Now that I am thinking of buying a house in Japan it is pretty much settled that I am, well, settled here. Though that was the plan all along, things are slowly becoming more real. Not only have I been looking at houses, but I have also been looking at schools near those houses. And I have been looking at dogs. Because what would a house be without a dog? (especially a house with centipedes and who knows what else- we might have to get a cat too...)
Still, sometimes I think that eventually I will move back to the states for good. Motoaki is 8 years older than me which means he would retire before me. So in our moonlight years we could always move to the states and work at Walmart.
I also think that if the schools were to not work out for what we want for our kids (the schools here are not very adaptive to students with unique abilities or needs), it might cause us to consider moving to the states.
Thus, in having this as a part of my life and everyday thoughts, a novel like Paper Daughter is a great read for me. I am not saying that it wouldn't be a great read for you, but just a forewarning that I might relate to it more.
In Paper Daughter: a Memoir by Elaine M. Mar we read about a Chinese girl who moved from Hong Kong to Denver in the early 1970s. She went from living a poor yet charmed life to living a more modern and yet harsher reality. Despite being able to have running water and a yard in America, she finds that she has entered into the bottom of the American food chain. The little English that she learned in Hong Kong turns out to be wrongly pronounced and the family that was once close in it's tight knit quarters becomes driven apart by its struggles at work and, for Elaine, at school. Also reversed are the roles and ideas behind what it is to be a family. Elaine's parents who speak no English rely on her to help with the translation of everyday tasks like shopping, Dr.s visits, writing checks.
Although her status and value are somewhat elevated at home, she becomes ridiculed at school for being foreign. It is this part of the book that is hard for me to read as I realize that someday, despite their ability in English and knowledge of the west, my children might also be ridiculed by peers their same age. Of course, the world is different now and my children will have the advantage of living with a native speaker. But it is still sad to see what Elaine goes through and how she can't fit in either at home or at school. At school she is still too Chinese despite learning to read and speak English fluently. And due to her submersion into an American culture at school, she becomes too foreign at home.
Even if you don't care much about that the book is quite entertaining as Elaine and her family navigate the "new world." it is funny to read some of the mix-ups they go through and also interesting to see America through their eyes. At one point the mother gets angry because Elaine, though only five, was learning long division before leaving China. In America, her five year old classmates are still learning simple addition and devoting a lot of time still to coloring and singing.
I'm not sure if the book would be readily available in bookstores (the problem I have with buying most of my books at garage sales and second hand stores) but if you see it, it is a great read. though being a memoir, it reads like fiction. I remember being extremely caught up in one scene where Elaine almost kills herself only to laugh at myself, later, when I remembered that she wrote the thing (and thus couldn't have died).
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