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Dragon Chica

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 42 ratings · 17 reviews

Nea, a Chinese-Cambodian teenager, flees to Texas as a refugee from the Khmer Rouge regime when a miracle occurs. Although her family has been struggling to support itself, they discover that a wealthy aunt and uncle have managed to make it to America as well. Nea and her family rush to join their relatives and help run a Chinese restaurant in Nebraska. But soon Nea discov...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published October 27th 2010 by GemmaMedia (first published October 1st 2010)

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Feb 10, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

I feel about words much like a feel about music. I am not a critic, but just want to share something I like with other people. May-lee is a great writer. But lots of people can throw words together. Sometimes the best guitarist is known just as much for what they don't play as for what they play. Same I feel for Ms. Chai. It's not just a lot of words slung together, it's the story that escapes from between them that we remember.

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Feb 18, 2012 Maggie Desmond-O'Brien rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm starting to realize I hate it when people use the word "important" to describe a YA book. As in, "this is an important book." It sounds condescending. It sounds stiff. It sounds moralistic. And, like I said, I hate it. But I'm going to say it anyway, because there's nothing else that seems to fit: Dragon Chica is an important book. An unusual one. A beautiful one. And one well worth reading.

Usually when I say a book is slow, I mean it as a bad thing; usually it is. It took me two weeks to fi...more I'm starting to realize I hate it when people use the word "important" to describe a YA book. As in, "this is an important book." It sounds condescending. It sounds stiff. It sounds moralistic. And, like I said, I hate it. But I'm going to say it anyway, because there's nothing else that seems to fit: Dragon Chica is an important book. An unusual one. A beautiful one. And one well worth reading.

Usually when I say a book is slow, I mean it as a bad thing; usually it is. It took me two weeks to finish Dragon Chica, and I'd be lying if I said it never felt like a drag. The book starts when Nea is in middle school, ends with her going off to college, and is padded with frequent flashbacks in between. There are a great deal of subplots that could have - and maybe should have - been cut. Yet looking back, I find it hard to imagine Nea's story told any other way than the slow, complex way it is. It's not technically YA, but it seems to be marketed as such, and that strikes me as odd. Not that YA can't be slow and complex, but those qualities are so dominating in Dragon Chica that it feels more like literary fiction than anything else: more White Oleander than Judy Blume or John Green.

Nea's voice is arresting and unforgettable, and even when I felt adrift in purple prose I had to admit it was very, very beautiful purple prose. Gems like -

"I climbed into bed beside my sister, pulling the sheets up to my chin, as I shivered, so cold, as though I had swallowed all that moonlight and it had turned my blood to ice."

- simultaneously made me want to roll my eyes and gasp at how perfectly Chai had grasped a sensation. Every word of this book felt alive to me. One thing I've seen a rash of in recent YA releases is bad metaphors and similes; you could call the metaphors in Dragon Chica excessively deployed, but I don't think there was a single one you could call bad.

Beyond the writing and as for the story itself, I found myself of a similar dual opinion: on one hand a little frustrated, on the other completely captivated. There doesn't seem to be a story arc. There are no immediate goals or gratification; something that I think most critics and critique groups (especially within the YA community) would call out immediately. We're watching a girl grow up through her own eyes. She gets bullied on the playground. She misunderstands both her sister and her mother, but most of all her aunt and uncle. Her first sexual experience is so cold and detached I struggled to read it. There's a final revelation that left me reeling, even though it wasn't entirely unexpected. I'm not really sure what else to say. This is life put into words; that's about it. I think it's beyond a simple good/bad quantification.

Let me repeat that: this book is beyond a simple good/bad quantification. It's beyond a simple enjoyed/didn't enjoy. There are two kinds of things I really like to see done in YA (and any genre): genre done to a T, and genre rethought. Dragon Chica falls into the second category, and I'm too happy to see that to criticize it.

Actually, that's not true. I will criticize it for one thing: the title. I love the cover, but the title makes me cringe. I think something a lot more evocative and telling of the story could have been found fairly easily, and every time I associate the title Dragon Chica with this book I cringe a little inside.

But that's minor. Dragon Chica told a story I've never seen told, or even heard mentioned in passing. (Yet another refugee crisis that isn't well known in the U.S.? Can't say I'm really surprised.) It told an important story. And to that I say, bravo, May-lee Chai. I'm not sure I'll be diving back in for re-reads, but I certainly won't be forgetting it anytime soon.(less)

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Sep 24, 2010 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, coming-of-age, fiction

My review on Dragon Chica is split into two parts - I & II.

I. I did not like the first part of this book. It was difficult to follow, some interesting choices of words brought home the reality that, even though this book is about an 11 year old girl at first, this is not a story you would want your 11 year old daughter reading. That said, there were parts that were driven home to me. The difficulty faced by an immigrant to the states to Texas. The confusion people had with equating Nea, a C...more

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Aug 13, 2010 Tara Chevrestt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-release, chinese-history-culture, kindle, netgalley, ya

There are so many issues addressed in this novel, I'm not really sure where to start. It is about a Chinese/Cambodian family that has survived the land mines and the work camps of war torn Cambodia and ended up in small town Nebraska in the 1980s running a Chinese restaurant.

