The Pioneer Adventures of Chen Sing
An adventurer who perseveres even when the task is unpleasant models hard work in the historical novel The Pioneer Adventures of Chen Sing.
George Chiang’s illustrated novel The Pioneer Adventures of Chen Sing is a story of grit and resilience that’s based on the real escapades of a Chinese railroad worker turned pioneer.
Having finished their jobs on the transcontinental railroad, Chen Sing and his cousin Bo are eager for a new start. Together, the cousins try out businesses including preparing buffalo hides and running a laundry. Along with their new friend Ike, they discover that the untamed North American lands provide an endless supply of dangers and opportunities.
Sing is an adaptable and thrifty lead who faces multiple fires, losses, and setbacks. He perseveres even when the task is unpleasant, and his wide variety of jobs—including pork salesman and orchardist—are used to model the value of hard work. A blend of humorous moments and more serious encounters lends variety to his adventures. In one grin-worthy scene, for example, the cousins milk a cow and are mistaken as hairy beasts because of their buffalo hide coats. In another scene, they grapple with the aftermath of arson.
Sing’s adventures are set in the fertile, forested lands of the Interior Plateau during the late nineteenth century, and a prefatory note includes some historical and biographical context. Complementary illustrations appear throughout to depict Sing’s adventures. Their cartoon style is simple yet expressive, making use of bright colors and emphasizing the lush growth and sparkling waters of the Interior Plateau. But in some illustrations, certain elements (including a loaf of bread and a patch of trees) appear in a more realistic and transparent style than the characters and backgrounds, to discordant effect.
Among the book’s diverse cast, friends share their skills and cultures with each other well, as when Sing and Bo teach Chinese New Year traditions to Ike, and when Sing’s friend Dance in the Snow shows the cousins how to use the land to rid their clothes of skunk smell. As it emphasizes cooperation and friendship, however, the story sometimes raises and then brushes aside deeper issues. For example, Sing encounters a group of Indigenous men who explain that he did not have a right to buy the land as it already belonged to them. This issue of settlers claiming Indigenous land, coupled with Sing’s suspicions that these are the men who burned down his cabin earlier, are forgotten as soon the men decide that Sing seems nice, though; instead of dealing with their hefty concerns, they all become friends. Still, the book works toward an ending that is satisfying because of its sweet sense of anticipation, though it leaves some questions, as of what became of Bo, unsatisfied.
Drawing on oral histories, the adventure novel The Pioneer Adventures of Chen Sing is about an intrepid pioneer navigating Canada’s frontier.
Reviewed by
Vivian Turnbull
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