Crouching Tiger

Just in time for Chinese New Year 2012, the Year of the Dragon, is Ying Chang Compestine’s newest picture book, Crouching Tiger. For those of you unfa­miliar with Compestine’s writing, you are in for one sweet sur­prise. The author lives with her family in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area where Chinese New Year is hugely popular across many ethnic lines. San Fran­cisco has the largest Chinese American pop­u­lation in the U.S. and once a year in the Bay Area everyone gets to be a Chinese American.

The story is a simple one. Vince, a young and typ­i­cally American boy, also happens to be a Chinese American whose grand­father has come all the way from China to visit. On the first morning of Grandpa’s visit, Vince watches him from the kitchen window. “Grandpa was dancing slowly in the garden with his eyes closed. His hands moved like gliding birds. He crouched like a tiger; he drew an invisible bow; he lifted a foot like a rooster and stood still.” From that moment on, Vince, called Ming Da by his Grandpa, is both fas­ci­nated and slightly embar­rassed by his grandfather’s behavior.

The sub­tleties of Compestine’s writing, even in a picture book, are what make her such a treasure. Ming Da “ran” outside to ask Grandpa what he was doing. Before answering the boy, Grandpa for­mally greets him, “Good morning.” He tells Ming Da he is prac­ticing tai chi, a martial art. Ming Da imme­di­ately asks, “Like kung fu?” Without waiting for an answer, he “showed off” his “fastest kicks and punches.” Grandpa watches Ming Da without a word. The boy stops and in a low and now embar­rassed voice asks to be taught tai chi. Grandpa looks him in the eye, and still silent, nods yes.

One morning while walking to school with Grandpa, Ming Da, who had “jammmed” his head­phones on so that he didn’t have to talk to Grandpa, is shocked when Grandpa pre­vents an accident from hap­pening between an unsus­pecting pedes­trian and a laborer car­rying a board off his truck. Just as the board was about to strike the pedes­trian, “In a smooth motion, Grandpa crouched like a tiger swept up a leg, and kicked the board, breaking it neatly in half.” A lesson has been learned and Ming Da’s life begins to slow down as he takes the time to practice both med­i­tation and tai chi with Grandpa, but not without hoping to learn a more active part of tai chi. Patience does not come easily to Ming Da.

Com­pestine walks the non-​​Chinese reader through prepa­ra­tions for the New Year cel­e­bration. Ming Da doesn’t want to wear the red silk jacket with dragon dec­o­ra­tions that Grandpa gives him. When Grandpa takes him to Chi­natown where he is proudly intro­duced to his many friends, Ming Da would rather be with his own friends than taking the red envelopes with money that Grandpa’s friends keep giving him. Just before the parade begins, Ming Da sees some men wearing the same red jackets as he is wearing. They are the lion dancers and are taking orders from his Grandpa. Ming Da is sur­prised when he is handed a bamboo pole with a cabbage hanging from its top and told he is to be part of the parade. His job is to keep the lions from reaching the cabbage until the very end of the parade.

Compestine’s story has a beauty all its own, but Crouching Tiger is enor­mously enhanced by the illus­tra­tions of Yan Nascimbene, an artist whose award-​​winning work is exhibited worldwide. The quiet and peace­fulness of Grandpa is carried out in Nasciembene’s illus­tra­tions with subdued colors and subtle details empha­sizing Compestine’s text. A picture of note is one in which Ming Da and Grandpa are on a bus. Ming Da is wearing a hooded jacket and he appears to be reading a book while Grandpa sits next to him with his hands folded in his lap. A peaceful scene until one looks care­fully and sees that Ming Da is not entirely intent on his book; his eyes turn (not his head) slightly toward Grandpa, and although Grandpa’s eyes take in Ming Da’s attempt at seclusion, his face tells the reader that he under­stands what his grandson is feeling. It is not until the night of the parade that Nascimbene’s illus­tra­tions transform them­selves with ani­mation and deep bright colors befitting crowded streets, noisy fire crackers and a lively dragon.

Can­dlewick Press, always a pub­lisher parents can trust, has pro­duced a very special book with won­derful details such as a glossary of some Chinese words and phrases and small, simple drawings of Ming Da in tai chi stances at the bottom of every page of Compestine’s text.

Crouching Tiger is not just the story of a Chinese New Year cel­e­bration with its tra­di­tions, but also a story of the time and patience it can take for one gen­er­ation to under­stand another and the wisdom that comes from such understanding.