful than all the passion you possess. You can't undo what it has done. With all of this, have I been too naive?”

Step 1: Screen Clip One

a) Introduce students to the film by explaining that they are going to see clips from a documentary about a relationship between a father and a son that invites us to consider the role of memory and legacy. Both the father and the son are accomplished Chinese artists living in Shanghai.

b) Give a prompt for viewing: In addition to listening to the story, pay attention to the different ways the story is being told - including, visually, artistically, and through an artistic representation of an artistic process.

c) Show the clip.

Step 2: Discuss Clip One

When the clip finishes, invite students to share reactions. As part of the discussion, guide students to explore the following questions:

Based on this clip, what can you infer that Maleonn feeling? What evidence do you have from viewing this clip that allows you to infer how he is feeling?

• What different storytelling techniques do you notice? What emotions did each of the techniques evoke? What does that tell you about the choice of storytelling format and the message? What impact does each artistic choice have on the way the story feels for you, a viewer? Why do you think these different approaches have different impacts on the viewer?

Help them see the diversity of techniques: e.g., Maleonn speaks, both philosophically and in a radio interview; the filmmakers use standard documentary footage (e.g., the radio interview) and also “dreamy” footage of the water in the swimming pool; the filmmakers use music; Maleonn draws; Maleonn references creating a stage performance (and we get to see a glimpse of a puppet he will eventually use in that performance).

What is special about parent-child relationships? Why do you think it was important to Maleonn to preserve some of his childhood stories before his father’s memory was completely gone? In what way is Maleonn’s process an act of love and an act of preserving his father’s legacy?

Step 3: Screen and Discuss Clip Two

a) Introduce the clip explaining that students are going to see parts of the stage performance that Maleonn created, “Papa’s Time Machine.” Screen the clip.

b) When the clip finishes, invite students to share reactions, including what they noticed about storytelling techniques (e.g., the use of puppets, scrim silhouettes, props, sound). As part of the discussion, guide students to explore the following questions:

• Were you able to connect to any stories that Maleonn shared? Were you able to connect to any of the methods he used to tell this story? Why did some aspects of the creative storytelling impact you more than others?
• How is it that very personal stories from another person’s life can move us? What aspects of Maleonn and his father’s relationship are unique to the two of them? What aspects of their relationship are more universal?
• How can performance art invite us to feel connected to the stories and experiences of others?

c) Gradually move the discussion from the stories that Maleonn and the filmmakers have told, to literary stories they have read. Invite them to consider and recall works or authors that really resonated with them.

d) Break into small groups for a brief discussion exploring the question “What makes a story great?” Encourage them to consider the elements of stories that speak across cultures and ages; that allow for connection despite difference. Invite students to explore what makes a “universal” theme universal, and when/how storytellers transform accounts of one person’s personal experience to something meaningful for lots of people. Have them discuss other stories they’ve listed that have had a similar impact in their lives. What lessons have they taken from such stories?

e) As time allows, reconvene as a full class and invite students to share anything interesting that came up in their small group conversations. Then segue to their assignment.

Step 5: Assignment

Let students choose one of these assignments:

a) Tell the story of one of your own parent-child moments that you would like to remember, even if the memories of the people involved begin to fade. Choose a story that you believe has a universal theme (to which others might relate).

• [Depending on curricular needs, require students to submit their story in writing, or allow them to tell the story in any media format of their choice.]

b) Choose a single episode/story from a literary work you have read. Explain how the story presents a universal theme, i.e., why it would interest others.

• [This option is especially important for students whose family experiences include trauma that they aren’t ready to share publicly.]

[optional] Step 6: The Literary Canon

Help students explore how the existing literary canon offers well written works that explore universal themes:

• Why does a literary canon exist?
• What is it about texts written more than a hundred years ago that still speak to readers today?
• Who decides which works to include and which to leave out?
• In what ways can this “canon” be problematic based on who made the decisions for what is included/excluded? How does history, society, and culture determine what is ‘important’ or ‘great?’ Why is this also worthy of critique?

The scholar most associated with declarations about the literary canon is the late Harold Bloom. Discuss these Bloom quotes:

• "To choose works for study by high school students on the basis of ethnicity, sexual orientation, skin pigmentation, gender, or national heritage is ultimately destructive. The only criteria that can matter in the end are intellectual and aesthetic."
• "It isn't professors, or people who make lists, or whole societies even, who establish what the literary canon is. It is the strong writers who come later," Bloom asserts. "They choose the canon for us. Homer is chosen by all the Greek writers who come after him, by Europe, and by the Western world ever since, and Dante is chosen by Chaucer, and all who come after him. Chaucer is chosen by Shakespeare, then Shakespeare is chosen by Milton and everybody else since—and by Charles Dickens. It is not an arbitrary matter—it comes out of the literary tradition itself"(Source:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/20/harold-bloom-defence-of-western-greats-blinded-him-to-other-cultures)

Research and report on contemporary responses to Bloom, especially by scholars from races, ethnicities, or gender identities that have been historically excluded from the canon.

Interview teachers and administrators about how decisions are made about what students will read in required English/Language Arts classes at each grade level (the school’s “canon”).

Read an autobiography or autobiographical fiction and explore it’s universal themes and/or connect the discussion of Our Time Machine to books you have read previously.

Our Time Machine begins with this H.G. Wells quote: “We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories…And those that carry us forward, are dreams.” Discuss as an introduction to reading the H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine.

Build your own representation of a time machine.

Research what scientists currently know about Alzheimer’s causes and treatments.

Discuss how Maleoon’s art challenges or confirms stereotypes or mainstream media portrayals of China.

Resource List

Check POV’s Discussion Guide and Delve Deeper Reading List for Our Time Machine for additional questions and background information and for additional reading materials to more deeply engage in the themes presented in the film.

Maeloon.com – The artist’s website, including his biography and examples of his artwork.

Classroom: What is the American Literary Canon? – A general overview of genres and texts that have been a part of the traditional literary canon included in the curriculum of U.S. schools.

Standards

SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

SL.11-12.4 Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.

SL.11-12.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating a command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

W.9-10.4,11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

R.7 - Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

About The Author

Faith Rogow
Faith Rogow, Ph.D. is a media literacy education specialist at InsightersEducation.com. She has authored media literacy textbooks and written discussion guides and lesson plans for nearly 300 independent films, specializing in topics related to equity and social justice.

Lesson Plan Producers, POV

Courtney B. Cook, Education Manager

This resource was created, in part, with the generous support of the Open Society Foundation and the MacArther Foundation.