Customer Reviews

Chinese Playground : A Memoir

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow! I read the book 3 times for self-serving reasons. I'm Mary, his biological sister. I never imagine that someone (my brother) would write about our childhood in such a good writing style. It's as good as "The Joy Luck Club" if not better.

William did an excellent job expelling his experiences. He succeeded in capturing the inner feelings of growing up in S.F. Chinatown. It was fast reading and kept my interest. I recall William's cleverness in surviving in our family unit and in S.F. Chinatown's environment. His book reveals experiences about our father that I didn't know. William did position himself to be close to our father, and he applied the same approach for his survival in Chinatown.

His book brought back painful memories, but I appreciate the courage it took him to write this book and understand what he had endured in the underworld of S.F. Chinatown. Yes, it was extremely challenging growing up in Chinatown. We had to equipped ourselves to fight the various temptations thrown at us. It was no easy task.

This book gave me insight about William's choice concerning his relationship with us that I never knew. It also helped me to identify his pains. I am sad that William holds so much hostility. In most Asian cultures the rule of the house is given to the first son. It doesn't make it right, but there's a price and then there are rewards.

My siblings are very proud of what William had accomplished with his book. The one thing that I learned is that each of us can have the same mutual experiences, but can come away with a different perspective and outlook.

It's ashame that his book isn't marketed throughout the country. He has an important message that needs to be shared with a much larger audience.

William is a gifted writer and maybe one day, he can help other Asians tell their story.

I enjoyed the review made by the reader on May 13, 1999. He did an excellent job in summarizing most of our thoughts.

Thank you.

WOW!!!!! This book was shared with me by my husbands cousin. He knows of my frustrations and my always unanswered questions of my husband and in-laws. You see my husband as well as his family grew up in Chinatown San Francisco in the 60's and 70's and few still remain. I had always questioned my Father in Laws reasons for moving his family out of there as he has made it very clear that he has always wanted his children to marry Chinese and not any others.He also would never answer any questions on or about his childhood etc. My husband has always said its just the way it was and was always telling me please dont ask to many questions (its a respect thing). My husband did read this book also and knows of many of the key characters. When he finished it he said "You get it now?" And yes I do. He was able to share with me all of the family (secrets) history without shame or fear. Thank you Mr. Lee for giving him the courage to release all of this that has been bottled up for so many years. Also Thank you for helping me to better understand and respect my Father-in-law and his past.

Chinese Playground I think was a very well written and heart filled book. Bill Lee tells a story about himself being raised in China Town, S.F., in a typical Chinese family. He writes of his journeys through his childhood to when he was a gang-member, loosing all his "blood" brothers in the "battle," and finally realizes that this was not the life to live. He then tells of his business life and how just like in China Town, the corporate world was also full of greedy people. He then experiences one of lifes most excruciating tragedies one can live. During the Massacre he remembers his childhood memories, but finally finds himself to help save the lives of his fellow workers and their familes. He realizes that the world has its dangers and hatred, but one must live on and God in weird ways has put him on this Earth, not only to help himself, but to sacrafice for others to make their lives well too. I really enjoyed this book because it talked about real life situations that I have also encountered myself, and it tells a story of a wonderful man, "Bill Lee", and how he changed his life for the good, and finally realizes why God has sent him down here for. I also think this book is very inspiring to young adult readers and non-readers too, not for the gangs and hatred, but to teach us about real-life situations, to teach us and make us ready for the life God has set forth for us. I hope many others can write books like this one and read this book as well. As a person that was not interested in reading books, I couldn't let my hands off this one.

Chinese Playground is a window into the underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown; an insider's look at the gangs that lived and died on it's streets. Mr. Lee's poignant account of his dysfunctional childhood; his life as a gang member and his escape from the gang life makes for fascinating reading. The author holds nothing back as he chronicles his victories, his struggles and the fateful succession of events that landed him at a Silicon Valley firm on the day an unbalanced man went on a murderous shooting rampage. Having lived in San Francisco most of my adult life I thought I knew this city. Chinese Playground opened my eyes to a very different, sinister San Francisco. Chinese Playground is sobering, enlightening and enthralling. Don't miss it!

I finished this book in one day. The stories that Bill Lee tells sound all too familiar. I am happy that someone had the courage to reveal the dark side of growing up as Asian Americans. The model minority image does not fit here and the author does a good job in making us not feel sorry for him. I wish the book would have gone into more details about his son, but I respect his privacy. I hope people realize what a courageous thing Bill Lee did in writing this book.

I grew up in Chinatown around the time that Bill Lee did and shared many of his experiences. It offers many accurate and informative insights into the life Chinese American life in San Francsico during the 1960-70's. As such, it is an enormously valuable sociological source document.

