The Boy From Clearwater: Book 2

The Boy from Clearwater #3-4

by Yu Pei-Yun, Jian-Xin Zhou (Illustrator), Lin King (Translator)

After his imprisonment in Green Island, Kun-lin struggles to pick up where he left off ten years earlier. He reconnects with his childhood crush Kimiko and finds work as an editor, jumping from publisher to publisher until finally settling at an advertising company. But when manhua publishing becomes victim to censorship, and many of his friends lose their jobs, Kun-lin takes matters into his own hands. He starts a children’s magazine, Prince, for a group of unemployed artists and his old inmates who cannot find work anywhere else. Kun-lin’s life finally seems to be looking up... but how long will this last?

Forty years later, Kun-lin serves as a volunteer at the White Terror Memorial Park, promoting human rights education. There, he meets Yu Pei-yun, a young college professor who provides him with an opportunity to reminisce on his past and how he picked himself up after grappling with bankruptcy and depression. With the end of martial law, Kun-lin and other former New-Lifers felt compelled to mobilize to rehabilitate fellow White Terror victims, forcing him to face his past head-on. While navigating his changing homeland, he must conciliate all parts of himself––the victim and the savior, the patriot and the rebel, a father to the future generation and a son to the old Taiwan––before he can bury the ghosts of his past.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, Asian Literature

356 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2023

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the emotional, thought-provoking conclusion to the true story of a young Taiwanese man who faced a 10-year prison sentence for joining a book club in high school. His love of books and reading never ceases, but his struggles with a dictatorial government continues.

[USOM · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)

Some of my favorite themes of The Boy from Clearwater Book 2 were the exploration of censorship as well as ambition. For Kun-lin he feels as if he's already starting ten years behind. Because of his imprisonment, he takes life on head first throwing himself into this ambition. How does he re-integrate back into a changing society? Not only is the foundation of society different, but it's continuously in flux as well as the growing censorship with the progress of industrialization and globalization. He is marked by his past and unable to escape whether it be in job prospects or feeling like he's constantly behind.

[Lindsay G.]

Like the previous book, this one opened my eyes to a lot of Chinese history that I was never taught. I admire the way this story followed the main character through his life after being held as a political prisoner. I feel that oftentimes that’s where these stories end; so, it was impactful to see the repercussions on the rest of his life. The art style in the first half took my breath away. I was less wowed by the art style of the second half. However, I did like the slight variations that were used for past vs present pieces.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again not a review but notes:

The Boy from Clearwater 3:
* the desperation of making up for lost time / evading censors and policemen / the long shadow of green island & what he wants to do for people around him as a teacher and as a fellow prisoner
* The need to be there for everyone and everything (up until a small town little league team) on behalf of a nation whose identity and loyalties still aren’t formed…still he cares about its future >> and how it also put strain on his relationship with his wife (even her pregnancy gets sidelined)
* The use of color here >> recognition of indigeneity and urban / rural collisions in this creation of Taiwanese identity
* The dream of “almost” being able to teach and help kids reach their dreams…the almost of it a constant weight…the promises that cannot be delivered
* And then the collapse >> once again via natural disaster (a parallel to the opening of book 1 and also this marvelous dream sequence of Prince Press going underwater in the storm / Khun-Lim talking to his father…


The way Book 4 returns the authorial / voice perspective to Khun-Lim and goes in and out of his POV to that of Professor Yu talking with him about those experiences…what does that do?
* and the moments of show not tell and the language of talking about a women’s magazine as so light and then the showing of how hard it was to distribute (the almost getting hit by a car suggests espionage or surveillance)
* The way they find ways around banning laws // the way banning makes people braver in a time that can’t be as repressed as before - Cheng Nanjung’s Freedom Era, for ex
* Telling your children the truth…after martial law being lifted (but that announcement being treated so deceptively casually. “Yeah, I saw.” Like Khun-lim couldn’t even think it was real.)
* And Khun-lim wrote his life story 40 years after his imprisonment at age 20. He did so in Japanese.
* And the way they were also finally seeing the mainland for what it was—via the Tiananmen Square massacre
* And the mass historical amnesia of the White Terror and the 1958 massacre
* And the Wild Lily student movement that bloomed out of watching Tiananmen — and the showing of debates and disagreements about reform vs revolt
* Cheng Nan-Jung later set himself on fire…
* And the way the survivors talk to each other in a mixture of languages**
* And the ending—children’s drawings of a young hero and also part of his and Kimiko’s love story **the emphasis on protecting and being led by children >> more so than a strict belief in tactics, a focus on the young boy at the heart of everything

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed part two of this graphic novel series much more than part one. The consequences of Kun-Lin’s time spent on Green Island are clearly felt, as are the ramifications of White Terror on the Taiwanese society as a whole. Kun-Lin’s difficulties to keep a stable job while constantly being monitored by the police and uprooted due to nonsensical changes in laws by the government are keenly conveyed and felt by the reader — but also his relentless perseverance and determination to help others in need, which was quite inspiring.

