Poetry: My Chinatown: One Year in Poems

 

My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, Kam Mak. HarperCollins Children's Books, 2002. 32 pages, $8.99, 9780064437325.

    In My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, Kam Max describes his experiences as a Chinese boy who immigrated from Hong Kong to Chinatown, New York. The poems show his struggles, homesickness, nostalgia, and thoughts about the move. At first, Chinatown is not home. He feels his first year will not be good because he is “thousands of miles away from” Hong Kong, where he left behind “a country/ a language/ a grandmother.” Throughout the year, he grew to love his new home, people, celebrations, and food in Chinatown. Mak did not include an introduction or opening section to his poems. 

    Kam Mak wrote fifteen poems and drew illustrations about his first year in Chinatown, New York. He divides the fifteen poems into four seasonal groups. They are organized chronologically from one Chinese New Year to the Next. The first poem starts shortly after the Chinese New Year in winter. The story goes on into spring, summer, and fall. It ends with the Chinese New Year in winter. There are no tables or indexes. 

    Mak writes the poems in free verse. The poems are full of imagery and figurative language. Examples include: “even when the firecrackers/ hiss and crackle all night long/ to scare off every evil spirit in the world”, "wooden crates packed full of suns,” “where the English words taste/ like metal in my mouth,” and “the needle on her sewing machine/ gobbling up the fabric/ turning miles of cloth/ into pants and jackets, skirts, and dresses.” These phrases paint a picture in a child’s mind. 

    The illustrations depict the main ideas and imagery of the poem on each page. They take on a photo-realistic artistic style. The images bring Chinatown to life, illustrate the Chinese culture Mak grew up in, and give the viewer a feeling of being in Chinatown. Mak paints individuals like the fortune-teller, the cobbler, the bird seller, family, and friends. He paints items of cultural significance like kumquats, an animal chess game, fish, colorful paper objects, and lion masks. He also shows cultural celebrations like the New Year Festival, Dragon Boat Race, and Moon Festival. These paintings stress that the people, cultural objects, and traditions make Chinatown and the accompanying culture.

    Young students who have recently immigrated or moved to a new community will relate to Mak’s childhood experiences of nostalgia for an old home and acceptance for a new one. Other students can also use the poems to learn about Chinese culture.