22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A required read by all Americans and anyone interested in Asian American history, January 29, 2011
This review is from: Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (Hardcover)
I began to read this book raw, not knowing anything about the story or the book's structure.
At first, I could not put it down (though I had to between commutes). As each chapter unfolded, I wondered why there was no statue for Yung Wing? Does every Yale student know his story? Is there a club named for him? My questions were unending. This book needs to be required reading at a time when modern China is growing in power and wealth each week. Not only does it tell a gripping story of a quest for education, but it recreates the environment in which the Chinese lived in America 150 years ago.
Few American children learn in our schools about how many thousands of Chinese built the transcontinental railroads, or how they were then trashed after its completion. Few learn about the taxes that were imposed only on Asians, the riots and lynchings against the Chinese in California, the Chinese Exclusionary Act and other ugly acts.
This book is simply an amazing story that must be experienced, and it touches upon all these events of the early Chinese experience in the United States. The reader learns history through the adventures of a group of Chinese students, who one would have assumed would be anonymous players in the events of the world. But my assumption were wrong. Teddy Roosevelt, Mark Twain, Herbert Hoover, China, Japan, the emperors, the Great Western powers, and more all play a role in this book and interacted with the students.
Through the lives of a handful or two of these 120 students, the reader is present at the most important points of Chinese history from 1840 to WWII. The book opens in America prior to the U.S. Civil War. Yung Wing has been sent, in his scholar's robes and long queue pony tail to New England for prep school and college. It is he, the braided, robed Chinese student, who scores a touchdown at Yale to win the game for the freshmen against the sophomores. An unheard of victory. For the next 100 pages we follow the life of Yung Wing as he studies and excels at Yale, returns to China on a VERY slow boat to China, deals with Mandarins and revolutionaries, and faces off with colonial Brits, Scots, Americans and other non Chinese. His courage and tenacity are without end. Can you imagine a person coming to New England to buy equipment for a Chinese factory, learning of the outbreak of the Civil War, and decided to volunteer for the Union Army while he waits for his order to be manufactured? What kind of person would do this today? Years later, when he convinces governors and ultimately the Emperor to allow 120 Chinese boys to go to New England for decades of school and work, the story continues as we follow Yung Wing and his charges in New Haven.
In the next section of the book the new students acclimate to America and excel. We follow their academic progress and their return to China and contribution to its wars, changes, revolutions, and modernization. You will not look at opium, the Boxer Rebellion, France, Mao's revolution, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Tibet, England or America in the same way again. Any teen reading this book will learn how the proactive tenacious leadership of a single person can change world events. This was definitely my favorite read of the past 12 months.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceeded my expectations and then some!, February 2, 2011
This review is from: Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (Hardcover)
Highly readable, it is amazing to me how much I learned easily thanks to the superb writing of these authors. The incredible dedication of Yung Wing is an inspiration.
I found myself intrigued by the decisions that went into sending young children to a foreign country, awed at the sacrifice of their parents, appalled the incredible ugliness of how San Francisco treated its Chinese immigrants unfortunate enough to live there, proud of the kindness and care the New Englanders gave to the children they fostered and the quality of the education they received even though it was abruptly cut short and fascinated by the internal workings of the Chinese government. The tales of these young men, and their roles in the politics of the time kept me reading and thinking and reading some more. The intrigue woven throughout this book is spell-binding.
It was a blessed day when I was given the opportunity to read this book. It is unforgettable.
*Note: This book was provided through the GoodReads First Read program with the expectation of an honest review. My opinions are my own.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Different Chinese Experience, March 16, 2011
This review is from: Fortunate Sons: The 120 Chinese Boys Who Came to America, Went to School, and Revolutionized an Ancient Civilization (Hardcover)
I gave this book 5 stars, but toyed with giving it only 4 ... The book starts out with a bang and maintains an extraordinary pace for most of the book, at which point the students return to China and necessarily take up separate lives. While they are in the US their individual stories are so much fun to read about, and the history of China was very interesting and necessary for the full story. However, when all of the boys have returned to China the authors seem to give a detailed political history of that huge country ... but the book was suipposed to be about the education of the "fortunate sons" who came to America.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the acclimation of these young boys into such a different culture, and everyone involved in that effort is admirable, especially the instructors and the foster families.
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