Chinkstar

by Jon Chan Simpson

KWONG WAS A GOD.

Everything was about to change. In less than forty-eight hours, guy’d be taking the stage in Van City, owning an audience meant for some all-hype-no-talent new-money rapper, spitting next-level truths that’d have a&rs scrapping for him coast to coast.


He’d ink some paper and drop an album that the world didn’t even know it had been waiting for. All with game and swag to spare.

To the kids gathered out there in the bush somewhere between Township Road 382 and the United States of mtv, this man was god. Chi-rhyme, nip-hop, zippa-flow, slanty, jaunedell, chinksta: all planets in a system revolving around its rising son, King Kwong, my brother.

Chinksta rap is all the rage in Red Deer, Alberta. And the king of Chinksta is King Kwong, Run’s older brother. Run isn’t a fan of Kwong’s music – or personality, really. But when Kwong goes missing just days before his crowning performance and their mom gets wounded by a stray bullet, Run finds himself, with his sidekick, Ali, in the middle of a violent battle between Red Deer’s rival gangs – the Apes and the Necks – on the run from his crush’s behemoth brother, and rethinking his feelings about his family and their history, his hatred of rice-rap and what it means to be Asian.

Genres: Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery, Canada

7 pages, Audiobook

First published June 9, 2015

About the author

Jon Chan Simpson grew up in Red Deer, Alberta, and lives in Toronto. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto's MA creative writing program, and his work has been featured in Ricepaper magazine.

Reviews

[Margarita · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 out of 5.
First and foremost, don't let my star rating deceive you. Jon Simpson is a new writer oozing with talent. He pushes the boundaries on language and has a fully formed narrative voice. His storyline is imaginative and his characters distinctive. What gave me difficulty with this read, ultimately, were two things. The language was incredibly cumbersome that at times, I lost the story. Part of this is inevitably on me since I'm just not hip or young enough to catch all of the slang and the nuances behind the language. I could've seriously benefitted from a glossary. If the slang were cut back, even just a little, it would've made it much easier to follow the story as a whole. The other part I had difficulty with was the limited characterization. There are so many interesting, memorable characters that I would've really enjoyed getting to know them better. As it was written, we moved from one action sequence to the next (all very well done) at the mercy of more robust characterization. Those two things aside, it is a lovely, playful book by an author with some genuine, albeit still a bit raw, talent. I am really looking forward to reading Simpson's next work. I see nothing but the up and up for him.

[Lucile Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

152. Chinkstar by John Chan Simpson
On the night before half-Scottish, half-Chinese Kong is supposed to take a flight to Vancouver and stardom, he does not show up for his last local “rice-rap” concert in Red Deer and his younger brother, Run, the narrator, sets out to find him, along with a lot of friends and enemies. Was he kidnapped by a local redneck gang or were his own gang members, the Chinkstas, staging a coup? Of course, Ran is attracted to the sister of the redneck leader. A gold bullet comes through a window and hits his mother, who leaves her hospital bed to lead a protest at the empty city hall. This book seems to be young adult fantasy rather than adult. There are sections that are about long ago warriors that are completely extraneous and surreal. Skip ‘em. If the author had just told the story, it would have been more interesting and made more sense.

[Pontus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Min favoritscen var i slutet när hjältarna räddat dagen, fattade varandras händer och sjöng:

"Cause we all just wanna be big chinkstars
Living in bamboo huts, riding in rickshaws
The rice comes sticky and the buns come sweet
We'll all stay chinky cause that's all we eat
And we'll hang out in the opium halls
Chasing dragons til we're blind and til our teeth fall off
Every dirty old chigger's gonna wind up there
Every crooked politician with their hands outheld
And well, hey, hey, I wanna be a chinkstar.""

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I understood the book. I don't know much about "Chinksta rap" (Chinese-Canadian rap) but I was intrigued by this book after hearing an interview with the author and reading an excerpt. But I thought I'd close out Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and the long weekend with this book. It's the story of a young man whose brother is a big name on the scene of Chinksta rap. But Run gets caught up in a mess when his brother goes missing, their mother gets shot and it's up to Run to figure out what's going on and sort it all out.
 
Honestly I found the book difficult to read. It's written in a stream of consciousness laced with a lot of slang. I thought he did well in capturing the voice of someone who was raised in and lives this scene, but I personally didn't really feel it was really readable.
 
Overall I found the story kind of boring (guy must play hero to save family and has to deal with romance trouble along the way) and towards the end I had to skim because I had a tough time getting past the writing style.
 
