It's Crazy to Stay Chinese in Minnesota

by Eleanor Wong Telemaque

The Wings own the Canton, the only Chinese restaurant in a small Minnesota town, which sells milk-fed turkey and pork-tenderloin sandwiches along with the wonton soup and chow mein. Ching Wing, as an only daughter, waits on tables, takes cash, and moons over movie magazines. Ching wants to be Americanwholly Americanbut if her father cant afford to send her to the university in the fall, she may have to spend her life in the restaurant.Ching sees a way out. Bingo Tang, son of the powerful president of a local tong, is spending the summer with the Wings, and Ching thinks that maybe she can seduce him. If he has to marry her, shell be able to escape, wont she? But Bingo has other plans for his life, and as the summer wears on, troubles pile up for Ching and her hard-pressed family. Mr. Wing, a pushover for every free-loading bum in town, is about to lose his lease. Mrs. Wing, who has devoted her life to bringing her nephew to America, finds her hopes abruptly blasted. Auntie Tong plagues them to find a rich husband for Ching.Meanwhile, Ching is learning a few facts about her people, especially about her shy, upright, softhearted father. And when the chips are down, she finds that her otherworldly mother knows a thing or two as well. For Ching it is a growing-up summer.Based on the authors own memories of her Middle West girlhood, this glimpse into the all too-scrutable life of a Chinese-American family is both lighthearted and touching. Readers will sympathize with the Wings painful ties to an ancient culture and be entranced with their solutions of what to do when Far East and Middle West meet.

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiographical novel is set in Albert Lea, Minnesota in the early 1950s and narrated by 17-year-old Ching Wing (also called “Ellenah,” what I assume is Eleanor in a Minnesotan accent). Ching’s parents own the Canton, the only Chinese restaurant in town. Ching helps out there but doesn’t want it to be her life; she longs to escape by going to university, if her father can afford it. He won’t be able to if the restaurant loses its lease. Eager to explore her sexuality, Ching decides that another way out of her small town is by seducing Bingo Tang, son of the powerful president of a local tong, who is spending the summer with them.

Ching is a great character! She’s spunky and honest, not the meek Asian flower I was expecting/dreading. Her story hits home: torn between two cultures, she becomes intensely jealous of a girl who represents everything she is not. Wong Telemaque also tackles the reality of racial discrimination and, more interesting to me, the tensions between different Chinese - rich and poor, immigrants and those American-born, even Nationalists and Communists.

I’m glad the object of Ching’s affection is Asian, and I say that even though I out-married. The emasculation of Asian men in Western media is real, related to the hypersexualization of Asian women and the white savior narrative (usually a white male who rescues the non-white female from the excesses of her culture). These tropes are nonexistent here. Bingo is a desirable, complex person. Ching’s father, though flawed, is generous and loving, not the cold, overbearing patriarch common in depictions of Asian dads. I know men like that exist but it’s not what I experienced growing up.

I wasn’t a fan of the abrupt ending. It’s very much a slice of life novel about one girl’s summer and doesn’t have much of a plot. Still, it’s a fascinating early Chinese American novel that shouldn’t be lost to history.

[Michael Lilienthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel is simple and straightforward, a plain plot of identity, family, love, and escape. It seems unfinished, though. Not only for several typographical errors, it could have stood at least one more editorial look and probably 2 or 3 more rewrites. Ideally, this 100-page novel could become a 400-page masterpiece. That said, the novelette is sweet, compelling, and worth an afternoon.

[Erin Lonneman · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are from the Albert Lea area this book is worth a read, especially if you or a family member have memories at the Canton Café. Otherwise it jumped around a lot and there was not really a plot, it was more just a look into life at the time but with no conclusion.

[Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 102-page book by Eleanor Wong Telemaque is a short fictionalized account of growing up in Albert Lea, Minn., in a Chinese-American family owning a local restaurant. I wished the book were longer and the characters fleshed-out more, but I enjoyed the unique perspective of the author. I grew up in Minnesota in a small town that did not have a Chinese restaurant until 15 or so years after our family moved to Maine in 1965. I have been amazed at how ubiquitous Chinese restaurants have become in even the smallest of towns in my travels across the U.S. in the 1990s and 2000s.

[Amanda Chiu · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was simple and easy to read but not super well-written and kind of boring. I appreciate the idea though.