Review: Golden Mountain Chronicles by Laurence Yep

Golden Mountain Chronicles is a series of nine books written by Laurence Yep about the intergenerational story of the Young family from Three Willows Village in the Guangdong Province in China. This series tells the story of how the Young family and their friends were forced to flee from civilian war, war against the British and natural disasters to America to seek an alternative means of survival for their families.  Following are the list of titles in reading order:

• The Serpent's Children (1849)
• Mountain Light (1855)
• Dragon's Gate (1867) (Newbery Honor) 
• The Traitor (1885)
• Dragonwings (1903) (Newbery Honor)
• Dragon Road (1939) (originally titled The Red Warrior)
• Child of the Owl (1960)
• Sea Glass (1970)
• Thief of Hearts (1995)

The story takes place in the late 19th century right through most of the 20th century chronicling the first and second generations of the Young family seeking for means of survival for their family in China by travelling to the Land of Golden Mountain or America for work. They faced tremendous hardship after arriving to work in America and circumstances forced them to stay on there. These early generations of the Young family and their friends settling in America as migrant workers were faced with cultural dilemma and problems adapting to the American environment, as they tried to fit into a stark and very different culture and environment from the one they have known most of their lives. They experienced tremendous challenge trying to fit into the American culture and environment, as how the story was being told in the first three books.

The subsequent generations were born in America. They eventually laid down their roots there, however, this proved to be a challenge for each generation of the respective families as they adapt to a different culture and environment, not only to be able to survive in a racist America but also be able to send their hard-earned money back to China. The latter six books described how the generations that were born in America were being immersed completely in the American culture and environment. They are then faced with identity and cultural issues, as they are considered half-American and half-Chinese. The Young family and their friends eventually begin to accept the fact that they are still very much Chinese even though they have adopted America as their homeland.

The Golden Mountain Chronicles series is categorised as children's books but I actually enjoyed reading them very much. The story portrays cultural and identity issues in which are easily identifiable by readers. It is written based on actual incidents happening during the said era and these incidents were recorded in the American literature of that time, however, the characters were purely fictional. Readers of all ages will find this set of books an interesting read as the story has been written in a simple and straight forward manner.