LS 5903 MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE

A. Yep, Laurence SPRING PEARL: THE LAST FLOWER. New York: American
Girl, (Girls of Many Lands series), Pleasant Company Publications, 2002.


B. PLOT SUMMARY:

Set in China of the 1850’s we find our main character, 12 year old Pearl in a tough situation. Both of her parents have passed away, her mother most recently, and now Pearl has been invited to live with the family Sung. Pearl’s father was a brilliant artist and many of the influential people of Canton have pieces of his work. Her mother was a noteworthy seamstress and artist in her own right and her art was collected in the city as well. Pearl loves gardening and has enjoyed tending the grounds of their small home in an undesirable area of town. On one of her father’s well known paintings he adds a poem calling camellias “a pearl given by nature.” Her mother names her Spring Pearl after the camellia flower. Her parents were very humble people and more interested in serving others and enjoying the creation of their art rather than living in a more comfortable area of town. Her father, a known scholar teaches Pearl to read and write. Father and daughter write business and personal letters for people from all different areas of town and walks of life. Her father does not charge people for his services and that is one reason they live happily but in meager circumstances. Growing up in “The Rat’s Nest” side of town where often the stench of the Canton River was bothersome serves Pearl extremely well. She is street wise, clever, and full of brain and brawn. The British are warring after Hong Kong and the French get involved too. Pearl has many tasks to complete after her move. Learning to be friendly and non-intimidating with rich Master Sung’s wife and three daughters who are very high in the social strata but cannot read or write. Pearl recreates the garden that the Sung’s have let become overgrown after letting their gardener go in the tough financial times caused by war. With a start like a Cinderella story it turns out very differently! Pearl and a servant of the Sung’s sneak out to check on the progression of the war from the city center often and to check on Master Sung who has been beaten mercilessly and taken into custody for being a dissenter about numerous new war taxes. Pearl knows foreign merchants and people in high places because of the well known art work of her parents. She manages to bring Master Sung clothing, food, and medicine while he is being detained in horrific circumstances with little thought of her own welfare. She does this to thank him for giving her a new home and because her parents taught her their ethics well. Mistress Sung who grew up in the country comes to admire Pearl as does the oldest daughter. Pearl becomes loved and treated like part of the family near the end of the story after rescuing Master Sung and working with Mistress Sung to fight off looters to save their compound. She had wanted the love and the acceptance of the Sung’s and it had been hard won. In the end however, Pearl ventures out on her own to partner with her servant friend from the Sung household for a taste of freedom that a business partnership promises.

C. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)

With the story set in the Cantonese area of China there is no need to examine criteria about Asian Pacific Americans. Pearl is in her native country throughout the story. The book is strictly historical fiction but has the feel, at times, of a fleshed out fairytale. Pearl reminds me very much of the heroine in M.C. Helledorfer’s, 1991, THE MAPMAKER’S DAUGHTER as that strong and swashbuckling female also decides to strike out on her own in the end as she of poor origins has defended and won the Prince’s freedom from jail and torture and does not need his status to feel herself worthy.

Just as I did with my Bruchac selection I decided to test the talents of the author in what I thought was the lowest common denominator, popular series. Yep, of such international repute for so many years, could have put out a mediocre book in a series like this and it still would have won acclaim and good reviews. Also I wanted to read a Yep book that I had never heard of. If he writes better than this I just can’t imagine. There are detailed author’s notes at the end of the book and six pages of information and pictures from primary sources about the clothing, jewelry, food, costume, and scenes of war from 1850 or thereabouts. The book cover and title page have beautiful color spreads of Pearl in native costume of silk and bright colors. Even the borders around the first page of every chapter are beautifully illustrated with what looks like an antique lace pattern. Pearl’s skin tone, eye and hair color are dark and appropriate. In the pictures adjacent to the title page Pearl is drawn in a garden holding a camellia near a bonsai tree. There is a building in the background of the picture with a pagoda roof. This is how it should be because the setting is China in the 1850’s.

As Aoki mentions as a positive element of the narrative the story did reflect the changing roles of women in society and even more than that though I believe Pearl was certainly the exception rather than the rule. She gives the girls of old in the story and girls of today encouragement to transcend their accepted roles in society and to challenge artificial barriers of class, wealth, education, age, and gender. Pearl is definitely not a heroine that could be perceived as passive or docile, but she does respect the ways and edicts of the wealthy Sung family and try to earn her keep. She sacrifices and rescues Sung and family because she wants to repay his generosity for giving her a home. She learned from her family to help others with little regard for the cost and never to take advantage of someone’s misfortune whether writing letters or assisting in other ways. Pearl is polite, cooperative, and bright but certainly that was true of some young girls in similar situations to Pearl’s. We should not be so afraid of expressing the truth of a character real or fictional unless it is done to the extreme or all characters are portrayed in a predictable and stereotypical fashion. I was not bothered by this but personality traits and actions of Pearl might not have left some native critics pleased because she was a good and perfect child. She acted subservient to the new family in the beginning. That may be the reason I thought of the story as part fairy tale. It is like a legend or folktale when the all knowing and seeing one is the rescuer and Pearl certainly was. The book has many themes but the history of the Chinese and the cultural lessons shared with readers are the predominant ones along with the role the female plays in this story. The fact that a girl transcended her rank and became the savior of the family because she could speak English very well, fight, disguise herself was sly, street savvy, and knew more Chinese and foreign traders than the wealthy family she went to live with. So, yes, Pearl is a Super Hero in the novel. The from rags to prominence is an age old them in the oral and written tradition as well. Pearl’s parents were also perfect people, extremely talented, very poor but still philanthropic.

