Ahh… relaxing by reading a good book is always something enjoyable. Unfortunately I cannot say that for China Boy.
China
Boy is a coming-of-age book written by Gus Lee. The book is supposed to
fit in the fictional autobiography type of genre. Get this, Gus Lee had
me fooled that the story was actually about him for about a third of
the book. Talk about confusion…
China Boy is set in the 1950s in
a San Francisco ghetto. In this ghetto, there is ethnic diversity.
Asians, Hispanics, and Blacks are the notable ethnic groups our main
character, Kai Ting, a seven year old Chinese boy encounters on a
day-to-day basis. The story starts us off with Kai Ting being a very
happy boy. He has three sisters, a mother and a father. Kai’s family
immigrated to America from China due to the revolution in their home
country. Kai, however, is American born. Kai’s relationship with his
sisters is strong and loving, with his father, it is not so close. The
person who Kai loves the absolute most is well, naturally, his mother.
Unfortunately,
Kai’s mother eventually dies of cancer and the family is forced to move
on. Kai’s father eventually remarries a stereotypical, educated, white
American woman named Edna. Edna then becomes the evil stepmother of the
Ting kids and wreaks havoc among the household refusing to let the
family speak their Chinese language, and celebrate their customs. In
other words, Edna forces the Ting family to assimilate into the
American culture in a hellish manner.
So then, Edna who seems to
be a really lazy mother forces Kai to stay out on the streets until he
is called back into the house. This causes a problem. Kai then meets a
group of kids who immediately bullies him. One of these bullies is Big
Willie Mack. Big Willie Mack is what his name says… He is BIG. Willie
Mack and his gang beat on Kai because Kai cannot speak English. Kai is
a boy with many issues. He cannot speak ANY language fluently… Not even
his primary Chinese tongue.
Kai who is a chicken weakling later
befriends a boy named Toussaint LaRue, and meets a man named Hector
Pueblo. Hector Pueblo convinces Kai’s father to have Kai go to the
local YMCA to train and learn how to box. Kai’s father, with his
pretty-much-apathetic attitude lets Kai go to the YMCA.
Alright,
so, Kai goes the YMCA and meets a bunch of other kids, who he actually
befriends. Kai also meets his boxing teachers and forms a tight bond
with his main boxing teacher, Tony Barraza. Kai eventually stands up to
Willie Mack and plays the underdog by completely destroying Willie Mack
in a street fight. Kai also stands up to Edna at the end. Kai says “I
ain’t fo’ yo’ pickin-on, no mo!”
China Boy is written in the
first person point of view, meaning Kai Ting is the speaker. As with
all coming-of-age stories, the theme of China Boy is the “never give up
because hard work will triumph” type of story. Gus Lee tries to get us
to notice these themes by setting up Kai Ting, the main character and
the protagonist with Edna Ting, his stepmother, Big Willie Mack, the
bully as the antagonists. China Boy is basically an underdog story.
What
makes this book truly frustrating is the extremely slow character
development. Every character in this book is essentially a static
character up until the last two chapters when Kai fights Big Willie
Mack. No one changes before then, and that is very irritating;
especially when the story is 322 pages long. The dialogue of China Boy
gets to be torturous at times. Readers will notice the pain once they
hit about the middle of the story. Kai has a language problem. He
cannot speak English or Chinese fluently. I will not excuse him for
only being seven years old. At the age of seven, there should be a lot
of language development already. The book’s dialogue is written in
English with an occasional Chinese phrase that could easily be
substituted for English. The Chinese phrases were most likely added
there to add a Chinese cultural feel to it. I did not feel it. Saying
“hao bu hao?” every once is a while is a pretty weak effect to the book.
Success
is a pretty broad term to define. Individual success usually means
achieving a goal that has been set. Success in a society could be an
achievement a society could come to agree with. Kai Ting achieves both
types of success. He stands up to Edna, which symbolizes personal
success, and Willie Mack, which could symbolize both types of success.
I must give Kai Ting some credit though. He trained very hard to
eventually stand up to his two greatest enemies, the bully and the evil
stepmother. With all the training, hard work, and perseverance, Kai
Ting was able to achieve success by finally standing up to his bullies.
The
story starts and ends great. It’s the middle part of the book that I
have beef about. I have to give Gus Lee credit for almost creating a
heartwarming story. Well, that is in my own opinion. Readers will have
to read the story themselves to find out.
Do I really recommend
this book? No, no I don’t. This book isn’t exactly as great as it is
advertised in Amazon.com. It’s really a great book… if the reader isn’t
Chinese… Readers who are aware of the Chinese culture will suffer from
having to endure such pain from reading this very average book. Props
to Gus Lee for writing about the Chinese American culture though.
