The Lost Garden is dedicated) encouraged him to
write his first science fiction story, which he man-
aged to sell for one penny a word to a magazine.
He initially chose this genre because it best mir-
rored his own sense of estrangement. Yep studied
journalism at Marquette University, Milwaukee, in
1966–68, and there he met Joanne Ryder, his fu-
ture wife, who further encouraged him to write.
He earned his B.A. in 1970 from the University of
California, Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. in 1975 from
the State University of New York, Buffalo. Besides
winning numerous awards and honors for his nov-
els and short stories, Yep has taught creative writ-
ing and literature in several universities including
San Jose City College and the University of Cali-
fornia, Santa Barbara.
Many of Yep’s books, written mostly for juve-
nile and young adult audiences, deal with Chinese-
American cultural heritage. Dragonwings (1975),
inspired by the life of the Chinese-American in-
ventor and aviator Fung Joe Guey, tells the story of
Moon Shadow, a child who, at the beginning of the
20th century, moves from China to San Francisco’s
Chinatown in order to join his father, whose dream
is to build a flying machine. The novel explores the
life of Chinese immigrants in America at the turn
of the century, thus drawing a realistic portrait of
their bachelors’ society. The Rainbow People (1989)
is a collection of 20 folktales originally narrated in
the 1930s by Chinese immigrants in Oakland’s
Chinatown and retold by Yep. Most of the stories
are set in China and are grouped into five sec-
tions (each one preceded by an introduction to
the theme): Tricksters, Fools, Virtues and Vices,
Chinese America, and Love. Dragon’s Gate (1993)
depicts the life of a young Chinese railroad worker
who moves in the 1860s to California to join his
father and uncle. Even though he feels alienated
in the new land, he wants to learn as much as pos-
sible in order to take technology back to China and
help release his country from the shackles of the
Manchu invaders.
In 1995 Yep published Hiroshima, a children’s
book dealing with the nuclear bombing in Japan
and its painful aftermath, as seen through the eyes
of young Sachi. Two years later, he wrote another
children’s book, The Dragon Prince, a Chinese ver-
sion of The Beauty and the Beast, in which a farmer is
taken prisoner by a huge, golden dragon and is freed
only when his youngest and most talented daughter
named Seven agrees to marry the dragon. Seven is
carried by the dragon to his kingdom beneath the
sea, where he turns into a handsome prince. One
of her sisters tries to murder her and take her place,
but she is reunited with her husband eventually.
In this story Yep reflects on the stereotypes about
physical appearances that still affect children of
Asian origin. In The Imp That Ate My Homework
(1998), Yep tells the story of Jim, a U.S.–born child
of Chinese descent whose teacher has given him the
troublesome task of writing about his grandparents.
With his grandmother dead, Jim has to write about
Grandpop, who regularly scolds him for not being
Chinese enough and for not being interested in the
stories about life back in China. When Jim’s home-
work gets eaten by a green Chinese imp, however,
Jim and his grandpop team up to get rid of it.
Yep’s recent volumes include The Amah (1999),
in which a young girl has to face more responsi-
bilities and misses her ballet practice when her
mother begins to work as a nanny; Dream Soul
(2000), set in West Virginia in 1927, describing
cultural clashes between Chinese and Western fes-
tivities; and Spring Pearl, the Last Flower (2002),
set in 1857 during the Opium War in China.
Yep’s works help solve a critical problem in
children’s literature, namely the absence of books
dealing with the history of Asian Americans and
with the problems faced by children of Asian-Pa-
cific heritage as they come to terms with their cul-
tural identity and develop strategies to deal with
biases and contradictions.Bibliography
Johnson-Feelings, Dianne. Presenting Laurence Yep.
New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.
Kutzer, M. Daphne, ed. Writers of Multicultural Fic-
tion for Young Adults: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Rochman, Hazel. Against Borders: Promoting Books
for a Multicultural World. Chicago: American Li-
brary Association, 1993.Elisabetta Marino336 Yep, Laurence Michael