Guest Book Review: Tongues of Jade
(We invited our middle school age son to read and review a book for us. He read “Tongues of Jade” by Lawrence Yep. In the 1930’s the Works Progress Administration hired writers to collect folktales from Chinese Americans in the Bay Area. Yep collected and edited some of these tales and published them in “Tongues of Jade”. Yep also includes his thoughts on the significance of each tale in early 20th Century Chinese American life. The title comes from the ancient Chinese practice of putting tongue-shaped jade pieces in the mouths of the deceased. Yep writes that jade was thought to preserve a body and symbolize the wish that those who had passed would continue to speak. For Yep, publishing these stories allows these Chinese Americans from 100 years ago to continue to speak. We hope you enjoy our son’s perspective! )
I recently read the book Tongues of Jade. It is a collection of ancient Chinese folk tales about money, family, honor, and even tigers!
This book provides an insightful view of how ancient Chinese people thought of themselves and the world. Some of the stories are funny. My favorite story was The Magical Horse.
The story was about a famous painter who could make the very best paintings, but no one would buy them because he mixed his paints with the saliva of old men. He would never try to paint an animal as majestic as the horse. One day he looked in the mirror in shock to see an old man staring back at him. He realized he could use his own spit to paint a horse. But no this was not to be any ordinary horse, but a great charger who could run a thousand miles without breaking a sweat. The old man finally finished and breathed his spirit into the painting. The old man died leaving all he had to his son. The son eventually hired himself out to a farmer to work in his barn. One dark night he saw the painting in the candlelight and decided to leave out some food for the horse. As he slept, he suddenly felt a hot breath on his shoulder. He sat up only to find there in front of him was the very horse from the painting in front of him! The horse allowed the boy to climb onto his back and took him (faster than any ordinary horse could) far off into the moonlight country. Across monstrous deserts and great rolling plains the horse and the boy traveled. Soon the prince wanted a thousand mile horse, and that is when the real action begins. I will leave you on this cliffhanger, because I think you should read this book too!
It would be an interesting read-aloud for the whole family (including the pets!)