Plot Summary
Pacy Lin, a young girl with Chinese and Taiwanese parents, finds her Chinese-Taiwanese-American heritage at odds from time to time. Based on events from Grace Lin's childhood, The Year of the Dog chronicles the year Pacy Lin found herself (even though she didn't know she was lost).
Critical Analysis
The Year of the Dog centers around Pacy Lin, or Grace Lin as she was known in school. Pacy's parents were from Taiwan, and the story takes place in America during the Chinese Year of the Dog. On a twelve-year-rotational cycle, the Chinese specify a particular animal as the New Year animal. The twelve animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig (http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/). The Chinese Year of the Dog, according to tradition, is a year in which you will find your best friends, discover your values, and decide what you want to do with your life. Pacy didn't think she had any talent, so she was excited that this would be the year she would discover her own hidden treasure.
The Chinese New Year is a time of great celebration. It is a tradition to have a platter full of New Year's candy, which is a "sticky taffy melon candy, the color of the moon" so that one's year will be full of sweet things. Pacy's father approved of her adding M&M's to the platter of traditional New Year's candy so they could blend Chinese and American cultures in their candy, just as they have blended Chinese and American cultures in their lives. The New Year's meal consisted of whole fried fish (with its eyes boring a hole into Pacy), "meat dumplings fried golden, vegetables shining with oil, steamed buns that looked like puffy clouds, shrimp in a milky sauce, and pork colored a brilliant ruby pink." Pacy's dad said that all the food on the table symbolized wealth. The dumplings, in particular, symbolized gold coins. The more dumplings you ate, the wealthier you would become that year.
Another tradition during the Chinese New Year was to honor the departed spirits of one's loved ones. When she visited her Aunt Alice's house, Pacy didn't understand why there were two empty chairs at the end of the table with big plates of food on the table in front of them. Her aunt told her that these were for the ghosts of her dead parents. Her aunt served the invisible honored guests hot tea, stir-fried noodles, shiny roasted duck, and dragon red pork. She served each course one by one, then she took all the food back into the kitchen, reheated it, and served it to her guests who were still among the living.
Not every Taiwanese family prepared their food the same way. When Pacy visited the house of her new friend, Melody, she did not like anything that Melody's mother cooked. The rice was brown instead of white, the vegetables weren't stir-fried, and the tofu was dry without any sauce. The dessert was dried apricots, which looked like "shriveled orange mushrooms" to Pacy.
When visiting her newborn cousin's party, the dinner consisted of "brown stir-fried noodles; cooked duck shiny with oil; fresh lychees with their prickly pink skins; eggplant in brown sauce; shrimp with vegetables; snow-white rice; and puffy, white pork buns with flame colored meat." The women were the only ones allowed to eat the yellow ginger and chicken soup because it was thought it gave them energy to care for babies. The meaning of baby Albert's name is "cooking duck." A traditional Taiwanese greeting is "Ja-ba, bei?" The English translation is, "How are you doing?" But it also means, "Have you eaten yet?" Food is a very important part of the Taiwanese culture!
Red is a significant color in the Chinese culture. The children received their Hong Boa, special red envelopes, filled with money to celebrate the New Year. When a Chinese baby is born, he or she is given a Red Egg party. Everyone brings red-colored eggs and red envelopes stuffed with money to the Red Egg party to welcome the new baby into the world.
On a special occasion, Pacy and her two sisters wore silk dresses with long sleeves, collars which buttoned up at the neck, and hemlines which reached to their ankles. Pacy's dress was a dark parsley green, Lissy's dress was peacock blue, and Ki-ki's dress was pink with embroidered flowers. Pacy and her siblings loved to sing an echo song while traveling in the family car, and they would sing it over and over until their dad couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. Pacy practiced her singing so she could try out for the part of Dorothy in the school play, The Wizard of Oz. She was devastated when one of her classmates told her she could never play the role of Dorothy because "Dorothy wasn't Chinese."
