The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island

Bibliography

Yep, Laurence, and Kathleen S. Yep. 2008. The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island. New York: Harper Collins. ISBN 9780062018151

Plot Summary

This story gives face to the trials of the Chinese-Americans who left their country and tried to return to the United States. The Dragon's Child is built around conversations with author Laurence Yep’s father, Gim Lew Yep, who left China as a boy to accompany his father to the United States. These descriptions include extensive historical records, including interviews, from the immigration department at Angel Island about his family. Set in the early 1920s, when immigration into the United States by the Chinese and Chinese-Americans was difficult, Gim Lew Yep’s father takes ten-year old Gim back to the United States with him. This is a father son journey. They bond while conducting the lengthy preparation for the immigration interview. The interview process at Angel Island is brutal and Gim has the expectations, and future, of the whole family on his shoulders. He must get into America, but is torn and deeply saddened to be leaving his home, family, and culture, where “family is everything.”

Critical Analysis 

Yep opens each chapter with a few lines from interviews he conducted with his father. These accounts anchor the story in this historical and political reality of 1920s China after the revolution. These details are joined with the anti-immigrant sentiments in America. Each chapter also opens with parallel dates: the American date and day in the Chinese calendar. This sets the stage for the duality of the story. The child and the father are the yin and yang of love for their respective countries, China and America. The father can’t wait to leave the poor rural life and return to the hustle and bustle of the rich city; the child doesn’t want to leave the only thing he has known to go to the “Golden Mountain.” 

Yep does a good job of vividly describing the surroundings as the plot moves from the country, to the Chinese port city, onto the boat, then into the detention center that is Angel Island. The people and surroundings, such as poetry carved into the wall in Chinese, tell the tale of an immigrant’s journey to America and captures the flavor of the time. The fear and anxiety of the immigrants moving through Angel Island are tangible. 

The Dragon's Child is also a coming of age story as Gim transitions from child with few responsibilities to an income earner the family relies upon. He mentally has to adjust to a new life, new clothes, new food, and a new climate. Along the path, Gim symbolically transitions his clothing from robes to a western suit.

Yep clearly researched his topic. He wrote an Author’s Note at the beginning describing his family history and the role of his father, Gim Lew Yep. At the back of the book he features a “More About Chinese American Immigration” section, photos, a bibliography, and web resources for Angel Island. He also included the work of his niece, Dr. Kathleen S. Yep. 

I have worked extensively with the Bob Bullock Museum when they were creating the exhibit on the immigration station in Galveston, Texas. This feelings expressed in this story of a Chinese-American immigrant coming through Angel Island are very similar to the fears and feelings of powerlessness of the German immigrants coming through Galveston Island.  

Review Excerpts

This author is a:

  -  Two-time Newbury Honor author

  

School Library Journal

“Yep raises many issues about both Chinese immigration and the immigrant experience in general: Who am I? Where do I belong? How can I balance the duality of my life? Why do people treat others this way? The photograph of Gim Lew in his Western clothes shows a very real sadness and anxiety that are common to anyone leaving family and country behind as they journey to a new life, and Yep captures this beautifully in this brief fictionalized account.“

Booklist

“Each chapter begins with a simple question to his dad: Were you sad when you left your village? Were you nervous about America? The answers personalize the young immigrant’s heart-wrenching leaving, the journey over, the racism, and climax of the rigorous interview at Angel Island, where Yep’s father faces the threat of being refused entry to America. Tension builds and secrets are revealed as his father practices for the Test, tries not to act nervous, and hides his left-handedness and his stammer. With family photos, a historical note, and a long bibliography, this stirring narrative will spark readers’ own search for roots.”

Connections

-  This book would be a good starting point for children to research their family history.

-  After reading this book, students in Texas can compare Angel Island to Galveston Island using their   

   websites as a starting point:

               Angel Island: www.aiisf.org

               Galveston Island: Forgotten Gateway

-  Readers can explore immigration practices today and then hear a first person account from a guest 

   speaker who is a recent immigrant. 

-  After reading this book, the reader can find images of artifacts from the large immigration stations 

   such as Angel Island (West), Galveston Island (South), and Ellis Island (East).