The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by Laurence Yep

But as the boy confiders to his diary, he may not have his brother's size but he has more determination. At first his Uncle fears that Runt will be too smal to be of any use in a working camp. His older brother, Blessing, was the one his Uncle commanded to come-Uncles is legally the head of the family as the elder son-but Runt's parents decide he must go instead.Īfter a difficult two month journey in the hold of a ship, Runt finds his Uncle in a Chinese mining camp. He, who everyone calls 'Runt', will be joining his Unclein the Golden Mountain (America). Aimed at the 9 to 12 year old age group, they are short novoels set in differening historyical periods in US history.Īt the age of 12 (page 34), Bright Intelligence has heard incredible news.

This is an excellent entry in the Scholastic 'Dear America' series. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a 'dumbbell Chinese' because he spoke only English. They later married and now live in San Francisco.Īlthough not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. He was in his own words his neighborhood's 'all-purpose Asian' and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood.

Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry.

Born Jin San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep.

The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by Laurence Yep