Dori Jones Yang - The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball

Advanced Praise for
The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball

As I read this story, I was continually amazed about what those boys went through not only in traveling to the States but in adjusting to life, education, and customs here.

KIRBY LARSON, AUTHOR OF NEWBERY HONOR BOOK HATTIE BIG SKY

Through the eyes of the ever-curious Leon (Woo Ka-Leong), America is a play of both dazzling light and layered shadows. The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball turns our assumptions of America, and the Chinese impact on our history, upside down. A riveting and revealing story for the ages.

CONRAD WESSELHOEFT, AUTHOR OF DIRT BIKES, DRONES, AND OTHER WAYS TO FLY

A smart, authentic, and engaging look at the Chinese experience in America through the eyes of an adventurous and loyal boy who journeys into the sometimes welcoming, often hostile environment that was nineteenth-century America. Youll be drawn in by the absorbing history (which is little-known but true) but stay for the charactersand the story that brings them to life.

DAVID PATNEAUDE, AUTHOR OF THIN WOOD WALLS

Set against the backdrop of the true story of 120 Chinese students sent to New England by their government to study, Dori follows the lives of Woo Ka-Leong (Leon) and his brother Woo Ka-Sun (Carson), their time with the Swann family of Suffield, Connecticut, and their conquest of baseball in a thoroughly satisfying book that will teach young readers about the Chinese, and to see their own culture through foreign eyes.

SCOTT D. SELIGMAN, AUTHOR OF TONG WARS AND THE FIRST CHINESE AMERICAN

The story shows what it feels like to move to a different country, and how frustrating it is when you have limited language skills. It illustrates the contrasts between the American and Chinese culturesand how conflicted you can feel when two cultures collide and youre caught in the middle.

ANNA X., AGE 11, MERCER ISLAND, WA, DESCENDANT OF ONE OF THE 120 SCHOLARS FROM THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MISSION

The much-published Dori Jones Yang, in writing this novel, has drawn on historical accounts of the 1870s Chinese Educational Mission, as well as her own extended residence in China as a foreign correspondent. She knows whereof she writes.

EDWARD RHOADS, AUTHOR OF STEPPING FORTH INTO THE WORLD: THE CHINESE EDUCATIONAL MISSION TO THE UNITED STATES, 1872-81

My great grandfather, Wen Bingzhong, was one of the First 100 and I often wondered about his experiences in America. This was a fascinating period in modern Chinese history, and Dori Jones Yang has written a story which describes how this group of young Chinese males might have felt.

MARTIN TANG, RETIRED CHAIRMAN, ASIA, SPENCER STUART & ASSOCIATES

Although the book takes place in 1876, the conflicts and issues raised are completely modern and relevant today as communities wrestle with the integration of traditional values and changes in technology, job requirements, and evolving social mores. As Dori Jones Yang brings these characters to life, they spark lots of thought-provoking questions fantastic for school or home.

NANCY KENNAN, MOTHER OF A MIDDLE SCHOOLER, AVID READER OF HISTORICAL FICTION, AND INVESTMENT BANKER IN NEW YORK CITY

The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball

Copyright 2017 Dori Jones Yang

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Published by SparkPress, a BookSparks imprint,
A division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC
Tempe, Arizona, USA, 85281
www.gosparkpress.com

Published 2017
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 978-1-943006-32-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-943006-33-5 (e-bk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017936148

Interior design by Tabitha Lahr

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the authors imagination and are not to be construed as real. Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Dedicated to my friend,
Peter Tonglao,
19312016,
whose grandfather was one of the real
one hundred and twenty boys
of the Chinese Educational Mission
to the United States

E ven after four days on the train, Woo Ka-Leong marveled at how fast it zipped along the smooth rails. Outside the windows, the snowy American prairie sped by, flat and white as a big silk quilt, and occasional craggy trees whizzed past like a flock of swallows. Brown lumps in the distance, he had learned, were herds of what appeared to be wild water buffalo but bulkier and hairier. Thick black smoke from the engine poured back over the passenger car, far darker than the wisps from his mothers cooking fire.

Metal wheels clacked in rhythm louder and more insistent than banging cymbals, but you couldnt cover your ears every minute for the seven days it would take to cross this huge continent. Even though the windows were shut tight against winter winds, all the passengers stayed bundled up in layers of clothing. Leongs nose wrinkled from the smell of burning metal, unwashed bodies, and the pungent sharpness of a hot black drink that was definitely not tea.

Next to him, Elder Brother was sleeping, again. How could anyone stay still for so long?

Leong wished he could be exploring the locomotive, figuring out what made this Iron Horse gallop. One time, during a mail stop, he had climbed up into the locomotive, where he examined the levers and valves and gauges, guessing how they worked. The engineer greeted him with a friendly smile, half hidden by a bushy red beard, and then tugged on a small bar near the roof of the cab. The whistle blew! As if responding to a warning signal, Elder Brother had come rushing in and dragged Leong back to their car.

You cant just run around like that, Elder Brother had said. Dont you ever think first, before you run off? What if I lost you? From now on, just behave. You hear?

Leong had nodded. He didnt want to get lost, but he hated behaving. Besides, he was raring to learn everything he could about trains and about this new railroad that ran all the way across America. It was one of the wonders of the world. About nine thousand lei, from coast to coast. Unbelievable.

Quick movements in the aisle caught his eye. Tik-Chang, his best friend, was waving his arms to get his attention without waking Elder Brother. He and Tik-Chang, at age eleven, were the youngest in their group of thirty boys traveling together, and both of them hated sitting still. Now Leong noticed that Tik-Chang was waving a piece of rope.