In this program, we explored the 1930s and 1950s Taiwan through the eyes of Tsai Kun-lin, a boy who was born in Qingshui. This true story begins with Tsai growing up in Japanese occupied Taiwan. Through Tsai’s eyes and the graphic artist’s pen, the reader comes face to face with a changing Taiwan: from an emerging war with military parades and air raids to Tsai’s friends being conscripted in the army. Yet it is after the war when Tsai becomes a victim of the White Terror era, that he faces ten years in prison…
From Publisher’s Weekly: Zhou’s illustrations reflect the story’s dark turn, morphing into inky, deco, noir-inspired art shot through with blue shocks of color. This harrowing debut, which depicts an underreported period in Taiwan’s history, is informative and inspiring for Tsai’s ebullient hope and resilience. (Book 2 of The Boy from Clearwater will be published later this month.)
Teachers joined program leader Tese Wintz Neighbor in early June and discussed this quick-to-read, long-to-ponder graphic memoir by Yu Pei-Yun, Zhou Jian-Xin (Illustrator), Lin King (Translator), which also won the 2023 Freeman Book Award Winner-Graphic Novels for Middle and High School.
Date and Time
Participants chose to attend either of the following sessions:
Group 1: Tuesday, June 4, 2024; 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Group 2: Wednesday, June 5, 2024; 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM (Pacific Time)
This book club was held over Zoom.
Program benefits
- A physical copy of the book.
- Online Resource packet.
- Four free Washington State OSPI clock hours.
Online Resources
You can find resources for this program on this Padlet link.
This program is sponsored by the East Asia Resource Center at the University of Washington and funded by a Freeman Foundation grant in support of the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA)