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Bangkok in the 1950s and early 1960s was a relatively small city consisting of exotic temples and palaces built in bygone days surrounded by rows of commercial and residential shophouses. Author Kim Pao Yu, a child born into a traditional Northern Chinese family, writes about his parents, their origins in Shandong, and how they escaped the war and communism in China to settle in Bangkok. In Where Chingchoks Chirp, a collection of essays, he shares his parents' beliefs and values, their hopes and joys, and their struggles to ensure a better life for their children. Raised in a shophouse where his parents owned an antique and furniture store, situated in a compound inhabited by immigrant Chinese from Swatow, Kim describes everyday activities-the myriad vendors who sold their goods and services, the neighborhood children and the games they played, and how they celebrated holidays and festivals. The selections also cover the food and recipes his mother left as a legacy; his memories of people and experiences encountered while growing up; and his adventures at an American school as a local Chinese boy attending with the children of American expatriate and military families that shaped his thinking as he left Bangkok for higher learning in the United States. Where Chingchoks Chirp shares the sights, sounds, and smells of the bygone days of Bangkok, now a modern, bustling city that still retains much of its past.
