China Boy

by Gus Lee

Book Overview

"What a knockout. An incredibly rich and new voice for American literature...China Boy grabs the reader's heart and won't let go."--Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club

"A fascinating, evocative portrait of the Chinese community in California in the 1950s, caught between two complex, demanding cultures."--The New York Times Book Review

Kai Ting is the only American-born son of a Shanghai family...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452271584
• ISBN13: 9780452271586
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An insightful autobiographical look

Most of the reviews here are critical and misinformed. They appear to be written by disgruntled hisgh school students who have probably been assigned to read Lee's book as an effort to heighten their multi-cultural sensitivities. The kids miss the point. This is an excellent, sensitive novel about growing up in many worlds at once. Where ever Kai Ting is, is the wrong place, even home. His way of finding himself, finding a place, is through an unlikely venue, the local Y. There is a gritty truth thst comes off of every page here. Lee is exposing a great deal of his soul and, at the end, I felt part of his life. This was the first work of Lee's I read. My satisfaction with China Boy led me to the rest. He has much talent, a powerful voice and a sharp sense of humor... even when it hurts.

A fast-paced funny story about a young Chinese American boy

This novel is funny because the author uses slangs throughout the story to make the reader feel how people really talk and trying to use chinese words that is translated to how the word sounds. He uses descriptive words and a lot of metaphors in his writing which flows from one sentence to another and would not stop till the end of the book. The story is from a young chinese boy's perspective who is unaware what American culture is about, living in San Francisco in the early fifties and dealing with a new American stepmom who tries to erase the family's chinese culture. This book inspires me how this young boy reminds me of how fun a child can be, growing up, adopting new styles from the streets and where everything is always changing. I would recommend to anyone because it's easy to read, funny, and have a unique ending that you to find out for yourself.

Deeply touching, authentic book

I only recently found out how autobiographical this book is, although I suspected it all along. It's too real--too painful--to be anything but. I can't say that I'd read it many times, because it's too painful a read (I found myself crying through half the book), but ultimately it's a hopeful book. It's easily one of my all-time favorite books. Check out the sequel, Honor and Duty. (Another one of my favorites is the Farseer Trilogy [Assassin's Apprentice] by Robin Hobb and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.)

An exerpt from my American Studies assignment

Kai, is the main protagonist of an inspiring novel called China Boy, which is written by Gus Lee. The novel is actually a "semi-autobiography", the author states, " `China Boy' is a story about my family in China before immigrating to the United States during the war and then (after we settled in the U.S.) my own attempts become a successful African-American male youth in the Panhandle of San Francisco." Even though Gus Lee has Chinese blood (in his childhood) he tries to adapt or assimilate into the American culture by learning the street fighting of blacks in the Panhandle. The book depicts the author's own struggle to defend himself during his childhood in the Panhandle. Fabricated with characters of different races, the story captures the vision of America as a "melting pot." Through the keen entangling-details of Ting's family fleeing to America, the boxing lessons that Kai takes at YMCA, and Kai's fighting with his stepmother and the bullies on the street one extricates the lesson that life always has trials and tribulations, some things can't be changed, but others can.

A tale of a 7-year old boy trying to survive in the streets.

This story of Kai Ting, the first American born boy of a family that fled China during the 2nd World War. When his mother dies, and father remarries, Kai's new American stepmother forces him out of the house and he must learn to survive among the tough culture of San Francisco's Panhandle during the 1950's. When he's repeatedly beaten until bloody, his father sends him to the YWCA to learn boxing to defend himself. There, he finds guidance, food, and lessons in becoming a man. You'll cry with this child and laugh at the humor in the book as Kai must try to overcome a horrible bully.