Pacy seemed to have some trouble adapting to both the Chinese-Taiwanese and the American culture. Throughout The Year of the Dog, Lin pointed out the differences between families which shared the same culture. Pacy is shunned by other Taiwanese girls at camp because she couldn't speak Chinese or Taiwanese. One of the girls insulted Pacy by calling her a "Twinkie." The girl explained, "My brother said Chinese people who are Americanized are Twinkies. Yellow on the outside but white on the inside." On Pacy's first day of school, the teacher called her "Grace" instead of "Pacy." Pacy tried to explain to the teacher that her name was "Pacy," but the teacher insisted that her "real" name was "Grace." Pacy was very upset that the teacher used an unfamiliar name when addressing her. When she asked her sister about this, her sister told her that when Pacy was born, her parents were instructed by the hospital staff to give her a Chinese and an American name. She informed Pacy that Americans have trouble pronouncing Chinese names and asked, "Why do Chinese people always have to have these weird names?" That is how Pacy Lin became known as Grace Lin.
Pacy's ah-ha moment during The Year of the Dog was when she wrote and illustrated a book about ugly vegetables. Out of 20,000 entries nationwide, Pacy was awarded fourth place and $400 for her book. The Chinese Year of the Dog had helped her discover what she was to do in life. The real-life Pacy, now known as Grace, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her book, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, is a 2010 Newbery Honor Book.
Readers from all cultures can appreciate Pacy's uncertainty as she tries to adapt into an "acceptable" cultural mold. Although Pacy had bumps and bruises growing up with her mixed heritage, she was able to find herself and her calling in life. Regardless of who/what one is or who/what one isn't, everyone has something to share with the world. Be true to yourself and you will find your hidden treasure!
Awards and Honors
Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, 2006-2007 Honorable Mention
Text United States
National Parenting Publications Award, 2006 Gold Book Ages 9 & Up United
States
Review Excerpts
“Most of the chapters are bolstered by anecdotes from Grace's parents, which connect Grace (and the reader) to her Taiwanese heritage." ~ Ilene Cooper, Booklist, January 1, 2006
"Lin, best known for her picture books, here offers up a charming first novel, an autobiographical tale of an Asian-American girl's sweet and funny insights on family, identity and friendship.” ~ Publisher's Weekly
"Being Taiwanese-American is confusing, and being the only Asian kid in your elementary school-except for your older sister-is not always comfortable. Pacy has high hopes for the Year of the Dog, which, she learns, is a year for finding friends and finding yourself." ~ Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005
Other Books Written by Grace Lin
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same!
The Year of the Rat
Visit her website for more information: http://gracelin.com/ or
http://www.gracelinblog.com/
Book Connections
A New Year's Reunion by Li-Qiong Yu and illustrated by Zhu Cheng-Liang
Mei Fuh: Memories from China by Edith Schaeffer and illustrated by Lesley Liu
Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem about China by Ed Young
Connection Activities
- Think about the New Year's traditions in your family. What is the significance of what you do to celebrate the New Year? Draw a picture of one of your traditions and share it with the class.
- In The Year of the Dog, Lin chronicles one year in her life which she felt was a turning point for her. Remembering the details from a turning-point year in your life, write a poem about what happened and how that affected you.
What a sad, but true story of growing up in America!! But for Ms. Lin to write such a book shows she did "find herself". This would be a great book to share when studying different cultures. I like the way you have included the descriptions the author used to describe the colors of food. I knew "red" was important to their culture but never heard of the red egg. Good suggestions on the extension activities, which would work well on the first day back to school after Christmas break. My local chinese resturant has placemats with the 12 animals printed around the edges and what they mean. If I were to read this to my class, I would bring in some of those placemats for my students to read and study plus bring in chop sticks and see how "americans" adapt to eating with them!! Another idea would be for each child to illustrate a year in their line with a time-line printed around their edge of their own placemat. Laminate these and send them home as a reminder of where they have come from. Great review!!
ReplyDeleteYour review of Grace Lin's book, The Year of the Dog, was interesting. While I do not agree with their ideas about dead people, it is good to study other cultures. I enjoyed reading your explanation of Pacy's difficulties in trying to fit into both cultures at the same time. I believe God has put each of us on the planet for a specific reason and to be truly happy is to find His will and do it. Grace seems to be on track to finding her full purpose in life. Thanks for another good review, Rebecca!
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