Tongues of Jade

by Laurence Yep, David Wiesner (Illustrator)

A retelling of seventeen Chinese American folktales from a variety of Chinese communities in the United States.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Folklore, Asia

194 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Born June 14, 1948 in San Francisco, California, Yep was the son of Thomas Gim Yep and Franche Lee Yep. Franche Lee, her family's youngest child, was born in Ohio and raised in West Virginia where her family owned a Chinese laundry. Yep's father, Thomas, was born in China and came to America at the age of ten where he lived, not in Chinatown, but with an Irish friend in a white neighborhood. After troubling times during the Depression, he was able to open a grocery store in an African-American neighborhood. Growing up in San Francisco, Yep felt alienated. He was in his own words his neighborhood's "all-purpose Asian" and did not feel he had a culture of his own. Joanne Ryder, a children's book author, and Yep met and became friends during college while she was his editor. They later married and now live in San Francisco.

Although not living in Chinatown, Yep commuted to a parochial bilingual school there. Other students at the school, according to Yep, labeled him a "dumbbell Chinese" because he spoke only English. During high school he faced the white American culture for the first time. However, it was while attending high school that he started writing for a science fiction magazine, being paid one cent a word for his efforts. After two years at Marquette University, Yep transferred to the University of California at Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1970 with a B.A. He continued on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. Today as well as writing, he has taught writing and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Valerie Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book waaaaaaaaay back in second grade. Some of the stories that scared me then are now amazing for that little chill that you can get when reading a good ghost story. I'll probably revisit Dragon of the Lost Sea; another series by Mr. Yep that I adored.

[Éowyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a fan of folktales. Japanese have their own flavour for sure: one I like. But you can’t trump Scottish and British folklore. Sorry Japan

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seventeen classic Chinese folktales retold. A good taste of the genre.