I also felt that the way the cultural and historical notes were presented more cleanly and precisely than the first volume, which helped a lot with the overall pacing. The end of the novel where the author actually puts in her meeting with the real Kun-Lin and explains how they got involved in the making of this graphic novel was also really touching, and the moments between Kun-Lin and his former fellow prisoners was tear-jerking, as well as when and how he revealed to his children the truth of what he went through.

I appreciate the publisher for bringing this over to a Western audience and the translator for their hard work with all the different dialects and languages being spoken throughout the novel — I do think it deserves a place in every library and should be read by anyone interested in this part of Taiwan’s history.

[K.C. Norton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so disjointed that I often found it hard to follow. The first half of it is so focused on Khun-lim's life and financial failures that I kept wishing for more larger context, and the second half is almost nothing BUT larger context presented in a very dense way. Going into this, I knew very little about the history of Taiwan, which didn't help when it came to following the back and forths between the political parties.

The latter half of this book also introduces the creator of the comic. I wish we'd gotten the context of her interest earlier in the book, because I spent the first half of the book wondering what I was supposed to be taking away from the biography. I'm still glad that I read this, but I think it could have been arranged in a way that made more sense. I don't feel like I have a coherent understanding of the political pressures in play.

Last year, I read "Showa," which is a nonfiction comic by a Japanese artist that pulled double duty as autobiography and historical account Japanese history around the same time. Having read that, and having a vague sense of the role Japan played in Taiwan's recent history, helped me make sense of certain things. With "The Boy From Clearwater," I feel like I have a stronger sense of the identity crisis Taiwan went through during the period described, but I don't think this is a great introductory book on the topic. To be fair, I think Professor Yu is writing for an audience or Taiwanese readers with the intention of challenging the way younger people think about the generation that came before them, and those readers probably wouldn't need to have their hands held as much as I do. All this to say, this second book wasn't objectively worse than the first one, it was just a little hard for this ignorant American reader to follow.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still processing so many emotions coming up for me as I read this book and part 1. thinking about what privilege i have to be learning my own history from a place of safety and contrasting that with my parents experience growing up in Taiwan learning a regulated version of this history under KMT, and so many small and significant details my parents told me when i was younger that i hadn’t realized was KMT rhetoric. reading this in graphic novel form was also jarring in some ways - recognizing Taipei landmarks in depictions of protests and crackdowns. Also just now realizing that the man this series is based off of is only three years older than my grandma who I’m about to see in Taiwan this month and it’s dizzying thinking about how this history was so recent that i still have family members alive who’ve lived through these events ah so very many thoughts right now

[Kayo Chang]

As a Taiwanese person who grew up in Canada, I know taiwanese history in broad strokes but I didn't know too much about the events that led to the democratization of Taiwan. This graphic novel really helped me put the history of my country in perspective and gave me a lot of points of interest to do further research.

I thought the artwork was fitting for the story though I find the colour choices for the text a little too similar on some parts, which made reading it confiding. Also, the colour choices of the text also made the novel difficult to read at times. However, I generally loved the book (and part 1 of the book as well) and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Taiwan.

[Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps, the story is more disjointed than the first part - quite probably because the main subject's life was turbulent environmentally. For a read though, I was more engaged in certain parts than others. There was also a lot more going on visually & linguistically, which was overwhelming at times. Although a graphic novel, I'm not sure it would hold attention for the average younger reader. Nonetheless, it shines the spotlight on Taiwanese history I had little awareness of via the main character's rather extraordinary life.

[Raven Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sequels are not usually as strong as the first book. However, while I felt the first book was stronger, this second book is strong in its own way. We follow our main character for the next ten years of his life, then jump forward to "now." The look at history from "the other side" and a side many don't usually see is interesting. There were a few spots where the colors of the background and text would blend in, but an important story is being told, and it is a journey we should carefully take.

[Mylan B · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my GOSH this book was just absolutely amazing. Like the 1st book, it gave me an understanding of the complex culture, languages, and history of Taiwan but went even more in depth which I loved. And the storytelling... just perfection. Ngl I almost forgot that all these things actually happened both to a real country and a real person. It was a very much needed reminder that the most moving and important stories often happen in the real world around us. I could not recommend this more.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

An approachable view of a specific time, about a location that my U.S.-centric history classes taught me little-to-nothing about.
A powerful reminder that censorship and human rights go hand-in-hand, and that we all still have a long way to go.

[May͛a · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was never taught this in school. But it's never too late.

[Bekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Rafael Suleiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good graphic novel.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one wasn’t quite as good as the first, but together they were a good read. I learned a lot about the history of Taiwan.

[Liam Coussens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Artwork continued to be very good, and I really enjoyed jumping back and forth between present day and past to get a better handle on how it influenced his later life's work.