Synchronous Coloring in Malaysia

Last fall, Luke's preschool went to the KL zoo and the staff had lots of activities planned for them. One of the activities was coloring a drawing of a flamingo. When Luke returned from school that day, the teachers were very concerned about Luke's coloring. They thought that we would a) be upset that he had NOT colored the flamingo pink, but green or some other color and b) we would hold them accountable for this outrage. We could care less. He colored it and enjoyed it. Good enough for us. We chalked up their concern to cultural misinterpretation on their part, with them expecting Americans to get upset over this kind of thing.

Recently, as we've been buying Malaysian coloring books for the kids, we've realized that in Malaysia, there is a right way and a wrong way to color. So that there is no confusion over which crayon a child is to chose, the coloring books contain color and black & white facing pages of the same image. On the front and back page, a smaller color inset instructs younguns the correct color scheme to use. Good grief!