It's Crazy to Stay Chinese in Minnesota

About the Book

The Wings own the Canton, the only Chinese restaurant in a small Minnesota town, which sells milk-fed turkey and pork-tenderloin sandwiches along with the wonton soup and chow mein. Ching Wing, as an only daughter, waits on tables, takes cash, and moons over movie magazines. Ching wants to be Americanwholly Americanbut if her father cant afford to send her to the university in the fall, she may have to spend her life in the restaurant.

Ching sees a way out. Bingo Tang, son of the powerful president of a local tong, is spending the summer with the Wings, and Ching thinks that maybe she can seduce him. If he has to marry her, shell be able to escape, wont she? But Bingo has other plans for his life, and as the summer wears on, troubles pile up for Ching and her hard-pressed family. Mr. Wing, a pushover for every free-loading bum in town, is about to lose his lease. Mrs. Wing, who has devoted her life to bringing her nephew to America, finds her hopes abruptly blasted. Auntie Tong plagues them to find a rich husband for Ching.

Meanwhile, Ching is learning a few facts about her people, especially about her shy, upright, softhearted father. And when the chips are down, she finds that her otherworldly mother knows a thing or two as well. For Ching it is a growing-up summer.

Based on the authors own memories of her Middle West girlhood, this glimpse into the all too-scrutable life of a Chinese-American family is both lighthearted and touching. Readers will sympathize with the Wings painful ties to an ancient culture and be entranced with their solutions of what to do when Far East and Middle West meet.

About the Author

“We were the only yellow immigrants in Albert Lea, Austin, St. Cloud, and Rochester in Minnesota – mostly all-white communities. I marched in a Chinese dress in the Memorial Day parade, carrying the American flag. Our golden rule: CHIANG KAI SHEK loyalty, no dating whites, and FACE at all costs.” Today, her multiracial extended family includes an actor daughter, U.S. Army vets, diplomats, a Knight Ridder editor, computer programmers, psychologists and psychiatrists, teachers, a board member of the National Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, health care workers, and community lawyers. Her writings include “Haiti Through Its Holidays” (Blyden Press, New York, New York) and “A” Magazine. She was honored by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission and shares a First Manhattan Borough President’s award for Literature with Jessica Hagedorn.