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Tofu Quilt Ching Yeung Russell

Secret Wish

I remember Mr. Hon
once said that
a person should see more things
and open his eyes
if he wants to write a good story.

Ma cannot afford to send me off
to see things.
So I decide that
when I grow up,
I will not marry a doctor,
or a lawyer,
or a teacher,
or a businessman.
I will marry
a bus driver,
who can drive me everywhere
to see the world
and it will be
free.

And he must look like
Mr. Hon.


Tofu Quilt is a semi-auto-biographical verse novel about growing up in Hong Kong in the 50s and 60s and wanting to become a writer. Most of the poems focus on her relatives insisting that she shouldn't have big dreams or so much education, because she's a girl (her mother very much disagrees and insists that boys and girls are the same), reading books, or her trails and tribulations with various writing teachers over the years.

There isn't much of a plot, but it is a nice book especially for its pictures into day-to-day life in mid-century Hong Kong. The book shines when Ying is listening to the old ladies gossip at the end of the day or describing the flower market or the foreign tourist taking photos of drying laundry.


ARC Provided by... the publisher for review consideration

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Today is the official launch of Asian Heritage Month Official Launch in Canada and a special celebration will be held at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. Parliamentarians, government officials, community leaders and the general public are invited to share in an evening celebration hosted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, that will include welcoming remarks, several cultural performances and a reception.

For more information on Asian Heritage Month events being held throughout Canada click here.

Asian Heritage Month is also celebrated in May in the USA where it is known as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. On May 1st,  the Smithsonian Museum, located in Washington, DC, is hosting their free kickoff celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.  Held in conjunction with the exhibition The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946 the day will include many events, a highlight of which will be tales from storyteller Anne Shimojima. Anne always receives rave reviews for the way she delights youth and adult audiences of all sizes with her graceful and spirited tellings of folktales from her Asian heritage!

If you’re looking for some great reads to take you through the month, take a look at this year’s winners and honor books of the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. These awards, given by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association promote Asian/Pacific American culture and heritage based on literary and artistic merit. Bear these books in mind for any time of the year!

For a full calendar of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month events happening across the USA click here.

Jacket description:
"Growing up in Hong Kong in the 1960s, Yeung Ying is tired of hearing how important boys are. After all, she can write letters and recite poems as well as-even better than-her boy cousins.


Luckily, Yeung Ying's mother thinks 'girls and boys are just the same.' Despite protests from her husband's family, Ma uses what little money the family has to send her daughter to private school. There Yeung Ying begins to fall in love with books and writing. Combining this new passion with the colorful experiences of her daily life, Yeung Ying discovers that even girls can dare to dream."

Tofu Quilt, a collection poems by Ching Yeung Russell, is actually a story of the poet's life. Each poem helps to connect the pages into a beautifully written story, allowing for an experience of life in Hong Kong as a young girl, as well as a pretty great interpretation as to what it's like to turn a dream into reality. Russell wanted to be a writer more than anything, but was consistently turned away by male family members. She lets the reader in on just how she came to realize that big dream that previously seemed so impossible.

I loved the individual poems and the seemless way they seemed to flow into a single book. The main character was incredibly likable and left me really cheering for her, in hopes that she would indeed get to write (though I knew she was the author and obviously HAD succeeded).  The added glossary of Chinese words was very helpful and the cover was intriguing. Overall a great addition to any poetry collection, but one that can also be handed to a preteen/teen that enjoys historical fiction.

Tofu Quilt
Ching Yeung Russell
136 pages
Poetry, Middle Grade
Lee & Low Books
9781600604232
October 2009
Review copy received from publisher

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Imagine a warm bowl of steamed custard so incredibly delicious, it inspires a young girl to become a writer. This is exactly what happens to Yeung Ying in Tofu Quilt, a beautiful collection of free verse poems based on author Ching Yeung Russell's own childhood in 1960s Hong Kong.

The thirty eight luminous poems, told in Yeung Ying's lively, engaging voice, are brimming with candid observations and telling, authentic details which reveal a young writer in the making. Russell's lovingly crafted, spare verses flow effortlessly and resonate with simple truths.

While visiting her Uncle Five in Mainland China, five-year-old Yeung Ying reveals her startling ability to memorize and recite classical Chinese poems better than any of her older boy and girl cousins. Uncle Five rewards her with a bowl of dan lai -- a rare, expensive dessert that leaves her ravenous for more.

    
       photo by AppleSister.

When the waiter brings us the dan lai,
it looks like a big, round moon
has fallen into my bowl.
Its surface is as smooth as
my baby sister's bottom.
Its color is as creamy as
Pau Pau's ivory chopsticks.
I can't even describe
the special sweet smell,
I just keep sniffing it,
like a hungry wolf.

Yeung Ying has always heard that boys are better than girls. Fortunately, her mother, one of the few educated women in her age group, believes they are "just the same." The family makes many sacrifices to send Yeung Ying to private school, where she discovers her love for books and studies hard so that someday she can be rich enough to buy more dan lai.

By the age of eight, Yeung Ying is the designated family letter writer, and eventually a couple of teachers praise her writing. But Yeung Ying had never entertained the thought of actually pursuing writing as a career until her conversation with Cousin Yee, who tells her that becoming a writer would give her the perfect excuse to eat more dan lai, because it's made of brain-strengthening protein, something all writers need.

I love the elegant simplicity of Russell's verse, the total accessibility of Yeung Ying's inner and outer worlds, the realistic depiction of  childhood joy, fear, yearning, hope, and disappointment, and above all, the revelation, time and again, that small, seemingly inconsequential events or experiences can play a significant role in shaping a young person's future.

From the very first poem, the words melted away; the carefully chosen images allowed me to enter the world of this tender memoir instantly. Yeung Ying's voice rings true, and her ingenuous, oftentimes humorous remarks are irresistibly endearing and wholly childlike. As she and her cousins climb a banyan tree pretending to be Tarzan, she describes the sounds they make:

For one of us sounds like a chicken
whose neck has just been slit;
one sounds like a pig being hauled to the butcher;
one sounds like a stray cat begging for food;
one sounds like a goat running in the rain.
I sound like a chick peeping for its ma.
Still,
each claims that his or her sound is what Tarza