Yellow Singing Sail, Graphic Novel

Huang Yinfin (a.k.a. “Yinyin”) is an only child. So are nearly all her classmates. It is almost like there was a rigid government policy restricting Chinese families to one child in the 1990s. In fact, there was exactly such a policy, but she never mentions it during this graphic novel memoir, probably she would not have been aware of such realities during her elementary school years. Regardless, many of the memories from her childhood remained sufficiently fresh to inspire Huang’s Yellow Singing Sail, illustrated by the author, which releases today.

Ironically, around her fifth birthday, Yinyin was living in the countryside, much like the regime had mandated for all its subjects two decades prior. Unfortunately, the little girl experiences strife once her parents move to the industrial city of Guangzhou.

Unable to afford their own flat, Yinyin and her parents must stay with her Aunt Guma and Uncle Guye, who is a member of the state police force. Unfortunately, they are more opportunistic than hospitable when it comes to their new living arrangement, while Guma is often downright mean towards Yinyin’s mother.

Although Huang never directly addresses the “One Child” policy, there several surprisingly telling episodes. Considering Beijing’s war on Cantonese in Hong Kong, many readers will be shocked to read how Yinyin struggled to perfect her fluency to impress the Cantonese speaking “cool kids” in her Guangzhou classes.

Arguably, even an incident when young Huang discovers their six-floor walk-up apartment was broken into challenges regime propaganda claiming an absence of common street crime. Still, much of Yinyin’s school drama is presented in a way that suggests a universality of such formative experiences.

Yellow Singing Sail (the literal translation of Huang’s name) is a nice coming-of-age story, but it is also a minor work. The deliberately simple style of Huang’s illustrations evokes of vivid sense of childhood. Nevertheless, such images never really sear themselves into readers’ memories.

Again, Yellow Singing Sail is all very nice, but Huang never takes her readers into deeper or more controversial terrain. It is honest enough to be legitimate, but it never speaks out against the One Child policy or, for instance, the Tiananmen Square Massacre and its aftermath, which cast a dark shadow over the early 1990’s. Moderately recommended as a family memoir rather than as a document of its times, Yellow Singing Sail goes on-sale today (6/3), wherever books and comics are sold.