To be young, ungifted and lost in a new world
As a child there is always pressure. If you are the oldest sibling in a family, you must behave to set an example. If you are in the middle, you have to excel before people will notice you. And if you are the youngest? Your life is in the hands of your elder siblings.
Yingtao, the youngest brother in the Yang family, lives in the shadows. He has one big brother and two sisters, all musically gifted, but he himself has no talent for music.
Yang The Youngest And His Terrible Ear, a short novel by Lensey Namioka, tells the story of this young immigrant living in Seattle, in the United States.
The Yangs have just moved from Shanghai and are wrestling with culture shock.
The other Yangs find comfort in music. Big brother Yingwu plays the violin, second sister Yinglan the viola, and third sister Yingmei the cello. Yingtao is taught to play the violin, too. How could he not? Both his parents are musicians. Yet, whenever Yingtao 'draws his bow across the violin strings, it screeches'.
The storyline is simple. As a part-time music teacher, the father arranges a string-quartet performance with his four children in an attempt to attract more students. Yingtao cannot improve his music but has a plan to fake it. There are so many funny incidents in the book that I burst out laughing when I read it.
It is not so much the depiction of how the Yangs adjust to the new environment. When depicting the two cultures, the material seems a little out-dated. For example, it says Mrs Yang and Yinglan cut up tea bags to make tea. I doubt whether this still happens, but we cannot challenge the author's credibility.
Namioka, now 70-something, moved to the US when she was nine. It could have been her real experience some decades ago. But the world has changed now.
The part that tickled me is Yingtao's search for his own identity among his 'outstanding' siblings. He likes baseball, but his family thinks that only through music will they prosper. If you were Yingtao, what would you do? Sometimes I felt desperate for him and his plight.
* Read today's profile in Young Post for more about the author. Lensey Namioka and Australian writer Paul Jennings will also meet parents and teachers at the 'Not just kids stuff' in Fringe studio on Saturday from 9am to 10am. It is part of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival. Tickets are $100.
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