Saturday, October 4, 2014
The MacGregor Girls
Fresh off of a failed rebellion in his native China, Wong Chin Foo, who history would come to remember as the Chinese Martin Luther King, flees to San Francisco. He captures the attention of the local press–and the ire of the Chinatown triads–immediately upon his arrival when he assists in the rescue of eight of his young female shipmates from sexual slavery. Wong sees the media’s sudden interest as a chance to voice his radical ideas about Chinese American rights, but even as he rises to celebrity the Chinatown underworld plots revenge.
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The MacGregor Girls is my third choice because it is a adrenalin fueled joyride through the underbelly of America during the 19th century. I think Wong Chin Foo is a compelling and badass character, and the ending of his story is impressively upbeat – though I think we may need to make it clear that he isn’t assassinated during his speaking tour (or maybe not, the mystery might cause the story to stay with readers a while longer). Wong Chin’s tale is just fun, but I’m not entirely sure how relevant it is. Educating people about the Chinese Rights Movement is, of course, always a good thing, but we might have to stretch a little to provide more than the most basic Aesop. Though being inspirational can be a better substitute for an Aesop than moralizing at readers.
ReplyDeleteThis was my second choice. Everything about it just sounds like an absolute joy; I think that the description given in class of the main character being a "Chinese Jack Sparrow" pretty much sums it up. I think that the main challenge here will be in keeping the poignancy and importance of the story, and not letting it get too "cartoonish". It would be very easy to make this into a somewhat silly action packed romp, which is all well and good, but we will have to make sure that it still has a powerful impact. All of the content is there, its just a matter of figuring out how to frame the story such that it retains the fun without sacrificing the importance.
ReplyDeleteThis was my first choice because not only does it seem possible to do in 120-150 pages, but there's a really cool protagonist we could work with. Also, the plot seems adventurous and there's room for some fun dialogue since our protagonist is a talkative guy. I'm honestly fine with the way it is right now.
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