Travel to China

Mr. Ding's Chicken Feet: On a Slow Boat from Shanghai to Texas

Format: Paperback
Author: Gillian Kendall
ReleaseDate: 29 August, 2006
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Rating:

Risk Taker's Journey Vindicated
She is a risk-taker. In Mr Ding's Chicken Feet, the author, Gillian Kendall, comes across at first as maybe a little naive and unwary. Her apparent lack of serious doubt about the whole enterprise, her trust in her fellow human beings not to harm her and her faith that it would all work out made me a little nervous on her behalf. But she is vindicated by the experience and it is her empathy and geniality that are the keys to her success. Observing Kendall's openness to life and her willingness to reach out across cultures became one of the pleasures of reading the book. A cynical reader such as I am found it instructive to watch her interest in humanity unfold and be repaid.

Her story really takes off once the ship leaves shore. Then it leaves behind any experience I and probably most readers have had. Shipboard life with a completely male crew who mostly speak very fractured English seems so weird and challenging that you half expect the book to be a story of failure -- perhaps noble failure but depressing nonetheless. So it's very satisfying that she actually makes a difference to the sailors' English and lives. She is inventive in her methods and determined to give her employers their money's worth and thereby wins the crew's respect and affection.

Kendall can write -- just see her description of the terrible storm at sea. It had me rigid with tension. Shades of Conrad in Typhoon. She has a distinctive and likable tone of voice. The book tells an optimistic story in an unpretentious way and gives you faith in the power of empathic teachers (and English!).

Absorbing entertainment!
Gillian jumps on board with both feet, well-equipped with teaching materials and ideas. Only a woman confident in her own sense of humor and adventure would have taken a job as the lone female and one of only two English-speakers on a boat far from shore. In short order some of her ideas are altered, replaced, or simply scrapped and thrown overboard. As she describes her daily struggles to accommodate vast cultural differences while at the same time trying to actually teach useful language, she offers sensitive analysis of the characters that make up the crew. Touching but funny interactions with the sometimes reverential sailors and vibrant descriptions of the nautical environment make this book a delight to read and a struggle to stop reading. .

A Book With Substance
What I found remarkable about Gillian Kendall's book is that she went out and had a unique adventure that really commands attention. Too many writers of fiction as well as non-fiction develop their subject from imagination or the bedroom and never have an experience that is noteworthy. I think there are few people who would have had the courage to do what she did and still have the ability to tell the world about it.

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