The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co.

By Frank Chin

Book Overview

The Chinaman Pacific and Frisco R.R. Co. runs the mainline of Chinese American history ad befuddled Chinese American experience through the "Chinatown-of-the-Mind" depot stop. A Chinatown where kids dream of growing up to be Charlie Chan's Number One Son, Gunga Din and Suzie Wong; where old immigrants meet at a downtown movie theater every day and learn English watching cartoons; where "assimilation" is a storefront Chinatown Buddhist church going electronic and getting rich. Ride the flaming rails with the Chinaman artist, working on the railroad while struggling with white food, white music, white history and white stereotypes.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0918273447
• ISBN13: 9780918273444
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Meet Frank Chin, The Writer

Often people say that Frank Chin is an activist. This is true, but we shouldn't forget that he is also a writer. After all, it was his play Chickencoop Chinaman that help open doors for Asian American artists. In this book you will read eight great short stories by Frank Chin. The stories include: "Railroad Standard Time", "The Eat and Run Midnight People", "The Chinatown Kid", "The Only Real Day", "Yes, Young Daddy", "Give the Enemy Sweet Sissies and Women to Infatuate Him, and Jades and Silks to Blind Him with Greed", "A Chinese Lady Dies", and "The Sons of Chan". After reading these stories, you will understand why Chin won the American Book Award.

Entertaining right to the end

If you liked Frank Chin's book Donald Duk, and enjoy the short story collections that are sprouting like weeds these days, you'll like this one. :)And if you liked Maxine Hong Kingston's book The Woman Warrior, and know how much Mr. Chin doesn't like the Mulan spoof Kingston put it, then read the Afterword to this volume (this one alone is a laugh and a half).