A Bridge Between Two Worlds

Laurence Yep, a Chinese American writer of realistic fiction, science fiction, and fantasy for children, young adults and adults, was born on June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California. Living in the dual worlds of his life as a Chinese American and in places such as Chinatown, he felt that he was culturally alienated and that he did not have a culture of his own. With the driving wish to find out about Chinese culture-his culture, after six years of research on Chinese culture, he finished his best known novel Dragonwings.Dragonwings was published in 1975. It is a Newbery Honor Book for 1976 and a Notable Children's Book of 1975 by the American Library Association. It was also a New York Times Outstanding Book in 1975. It is also the book that earned for its author the International Reading Association Children's Book Award. Based on the true story of Fung Joe Guey, a Chinese American who built and flew an airplane in the Oakland hills in 1909, Dragonwings tells the story of Moon Shadow, who comes a long way from China to San Francisco to join his unfamiliar father, Windrider, who cherishes the dream of flying. To pursue the dream, Moon Shadow and his father have to move out of their familiar Chinatown to live in the hostile White community. After enduring a sea of misunderstanding, cruelty and poverty, Windrider finally builds a plane called "Dragonwings" and realizes his flying dream with the support and aid of his beloved son, his fellowmen and his American friends as well.In order to show the purposes for the creation of Dragonwings and theprocess from misunderstanding to mutual understanding, the possibilities of cultural fusion and cultural exchange, and human nature transcending cultural differences, I will discuss how the Chinese culture is rediscovered by a Chinese American and how cultural misunderstanding leads to an unbalanced world, why understanding and tolerance is a bridge to balance and harmony, and how cultural integration and fusion restore the world into a harmonious one. Cultural strategies in communication also come within the scope of this paper.The contents of the paper is outlined as follows:Part one "Laurence Yep: the Bridge Builder " provides a brief introductionto the author as a bridge builder since he is quite new to Chinese people.Part two " Creation of Dfagonwings: Bridge Building " dwells on the novel and the three purposes for the creation of Dragonwings-to counter various stereotypes about Chinese immigrants and Chinatown, to reconstruct history and to recover his lost Chinese culture.Part three " the Bridge Between Two Cultures " elaborates on how cultural misunderstanding results in an unbalanced world, why understanding is a bridge to balance and harmony and how cultural integration and cultural fusion result in a balanced world.Part four " Conclusion: Practical Significance " centers on the possibility of cultural exchange, how to approach different cultures and what attitude should be adopted towards the issue of culture.