Donald Duk
A novel by Frank Chin

"The 11-year-old hero of Mr. Chin’s inventive, energetic first novel is educated in his Chinese heritage through a series of astonishing dreams about working on the Central Pacific Railroad in 1869." - The New York Times Book Review

"Donald Duk is a small masterpiece, brimming with excess machismo and verve. Chin mixes elements of the lost Chinatown of the last century with the new Chinatown - there are ‘90s references to the influx of Chinese, Vietnamese, Reeboks, and using the TV remote to change the color on the screen so that everyone looks Chinese." - The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Donald Duk is an entertaining counterpoint to the stereotypes of Chinese-American men." - Los Angeles Daily News

"Donald Duk is a wild, rambunctious first novel that reads like a Chinese-American’s ‘Portnoy’s Complaint.’" - The Washington Times

"Frank Chin’s unique literary recipe - red hot chop suey laced with laughing powder and amphetamines - makes most so-called ‘modern’ writing look old-fashioned, chauvinistic, and tedious." - Tom Robbins

Welcome to Chinatown, Chinese New Year in San Francisco. Everybody’s birthday. The lantern festival of the fifteenth day. Welcome home. Crashing Cantonese opera, dancing lions, comic book heroes, and a childhood among partying pagans. Donald Duk is a twelve-year-old kid with everything, including a name he doesn’t like and a family who doesn’t deserve him. As he completes his first turn around the Chinese zodiac’s cycle of twelve animals, the Mandate of Heaven turns; he takes flight and dreams himself a home.

As this novel opens, Donald Duk would rather be Fred Astaire than the son of a Chinatown restaurateur. Through the course of this robust and vigorous work, Donald learns to see himself more clearly as he, and we, see his culture free of distorting stereotypes.

The first Chinese-American to have a play produced on a New York stage, Frank Chin is known for uncompromising portrayals of Chinese-Americans and for incorporation of Chinese mythology into his work. His collection of stories, The Chinaman Pacific & Frisco R.R. Co., published by Coffee House Press, received the American Book Award. His plays include The Chickencoop Chinaman and The Year of the Dragon.

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