GROWING UP CHINESE is a lively book with a funny, thoroughly enlightened author doing his best to tell his story and the story of one Chinese village in Malaya with tremendous insight, detail and compassion. The diverse culture in the land has emerged through multiple voices that the author struggled with in this coming-of-age memoir. He orchestrates all these voices to depict the complex life of growing up in a truly multicultural world. Most remarkably, this is the story of the American dream an ocean away from America. A young man born into poverty seeks a better life for himself by working hard and developing his innate talents to their fullest. He seeks to create and define his own life. Shades of Horatio Alger and Oliver Twist, this is an indelibly unforgettable story of one young man’s quest for freedom, an education and a new life, a struggle by one undaunted by life’s hurdles and vicissitudes.