It's about a mother trying to raise 5 children in a new country singlehanded. It's about two sisters and their love/hate relationship. One sister had it all at one time, beauty, brains, children, wealth. Now she has nothing...more There are so many issues addressed in this novel, I'm not really sure where to start. It is about a Chinese/Cambodian family that has survived the land mines and the work camps of war torn Cambodia and ended up in small town Nebraska in the 1980s running a Chinese restaurant.

It's about a mother trying to raise 5 children in a new country singlehanded. It's about two sisters and their love/hate relationship. One sister had it all at one time, beauty, brains, children, wealth. Now she has nothing and must watch the sister who at one time had very little, enjoy having so much more. A new country means new opportunities. It's about being an immigrant in small town America and dealing with prejudice in school. It's about making choices for yourself and not letting anyone else make them for you.

Nea is eleven when the story begins. She is one of the 5 children mentioned above. Her mother, herself, and her siblings join her crazy, bitter aunt and wealthy uncle in Nebraska to run a Chinese restaurant. The aunt is the sister who one time had it all. There are a lot of issues between the sisters and Nea sees it all even tho she doesn't always understand it. Nea has her own sister problems as she watches her own 16 year old sister marry an old man. Nea must come to terms with the loss of her best friend and companion. Who will she lean on now when things get tough at school? And they will get tough in school...

Nea grows up while working in the restaurant and struggles with her imperfections. Seems everyone is always eager to point out her flaws and not quite so quick to point out her good traits. The ending has a surprise that somewhat explains why she is treated differently. The revelation may change how Nea sees herself.

There are stories and memories of war torn Cambodia in between the scandals (don't mess with the wrestling team!) and daily living in Nebraska. Imagine walking on dead bodies simply to avoid any live bombs. After all, where there is a dead body, there is an already detonated bomb.

I really liked this but I have made this review long enough. Even tho I didn't agree with everything the family or characters did and at times, didn't like some of them, the story was about real life and had a very real feel. The heroine is spunky, honest, and very likeable.

Laugh out loud moment: When attacked by some bullies in school, Nea strikes back with both fists and words, "Hey, p*ndejo! I'm gonna kick your cajones! Tu madre es p*ta!" (I read a digital galley so this may change before publication.)

You gotta love a gal with that kind of fire. Dragon Chica, indeed. :)(less)

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Apr 28, 2011 Elli rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: family-relationships, immigrant-issues, refugees, women, cambodia

It's hard enough anyway for a single parent family to make a go of it, but for a refugee family from cambodia, a widowed mother with five youngsters, it's really hard. The point of view is from Nea, the second eldest. There are advantages in a strong family like this and one of them is when you know that for one reason or another deep down, it's all of you vs. the rest of the world. It may be somewhat fuelled by the alienation from the mainstream people. Certainly we all know that a certain Bapt...more

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Oct 25, 2010 Bree T rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

Nea is an 11yo girl living in Texas with her older sister, her twin younger sisters, her younger brother and her mother. Having fled the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, they have come to America where they live in a trailer park and her mother works as a hotel maid. They are given clothing by the local church, Nea and her siblings attend the local school. Their existence is a simple one but they’re safe.

Nea’s mother receives a letter which is from her brother-in-law. He too has fled Cambodia and come to...more Nea is an 11yo girl living in Texas with her older sister, her twin younger sisters, her younger brother and her mother. Having fled the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, they have come to America where they live in a trailer park and her mother works as a hotel maid. They are given clothing by the local church, Nea and her siblings attend the local school. Their existence is a simple one but they’re safe.

Nea’s mother receives a letter which is from her brother-in-law. He too has fled Cambodia and come to America and he and his wife, Nea’s aunt, are opening a Chinese restaurant in Nebraska. They extend an invitation to Nea’s mother to come and join them, to work for them and live with them, and to bring the children. So they pack their whole lives into the car and head north, driving from Texas up to Nebraska. When they arrive, the town is small – just the bare essentials and the restaurant right on the other side of town.

Nea, having been told the tales of how her uncle was rich in Cambodia, is expecting a dashing, handsome man with a black limo and a big house. What she sees is quite a different story and upon meeting her uncle, she refuses to even believe that is who he is. She’s a headstrong, stubborn child who causes her mother the most grief. As they settle into Nebraska, Nea’s mother notices that the American’s don’t like their traditional food, so she makes subtle changes to the menu, the seasoning, the decor and soon, the customers start to come. Nea and her siblings start attending the local school, where they are taunted as being either Japs or Indians (as in American Native Indians, not Indians of the sub-continent).