All the sub-characters of influential men are drawn out more carefully than in most juvenile novels. The wealthy men and women who collect the works of Pearl’s parents are not all bad or all good. One is in the armed services in opposition to the stance taken by Pearl and the Sung family. Once the war begins in earnest, he does display a bit of a heart by letting Pearl in to see Sung with a pass after Pearl sells him the last item her mother created for her, an elaborate jacket covered in camellias. Because of his respect for her parents he finally agrees to help Pearl a bit and shows her some of her father’s paintings in his office. Other similar characters of male authority figures are fleshed out a bit as well. Yep does an extraordinary job with the character of Mistress Sung. Seemingly a lady of luxury and blindly obeying the social mores for women of her period she changes as the influence of Pearl and the physically tough times of war unfold. She was a country girl and knew how to fashion a bayonet out of a broomstick and knife. She teaches Pearl some of her fighting tricks and they and Pearl’s friend Doggy, a Sung servant take turns protecting the wealthy compound.

The story is fine literature, historically accurate, and a novel that is very hard to put down. There is an overt sense of balance in the storyline, of characters, of the reaction of characters during the war, of the dress and customs of the times such as carrying items on a horizontally balanced bamboo pole, of middle class as well as wealthy people being carried in what these days would be called an easy chair covered with curtains

I found the dialog both humorous and touching.

Pearl describes,
“I was back in my room, changing into my
good jacket and trousers, when my jail rags caught my eye.
Those might be more suitable for a scout, so I slipped them
on instead. Then I braided my hair into a man’s queue.
In the loose blouse, and with a hat, I would pass for a boy.
Girls were always doing that in kung-fu novels.” (Yep, 143)

Pearl tells of being surrounded by soldiers in town as she and
Doggy go looking for news for the Sung household,
“When the sailor next to my captor, raised his rifle, I reached up and
grabbed the barrel. Stop, I said in English. We don’t mean
you any harm. The second soldier was so astonished he
lowered his gun. You can talk! Apparently he didn’t consider
Chinese real speech, but this didn’t seem like the time to
Correct him. Of course I can, I said. Quite well.” (Yep, 158)

Paraphrasing a proverb relating to a major sub theme of the story,
gardening: A weed is just a plant that hasn’t yet found its home.

D. REVIEW EXCERPTS

All 7 customer reviews on amazon.com give it a perfect 5 star review.

Professional reviews include Publisher’s Weekly, “Spring Pearl has a bit of both Cinderella (she's assigned menial chores at first) and Mary Lenox (she restores the Sungs' neglected garden), but she emerges a fully realized character. Offering his typically lively dialogue and strong supporting cast, Yep (Dragon's Gate) also integrates period detail into a well-honed plot. A "Then and Now" afterword draws on Yep's story to contrast conditions facing girls in 19th- century China with those today. Ages 9-12.

School Library Journal recommends the book for Grades 5-8. I see it more as a 3-6 grade, but regardless it is a wonderful story. SLJ: “Spring Pearl is orphaned at age 12 after her mother dies of poverty and overwork. Because her father was a scholar and an artist, his patron, Master Sung, takes her in. She is not welcomed by his wife or daughters, but she endures. At her new home, she intimidates her hosts by speaking knowledgeably on scholarly topics and defeating the eldest son at chess and dominoes. In fact, her ability to read, write, and speak English is quite staggering. Nevertheless, this is 1857 in Canton, and the Chinese are struggling in the Opium War against Great Britain and France. When Master Sung is imprisoned for protesting extra taxes, Spring Pearl is the only one who can save him. Her good deeds win over Mistress Sung, who entrusts her with running the household. Amazingly, the child has friends among the British invaders and the looting Chinese thugs, and saves the Sung family at every turn. They open their arms to her as family, but she chooses freedom. Girls craving adventurous heroines will be drawn to the story, but it leans more toward historical fantasy than fiction.
Be Astengo, Alachua County Library, Gainesville, FL

Reviews accessed at:
http://www.amazon.com/Spring-Pearl-Flower-Girls-Lands/dp/1584855193/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7575722-4136600?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1185472315&sr=1-1
via comcast.net

E. CONNECTIONS:
Yep has written many many novels for elementary and middle school children. He usually uses themes of history of the Chinese culture, the role of women, Asian Pacific Americans learning to fit in at school and in their new communities.

As mentioned earlier, M.C. Helldorfer wrote a book with similar themes regarding males and females and transcending and rising above gender expectations about adventure, daring, and self dependency.

Probably the best “what do I read next” reader’s advisory would be to look at the other books in the “Girls of Many Lands” series put out by an arm of the American Girl Company.