Daughter of Xanadu – Part 3/4

April 19, 2011


A review (guest post) by Tom Carter of Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang

Authoress Dori Jones Yang is a Caucasian American, yet she is no stranger to writing from the perspective of conflicted adolescent Chinese girls, as evinced in her previous, award-winning novel, The Secret Voice of Gina Zhang.

In Daughter of Xanadu, she hones in even deeper into the physiological confusion and emotional conflictions that make youth such a joy, turning Emmajin into such a hormonal wreck that this male reviewer often found himself gritting his teeth in frustration at such contradictive revelations as, “if he had pursued me, I would have rebuffed him. By holding himself aloof, he challenged me to win back his esteem.”

Daughter of Xanadu is not all-teenage angst.  As our protagonist matures, so does the content of the story.

Emmajin eventually persuades Khubilai Khan to allow her to train for war against the Burmese at the Battle of Vochan (present-day Yunnan province), where the embarrassment of getting her period in front of the all-male troops is a bloody omen for what’s to come.

Upon seeing her cousin slain, innocent Emmajin is transformed into a “mindless killer.”

  Bloodlust unleashed, the young princess swings her sword indiscriminately (“the hatred pounded in my ears…killing him felt good”), resulting in hundreds of men dead by her hand alone.

One can only imagine all the Mulan vs. Emmajin fan fiction that this novel will inspire!

Continued on April 20, 2011 in Daughter of Xanadu – Part 4 or return to Daughter of Xanadu – Part 2

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Travel photographer Tom Carter is the author of China: Portrait of a People (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review), a 600-page China photography book, which may be found at Amazon.com.

Discover more “Guest Posts” from Tom Carter with Is Hong Kong Any Place for a Poor American?

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Daughter of Xanadu – Part 2/4

April 18, 2011

A review (guest post) by Tom Carter of Daughter of Xanadu by Dori Jones Yang

The merchants’ young son turns out to be one Marco Polo, the now-legendary Venetian journeyer credited for introducing Asian culture to the west.

To Emmajin, however, he is just another “colored-eye man,” a court curiosity from Christendom whose gallantry and romantic gestures are as ridiculous to the manly Mongolians as his facial hair (“his beard was so thick I could imagine food sticking in it”).

Try as she might, however, Emmajin, caught in the peak of puberty, is unable to resist Marco’s western charm, and quickly finds herself enamored by his worldly vision (“I had learned to see the world through Marco’s eyes”) as well as his pelt.

“What would the hair on his arm feel like?” she often fantasized about at night.

But she was a Mongolian first, and reluctantly sacrifices her blossoming relationship with the foreigner to complete her spy mission (“He was not a friend but a source of information.”).

Continued on April 19, 2011 in Daughter of Xanadu – Part 3 or return to Part 1

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Travel photographer Tom Carter is the author of China: Portrait of a People (San Francisco Chronicle Book Review), a 600-page China photography book, which may be found at Amazon.com.

Discover more “Guest Posts” from Tom Carter with Is Hong Kong Any Place for a Poor American?

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Child’s fun and Self-esteem versus the Survival of a Nation – Part 3/3

April 16, 2011

When you study the average life span in other Asian countries such as China (68 for men and 71 for women) and India (59 for men and 60 for women), we learn that other Asian nations don’t do as well as Japan.

Then why do Asian-Americans beat every other racial group in the US at just about everything?

Could the answer be parenting methods leading to a better education and healthier lifestyles?

Here are some facts that are food for thought — In the American Mental Illness Olympics, I wrote that Asian-Americans had the lowest incidence of serious mental illness while Caucasians had the highest numbers.

In fact, if you do some Googling, you will discover a larger ratio of Asian-Americans graduate from high school and college than any other racial group in the US.

Asian-American teens have the lowest incidence of drug use, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and HIV-AIDS, and STD rates.

Asian-Americans also make up the smallest number of teen street gang members in the US.

Amy Chua, who wrote Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, is an Asian-American parent. It may not come as a surprise that Chua is under attack by many “average” American parents.

A good place to start learning what it means to be a better parent would be to read Parenting resolution revolution that a friend forwarded to me. Then, as a parent, practice all sixteen points of advice with number sixteen being what my friend wrote, “One big missing item is NO TV!”

Remember, today’s children will be tomorrow’s citizens.

Return to Part 2 or start with Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Child’s fun and Self-esteem versus the Survival of a Nation – Part 2/3

April 15, 2011

Once a child’s behavior becomes a habit, the child feels entitled to always live that lifestyle.

Who is in charge of a child’s diet creating lifestyle habits?

The answer should be “parents” but in the US, it is normal for the child to make these decisions leading to children eating unhealthy food, watching TV, playing video games or social networking on Facebook for about 10 hours a day.

Unfortunately, statistics show the average American parent is doing a lousy job. One exception may be the Asian-American community, which includes Chinese and Japanese.

The definition for average says, a statistic describing the location of a distribution; “it set the norm for American homes”, which means this is the largest segment of parents in the country.

This is what parenting is measured against and if you don’t parent like this, you are not considered normal by  American standards—a form of peer pressure.

That normal American parent also protects the child from experiencing failure since failure hurts self-esteem.

Life Span reports, “The Japanese still live longer than anyone else…. The Japanese said their long lives was due to moderation in eating and drinking. Other advice was early to bed and early to rise, religious faith and hard work.”

However, in the US, the “average”, normal American parent is obsessed with the child’s self-esteem and is more concerned with the child having fun and telling the child to follow his or her dreams.

Did you know that about 40,000 young Americans migrate to Hollywood, California every year dreaming of becoming the next super star but less than one percent will actually land an acting role with no guarantee of fame, fortune or winning an Oscar?

President Barack Obama is the 44th president of the US since 1789 when George Washington was sworn in as the first American President. What are the odds that any child will become a president?

Individuals that achieve his or her dreams are in the minority — a very small minority.

When children dream such dreams, it is up to the parent to teach the child reality.

To be continued on April 16, 2011 in Part 3 or start with Part 1 

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Child’s fun and Self-esteem versus the Survival of a Nation – Part 1/3

April 14, 2011


The front-page of a recent Sunday, Contra Costa Times newspaper shouted at me from inside its box, “Shortened Lives. Where you live Matters“.

I leaned over to read what I could through the glass/plastic and discovered that the average Asian-American woman lives twenty years longer than an African-American man does. The numbers were shocking.

The average Asian-American female lived to be 89.4 (Asian-American men live to be 85.1), while the average African-American man lived to be 69.9.  African-American women did better.  They averaged 77.5.

The Contra Costa Times feature went on to report, “The long life span for Asian-Americans follows a national trend.… Much of it may have to do with diet.”

Education was also mentioned. Statistics show that the more education one has, the longer one may live.

I bought the paper and read the piece and the before I was done reading, the message was that the government and health care were being held responsible to level the life-expectancy field.

I beg your pardon.

It isn’t the government or a doctor’s job to instill healthy habits in a child so he or she grows up to be a healthy adult with a chance at living a longer life. The government and doctors may give advice but the job falls to the parent.

To be continued on April 15, 2011 in Part 2 or discover how Tiger Parents are Saving America One Child at a Time

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, cultural differences, education, family values, parenting | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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