Bridging Chinese, Western cultures with story of humble boy-turned-hero

When I began writing a series of three storybooks for middle school kids in China, I had little idea who the characters would be or what conflicts would drive the action.

I only had a general idea: I wanted to bridge Chinese and Western cultures by telling stories of a young Chinese boy who rises to challenges, develops himself with a humble attitude and eventually becomes a hero.

This project was an outgrowth of the bedtime stories I used to make up for my children decades ago. They have pestered me for years to write them down. So this is a first step.

Let me tell you, the hardest thing was getting started. I dabbled at the first story for eight years, only to find that hours of pondering a story — mentally working out all the details — are useless. Sooner or later, I have to sit down at the keyboard and type the first sentence, even if it’s gibberish.

Unlike outline-style writers, I can’t seem to frame a whole story in advance. I’m someone who thinks through his fingers.

And so the most important thing is … to … just … start … typing. Putting a single thought into words triggers another thought, and then another and another. And then the story is rolling and it practically writes itself, like magic.

It’s a lot of fun, actually — especially when it’s finished and I can find my books on Taobao by searching the keyword “kidnappers”. That comes from my first story — Kai & the Kidnappers, in which 8-year-old Wang Kaihao learns how to drive and, with the encouragement of his teacher, becomes the official driver for the president of the United States. Then the kidnappers attack.

In the second story, Kai & the Space Rescue, he’s around age 10 or 11. He overcomes a bully’s hectoring and finds the inner strength, along with his dog Muttly, to complete his training and attempt a rescue of astronauts orbiting Earth in a damaged space station.

Last comes Kai & the Treasure Hunt, about how our hero, now about 13 or 14, befriends an elderly man in China with clues to a secret treasure from an ancient dynasty. Then our boy goes up against a gang of international relic thieves to find it.

Writing fiction is very much a solitary and personal pursuit, not cold mechanics, as with much of news writing. With fiction, you end up with new friends and acquaintances. My characters have become real to me. I know them intimately — their every thought, fear, emotion and motive — even though they are unaware of my existence. Strange, isn’t it? It’s as much a matter of discovering as creating. Michelangelo described creating his sculptural masterpieces as a process of removing excess material to reveal the figure that already existed inside a raw block of stone. It’s like that for me, sort of.

Like Michelangelo’s work (apologies for name-dropping, Mike) the writing process is not so much a question of creating characters as discovering what makes them tick — and then providing an environment in which they can be themselves. Their personalities emerge as the story progresses.

Technically, as the all-powerful author, I am God. I can force them to do anything I want. I can make them fall in love, or feel pain or fear or shame. I can kill them if they give me trouble … hahaha! But mostly I try to listen to them. They often tell me what needs to happen next.

Bottom line, when all is said and done, is a simple objective:

I merely hope to delight a young reader, or perhaps inspire one to work a little harder, develop good morals and be of service to others. If my stories can do even some of that, I’ll be content.

Randy Wright