It is here, in my opinion, that the book excels. Although Nea is selfish and at times, quite unlikable as she moves through her new life, she is well skilled in making you feel her life, her emotions, her experiences. Her isolation by her fellow students, both in Texas previously and also in Nebraska shows not only the loneliness immigrants like herself and her family must have faced, but the ignorance in their American fellow school students, who didn’t care what ethnicity they were and taunted them with whatever seemed good at the time. It gives a real showing of the scorn and derision reserved for Asians and for Native Indians in that part of America during this time ( early 80s). Their restaurant is vandalised also and they are taunted with claims of serving dogs and cats.

Nea is a hard character to get a handle on at times, as her actions are often completely unreliable and lacking in any real sense. When her uncle and her mother arrange for her older sister Soudi to marry upon graduation, Nea is dead against it and tries hard as she can to stop it, and to make Soudi run away with her. Soudi refuses and never once gives an indication that she doesn’t want to get married but Nea can’t accept this, and even years later, after Soudi has had children, attempts to again get Soudi to run away, convincing a third party that Soudi is unhappy and abused by her husband. It takes Nea an awfully long time to grow up and see that her sister is not unhappy and that all the unhappiness Nea has spun for her has been in her head and nothing more. Soudi is secure and has a man who dotes on her, and she has her children and she is very happy with her lot in life.

Not knowing much about the Khmer Rouge, I would have been interested in more of Nea’s mother’s story and the stories of her uncle and aunt. We do get bits and pieces, such as the tragedy that happens to her aunt, which causes her already fragile mental state to disintegrate even further, and a few stories from Nea’s mother but given their whole lives revolve around fleeing this regime, I would’ve been more interested to hear a little more of what they went through. How they eventually got free of the country and ended up in America. But the novel is Nea’s coming of age story, and not her mother’s story so it focuses mostly on their time and life in America and how they make it work for them. As she grows up she realises what she wants in life and makes her own path to college. She still clashes with her mother, who is now running the restaurant alone, but Nea will learn a secret that has been kept from her all her life that changes everything and might at last set them on the same path.(less)

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Nov 28, 2010 Krista (CubicleBlindness Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I always enjoy reading about other cultures. This was a very educational novel for me. It's a coming of age story about a young Chinese/Cambodian girl Nea. They are refugees from a rice field in Cambodia to Texas, USA. Her family travels from Texas to Nebraska in hope for a better life and more money at their family's restaurant, but find it just as full of challenges and hardships as Texas had been. Nea's family runs a Chinese Restaurant and she and her siblings struggle. School is rough and th...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Jean rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a beautiful book set in the seventies and eighties, about a family of Cambodian refugees trying to create a new life for themselves in the American mid west, not the most sympathetic of contexts at the time. It's a coming of age story, with a plucky narrator in Nea, a young teen who has the perspicacity to make sense of it all eventually, but not without a bag of troubles, which include painful memories of the refugee experience of war, loss of her sister to an early marriage, problems...more

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Jan 18, 2011 Erica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dead-friends-and-family, flat-characters, growing-up, racism, sisters, war-stories, ya

Meh.
I don't know what to say.
The things I have in common with Nea: I was a teenaged girl in the '80's. I know Nebraska. I have sisters. I worked in a family-owned restaurant in my youth. My mom smokes.
Other than that, I couldn't really relate to this character. I can't imagine what it was like to have been a refugee fleeing Cambodia, losing family to illness, soldiers, and landmines. I can't imagine what it would have been like to become expatriated in Texas. I can't imagine what it would be li...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Hannah Cobb rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction

Eleven-year-old Nea has survived minefields and worse in Cambodia,and these experiences continue to haunt her as she tries to built a new identity in the United States. Nea pits herself against financial difficulties, bigotry, and a stern mother in this novel that describes just how hard growing up different can be. This is a heavy read, not something every teen will enjoy, but well worth the read. For ages 16-18.

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Aug 25, 2011 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars

May-Lee Chai's "Dragon Chica" an extraordinary coming of age story about a Cambodian thirteen year old Nea who escapes her war torn counry to Texas along with her family and on to a small town on the edge on Nebraska's cornfields. A story of growning up different in American and dealing with family and all the fillings and mixed emotions of a teenage girl. Excellent read.

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May 14, 2012 Literary Mama added it

Shelves: fiction

Part of Literary Mama's "Mother's Day Essential Reading" list. Read the whole list here: http://www.literarymama.com/litreflec...

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May 16, 2012 Joanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Kind of a throwaway teen novel about a Chinese-Cambodian immigrant girl coming of age in Nebraska. Sweet little book, but not especially memorable for me.

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Apr 08, 2011 Harvee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent YA and ethnic fiction about a family of Cambodian immigrants adjusting to life in the Midwest.

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Jul 18, 2011 Karla rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: apala_yalitaward_committee10_12, ya

A little convoluted.

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Sep 17, 2011 Edi Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia-lit, young-adult

Reading on my Nook! A somber, unpredictable story

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Jan 10, 2011 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It was a solid, multicultural, feminist bildungsroman with excellent characterization and imagery. However, I guessed the ending, but that could just be because I've read so much of this genre.

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Apr 01, 2013 Kathryn Borton marked it as to-read

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