That said, maybe it's just that the voice wasn't for me. As I said, the concept intrigued me quite a bit and I'd be curious into at least looking into what the author has as a next book. But I'm not sure I'd rush out to read it after reading this one. Would recommend borrowing this as a library borrow. Unfortunately I ended up buying it because of a sale.

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another debut novel. I used to be the literary editor of Ricepaper magazine, an Asian Canadian arts and culture magazine. I've read a lot of Asian Canadian literature. I loved this book because it felt so fresh and new. It's narrated by a half Chinese guy living in Red Deer. But the Red Deer in the book isn't one that really exists, but one that has an underground of Asian gangs. At the beginning of the book, the main character's brother, who is a hip hop hero, is kidnapped. So the main character has to try and find him, while dodging the activities of the gangs in Red Deer. The language in this book is really inspired and the author almost creates a new kind of slang. For example, people who are good with chopsticks have "stick literacy".

I found that at times, the language actually pulled me away from the story, because I got so caught up in the word play. (But that's just me, and it's my own problem)

This book was like reading an action movie. A lot of fun.

[nush · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think I'm getting too old to keep up with new modern slang.

[Leanne Beasley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This plot was really cool but the execution felt cumbersome and often left me confused. I feel like even with the little knowledge I have of this part of Chinese culture, I understood the vibe the author was trying to get across. It gave me Blacktop Wasteland vibes but perhaps a more under-developed form.

[Suzanne Chiasson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it out loud. The language is thick and live. Perhaps Jon Chan Simpson could do a marathon reading… cover to cover… in the bushpartyscape of his story… I’d be up for that.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt really old with this book. The slang had me confused at times. I was glad I listened to it rather than read it. Fast paced and some fun spots.

[Stephanie Langston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting group of characters and identities I'd never considered, and a few parts were great but I got pretty lost and the end wasn't an end.

[Isa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The world building and writing style is really interesting, I just found it hard to get into and didn’t really care about the characters or their goals.

[isabella dudley-flores · Rating 1 out of 5]

read this for my asian american literature class. respectfully, it’s a pointless and confusing hot mess. which was disappointing because im a huge fan of chinese rap

[Nicole Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun!

[Kirsten Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chinksta (or Chinese – Canadian rap) is the new rage sweeping through a fictionalized version of Red Deer, Alberta. The face of this new genre of music is King Kwong – AKA the Great Ape, or Emperor Yellow. But the superstar King is a no – show at one of his last bush parties in Red Deer. Amongst the drunken teenagers is Kwong’s little brother, Run. He particularly does not care for his brother, often referring to him as a ****hole.
In this version of Red Deer, the city is in a ‘turf’ war between two rival gangs, which are the Apes and the Necks. Kwong is affiliated with the Apes. But now he has been kidnapped, and Run had no intentions of venturing out to find him until their mother took a bullet to a shoulder in a drive-by shooting.
The first person Run talks with is Ape “kru” member Linh. At first it is complicated to talk to Linh about Kwong – because Run sees one side of his brother, while his “kru” sees another. Yet in the end two things are evident; Kwong was most likely taken by the Necks, and Run is apart of the Apes. Linh suggests that to make smooth negotiations with their rival gang, Run should approach his crush, Ros, who is the little sister of Grey – leader of the Necks.
Along with his best friend, Ali, and Ros, Run embarks on the deadly task of finding his brother while being caught in the middle of a gang war – not to mention that if Grey finds out Run is with his little sister, Grey will personally destroy him.
First of all, it is so weird to actually read a novel that is set in the town you were born and raised in. I found myself reading the story and forgetting that this was all based in Red Deer until Simpson would mention a neighborhood, street name, or nicknames that high school kids use referring to a certain areas/events (example, bush parties and Dope Road). I applaud him for the out of the ordinary setting he gave Red Deer – one that many of us could hardly comprehend or even envision.
Personally, I did have trouble with the excessive, constant and on-going slang and missed used grammar. I understand it’s part of making the story what it is, but I feel Simpson could’ve lightened up on that area, because some chapters were just all over that place. I couldn’t understand exactly what was going on without re-reading it and at the end it left me feeling disoriented.
High school students would get a real kick out of this novel because all the references that he makes about Red Deer are what they personally would understand. It is both inspirational and honorable that out of Red Deer comes another author. Though Chinkstar is not particularly my type of book, I look forward to reading what other interesting stories Jon Chan Simpson comes up with, and wish him the best of luck in his literary future.

[Elizabeth Eames · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. I liked the reality of the fictional small town Red Deer, I loved the language. I loved the story. It did take me a few pages to get into the rhythm of the slang language, I admit. But once I got the rhythm, the novel was so much fun.