Once upon a time there was a very small puppy who had a hard time keeping up with his sisters and brothers. But he was very good at hopping! One day, a furry friend hopped up beside him and told him what a good hopper he was. Wait a minute, was this the key to finding out who he really was? Should he go home and join her family of furry hoppers? But he didn't like carrots, and while he was too small to be a puppy, he was too big to be a bunny. What was he to do?
The answer to all the little puppy's problems are found within this beautifully illustrated story of friendship, family, and self-acceptance.
Alison M. Friedman is the James and Susan Moeser Executive and Artistic Director of Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She took up this position in October 2021 after 20 years living and working in China.
Before that, Friedman was Artistic Director of Performing Arts for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, one of the world's largest arts and cultural developments. Previously she founded and ran Ping Pong Productions, a US- and Beijing-registered cultural exchange organization that worked in more than 50 countries on five continents, producing works with and launching the careers of artists like TAO Dance Theater and director Wang Chong. Her productions have toured Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, China's National Centre for the Performing Arts, Shanghai International Arts Festival and other leading venues and festivals.
She has served as international director of Beijing Modern Dance Company and general manager of Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun's company, as well as a producer and host on Chinese national radio and television programs.
She was a 2002-03 Fulbright Scholar to Peking University and the Beijing Dance Academy, a John F. Kennedy Center arts management fellow, and a National Committee on US-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program (PIP) fellow. Fluent in Mandrin, her translation Across Borders: The Poems of Xue Di was published in 2013 by Green Integer Press. She wrote The Puppy Who Thought He Was a Bunny while on her 2002-03 Fulbright Fellowship to Beijing when she was supposed to be doing research.