However, I think it was unfortunate that Bill decided to self-publish the book, because there are major deficiences in the narrative that I wish he had developed better. First, Bill suggests that he became a bully and manipulator of others as an adapation to his environment, but that he was not inherently a "bad" person as evidenced by his desire to avoid and mediate conflict with and among others. Bill's treament of this personality conflict comes off as very self-serving and it is not clear how he ultimately resolved this conflict for himself. Second, Bill does not fully explain what motivated him to persue this education at SF State and later how he was able to obtain a position as a corporate headhunter. One moment he is a poor underprivileged child in Chinatown struggling to remain untainted by the underworld there and in the next moment he graduated from SF State and became a headhunter. The transition seemed too abrupt. Third: Bill's handling of the shooting at the corporate headquarters seemed out of place in the narative. I gather it was offered as evidence of his underlying personality conflicts, but his experience during the tragedy was not clearly linked (except superficially) to his childhood experiences in Chinatown. Lastly (and most dissatisfying) was his treament of his problems with his son. We are told that Bill is having some difficulties with his son and Bill goes looking for him at the Chinese Playground (which completes the metaphorical circle). Bill doesn't find his son and nothing more is said about him. What happened to his son? We'll never know, unless Bill writes a sequel.

I think that this would have been a much better book if Bill had resolved these problems and a professional editor could have helped him to do so. As it is, the book is still can excellent source document and should be read by anyone who is interested in learning more about contemporary Chinese American life, the difficulties experienced by immigrant youth in adapting to American life and the manner in poverty and racism affect the personality and character development of Chinese American men.

Chinese Playground:A Memoir is very educational and powerful. It takes a "real" look at the chinese culture as seen behind closed doors. Bill Lee did an excellent job in re-living his past to share with us the horrors, traditions and expectations of the dark side. As generations pass, we all look back and see what our realitives have done or accomplished and we view our accomplishments in life. At times, we see our faults and patterns continue as cycles do not change until we change them.

I've seen this in Chinatown Toishan parents and the kinds of effects that their nastiness has on their kids and the conflicted confused ideas of Confucian obedience that prevent intelligent kids from healing as fast as they could especially when in other Chinese families, Confucianism does work and families are peaceful and happy or if the kids aren't targeted by their nasty parents, they grow up smug and snug and sly. I can't even imagine what it is like to grow up with such parenting in parts of Asia where Western psychobabble isn't pervasive and there are no clues at all for kids to suss out why their parents behave terribly.

When the author was four years old, he required medical appointments once a month and his mother would not speak to him during this once a month escort but she would sigh throughout the bus ride and sometimes not sit next to him to indicate that he was an imposition. I've seen this happen. I've also seen parents threaten to leave toddlers and sometimes actually walk away from children and stay hidden watching their child's distress. It looks like the parents who do this imply to their kids that this can't be held against the parents since it not a regular occurence and will soon vanish in their infant memory. I know exactly what the author means (because I have seen it) when he writes that his mother was "unpredictable," intensified abuse when her child "cried harder," "perceived [her children] as her enemies ...[and] was a master at making [her children] feel repulsive." It's not a secret and he's not exaggerating or demonizing his parents. Other people see but why don't things change? I think that things don't change within a closed community and there has to be certain conditions in place with regard to subgroup's historical attitude towards entitlement, money, education and subgroup dogmatism for the problem to exist. This is not an entirely Chinese problem. It is at least specific subgroup's problem as far as I am aware. I know that irrational injust parenting had to have had something to do with later judgement. These parents are so socially insulated even within the larger Chinese hierarchy of provenance nevermind in American society that there's unlikely to be any occasion when someone holds a mirror up to them or lets them know just how they appear to others which means their kids are really isolated in processing the abuse. This is another good book for examples of narcissistic personality disorder both covert and overt. I don't respect more fortunate Chinese American kids who think Chinatown is glamorous and lap up all the exploitive media products while living an otherwise boring but at least safe existence in suburbia. This is another person's misfortune that is being used as entertainment. I guess this is a good book for those kids who have no sympathy only voyeuristic interest for Chinatown. I'm not sure that it would be effective for an at-risk child though.

Born to Lose is a better book by the same author. It has greater depth. For some one with birth defects, he's a much better writer than many others I've read.

Could this have been your life story as well? The true details in this book remain shocking moments in time. If you are a survivor, a parent, or just curious, get Chinese Playground: A Memoir as a reminder of friends or days gone by. It will become a contemporary Chinese American classic of what could go wrong and right, as well.

Thank you for sharing your story Bill Lee. I am sure it will encourage dialog and healing in many more ways than one. My sister and I just spoke on the phone for hours, crying, laughing and remembering...

this is a very well-written book for a non-fiction plot. It was recommended to me by a friend and I have to say the plot was not boring, the author was very descriptive in his writing. Don't miss out on this.