Ever since I can remember, I had wanted to know about the Land of the Golden Mountain, but my mother had never wanted to talk about it. All I knew was that a few months before I was born, my father had left our home in the Middle Kingdom, or China, as the white demons call it, and traveled over the sea to work in the demon land. There was plenty of money to be made among the demons, but it was also dangerous. My own grandfather had been lynched about thirty years before by a mob of white demons almost the moment he had set foot on their shores.
Especially in consideration of the title of the book, this opening paragraph can very easily be misinterpreted as the introduction to a fantasy novel taking place in a strange and wondrous alien world or time. The references to demons populating a land characterized by golden mountains certainly is suggestive of Tolkien and the reference to China as “Middle Kingdom” almost seems like purposeful nod to Middle Earth. In reality, this is all just metaphorical language: The Land of the Golden Mountains is San Francisco where the white demons is a reference to its white European-based population. The mob of white demons is an abstract reference to xenophobic racism at its most extreme.
There are some dragons that delight in harming other creatures, even their own kin. But the Dragon King himself is by and large a good creature who rules over all reptiles and the animals who live in the sea, and some say he is the head of all the other animals. The Dragon King is one creature you stay friends with, since he can cause earthquakes as well as floods and droughts. To have him personally tell you a story is quite an honor.
Moon Shadow’s father is the person about to commence telling the story-within-a-story of being a dragon in previous existence. And he desperately wants to regain that status. His father is convinced the story he tells is true; something that really happened. Most insist it was merely a dream. Being a loyal and devoted son, of course, Moon Shadow experiences not a second of doubt that the story his father tells is the real deal. The story and the mutual belief in its veracity is, in fact, what brings the too-long separated father and son closer together than they have ever been before.
Dear Mr. Lee,
My brother and I are always happy to meet another flying enthusiast. Our brotherhood is too small to lose any one of us. Enclosed you will find some tables and diagrams that should prove of some service to you. If we can be of any further assistance to you, please let us know.
Orville Wright—as in the brother of Wilbur. As in the Wright Brothers of Kitty Hawk, pioneers of aviation. Part of the story is based upon the real life experiences of a young Chinese immigrant named Fung Joe Guey. He became the first Chinese-American aviator after building a biplane based upon the blueprints of the Wright Brothers. The decision to write the Wright Brothers at first creates a rift between father and son arising from the fear of Moon Shadow’s father that asking for their assistance bears the shame of begging for assistance from the white demons and also because Moon Shadow appears to have shared his father’s dream with a white woman. These fears pass by with the night, however, and soon he is hard at work using the tables and diagrams sent by the Wrights to craft a glider of his own.
