Lauren Yep’s 1975 novel Dragonwings is the fifth in a 10-book series chronicling several generations of a Chinese family from the mid-19th century to the modern era. The series follows their migration to the United States, which they call “the land of the golden mountain,” seeking the American dream. Ali Velshi cites the protagonist of Dragonwings, Lee Moon Shadow, loosely based on a real Chinese immigrant who, in 1909, was the first Chinese man to fly in America and became an aviator and aircraft designer.
And yet, parents have sought to ban the novel, condemning them as anti-American and promoting racism for documenting the racism that the immigrants from China experienced in their own words from their own perspective. It documents what they see in early 20th-century San Francisco, including addiction, prostitution and violence.
“I assume they’re not turning on the local news on their TVs every day,” Yep replies when asked how he responds to those who believe those topics are inappropriate to discuss with children. “I went to school in Chinatown, and I grew up in an African American neighborhood, that the media now calls Harlem of the West …S o, all I knew was life in ghettos. And I don’t go into all the grim details with people, but they can be fairly grim.”
Immigrants came to the United States and built this country, and what they saw and heard and experienced are real, and that makes up the American Dream, whether you like it or not.
Listen to Velshi’s interview with Dragonwings author Laurence Yep:
Watch Velshi and Yep discuss the importance of immigrant stories:
Velshi on banned books on MSNBC:
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