Module 5
Yep, Laurence. 1991. Star fisher. New York: Morrow Junior Books. ISBN 0-688-09365-5
Summary: The Lee family moves from Ohio to West Virginia. They are originally from China and must adjust to life in America. When they move into the new community and set up their new Chinese laundry business they run into a lot of prejudice. This affects the family’s ability to make a living and causes hardships. Even so, their perseverance against all odds pays off in the end.
Critical Analysis:
Laurence Yep is a Chinese American, so he is writing from an insider perspective. Also, he drew from his own family history to write this story. His knowledge of his own Chinese American family (his mother’s family lived in Ohio and West Virginia) gives him his Chinese American identity which he is able to express in the story. He didn’t live in the time period and did not directly experience the events but he obviously did his research for this culturally specific purpose.
The story is told from the point of view of Joan, the fifteen year old daughter in the family. We see from her perspective what it means to feel like an outsider when you really want to just fit in.
The main theme of the story seems to be the immigrant family’s adjustment to life in America. We see the very real struggles of this family as they must accept certain realities about living in America. Mr. Lee was a scholar and a poet in China. Here he must accept his lot of running a Chinese laundry: not his idea of the American Dream. As many immigrants do, he misses his homeland and traditions and talks about returning.
We get a bit of Chinese history, when Mr. Lee talks about the Manchus and how life in China changed before he came to America. This gives us a bit of background on the Chinese culture and lends authenticity to the story.
The issue of race and prejudice is also a strong theme in this book. The family deals with a lot of discrimination when they first move to West Virginia. The Lee parents are especially isolated by their culture and language.
Cultural markers are obvious in the story. While Chinese words are not used, we know that Chinese is spoken as the first language in the Lee home. While the parents struggle with speaking English, the children, like many second generation immigrants, are bilingual. As is typical, the children must often translate for their parents. The laundry run by the family was a typical business operated by Chinese immigrants.
The children have English names, which shows some assimilation into American culture. The children seem to want to fit into the American culture which is common for immigrant children.
There is a lot of cross cultural conflict in this story. The Lee parents misunderstand Miss Lucy and don’t want her help. The family also experiences a lot of prejudice from the town people. We get a glimpse of this early in the story when they arrive at the train station and a man calls them “darn monkeys”. It’s interesting that even though Mr. Lee doesn’t know exactly what the man is saying, he knows prejudice when he sees it.
Even so, the family does assume a rather proactive role in solving their problems and forging cross cultural bonds. It starts when the girls go to tea with Miss Lucy. It continues when their mother tries her best to make an apple pie that will be enjoyed by the church people. They have searched for and found an Asian American identity.
In the beginning, Miss Lucy comes across as being a “savior” to the Lee family. The author quickly changes our opinion as we see how this immigrant family can fight their own battles.
The characters in this story have depth. They are not the quiet, always cheerful Asians that have long been the stereotypes in American literature. Yep shows the family with all their feelings and problems.
In the end, this family has to adjust and become more like Americans to fit in. It may be perhaps a bit unrealistic to think that simply making a good pie helped Mrs. Lee to be accepted, but it does show the truth that those of other cultures have to make more adjustments to find their place in American society.
This book is recommended for ages 12 and up.
Review Excerpts:
“Drawing on his mother's immigrant experience as the basis for this moving story, Newbery Honor author Yep ( Dragon wings ; The Rainbow People ) skillfully avoids pat or reductive explanations. He gives his heroine, for example, the maturity to recognize the biases her own family holds as well as the courage to stand up to the more blatant and violent prejudices of her neighbors.” (Publisher’s Weekly)
“Joan's story will appeal to any reader who has ever felt excluded, but she and her family seem to hold many more stories begging to be shared. Based on tales Yep gleaned from his mother and her family, whose resilience and humor shine through.” (School Library Journal)
Connections: This book could be paired with another by Laurence Yep (along with Kathleen Yep) The Dragon's Child: A Story of Angel Island, which also tells a story about Chinese American immigrants. This story is also based on experiences of Yep’s family. Talk about how children can take stories from their own family and write a new story that is part fiction and part fact. Discuss how writing about what we know makes for a better and more authentic story.
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