Chinglish
As seen:
By Sue Cheung
avg rating
4 reviews
As heard on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and BBC Breakfast TV
Winner of the YA Diverse Book Award, Bristol Teen Book Award, and ‘Simply the Book’ Coventry Inspiration Book Award
Shortlisted for the Indie Book Award
Nominated for the Carnegie Medal
It is difficult trying to talk in our family cos:
a) Grandparents don’t speak English at all
b) Mum hardly speaks any English
c) Me, Bonny and Simon hardly speak Chinese
d) Dad speaks Chinese and good English – but doesn’t like talking
In other words, we all have to cobble together tiny bits of English and Chinese into a rubbish new language I call ‘Chinglish’. It is very awkward.
Jo Kwan is a teenager growing up in 1980s Coventry with her annoying little sister, too-cool older brother, a series of very unlucky pets and utterly bonkers parents. But unlike the other kids at her new school or her posh cousins, Jo lives above her parents’ Chinese takeaway. And things can be tough – whether it’s unruly customers or the snotty popular girls who bully Jo for being different. Even when she does find a BFF who actually likes Jo for herself, she still has to contend with her erratic dad’s behaviour. All Jo dreams of is breaking free and forging a career as an artist.
Told in diary entries and doodles, Jo’s brilliantly funny observations about life, family and char siu make for a searingly honest portrayal of life on the other side of the takeaway counter.
Reviews
Bonney, I would highly recommend
Loved; agree that’s a step up from Diary of a Wimpy Kid and much better for knowing it’s autobiographical
Do not be fooled by this book - I wondered why it was classed as YA until about half way through, and then it became terribly clear. Definitely an upper school title!
Set in the late 1980s, 'Chinglish' is a diary-form story with quirky cartoons scattered throughout. However, this is not one for the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' or 'Tom Gates' readers. I would suggest the target audience is more Young Adult than Middle Grade.
The reason for this is that, whilst it starts off in Adrian Mole fashion and looks as though its going to be observational humour (and to be fair, there is some of that in there), it tackles some really tough issues - and this becomes increasingly apparent as we move through the novel.
The diary is written by Jo Kwan, Chinese-British girl living in Coventry, aged from thirteen to sixteen years as the story progresses. She and her family have just moved into a Chinese takeaway in the city, having previously been running a butcher's shop in Hull.
Alongside the trials and tribulations of being a teenager in the 1980s, this also addresses racism, identity, and abusive family situations. Some of the incidents which happen in the cast of the last are truly shocking and I do find it a little disturbing that there's not the sense of that really being addressed from an official standpoint. Since we don't get told the details of what happens after Jo goes after to college in London, we don't actually know whether anything was done - or whether it was all metaphorically brushed under the carpet. This is relevant because this is a semi-autobiographical work. Jo is Sue and, minus a few made up support cast to give some suggestion of the types of people she was encountering, the rest of the cast are also real and events did apparently really happen. So... yeah. I'll be honest and say I'm not sure how I feel about that.
