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    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove"
    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove"
    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove"
    Ebook47 pages40 minutes

    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 15, 2016
    ISBN9781535833486
    A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove"

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      A Study Guide for Yoko Kawashima Watkins's "So Far From the Bamboo Grove" - Gale

      09

      So Far from the Bamboo Grove

      Yoko Kawashima Watkins

      1986

      Introduction

      The events in the autobiographical novel So Far from the Bamboo Grove, published in 1986 and still in print, were taken from Yoko Kawashima Watkins's childhood. It took Watkins ten years to write the novel.

      When Watkins was young, her father, a Japanese government official, was sent to northern Korea (which was occupied by Japan), where he settled his family. Watkins grew up learning the Korean language and culture while maintaining a grasp of her own Japanese heritage. Later, Russian and Korean armies united against Japan, and along with support from U.S. bombers, forced the Japanese off the Korean peninsula. Watkins's story focuses mainly on her family's journey out of Korea, and on their attempts to reestablish their lives in their war-torn homeland.

      So Far from the Bamboo Grove has been both praised and negatively criticized over the years. In 1986, the novel was listed as a Notable Book by the American Library Association. In addition, it received a Best Books for Children designation from the School Library Journal. However, more recently there has been some controversy surrounding Watkins's novel. It has been charged that the novel contains an inaccurate or biased account of history, and the suggested rape scene in the story has also been viewed as offensive. Some parents have even tried to have the book removed from school libraries and curriculums. Most readers, however, defend the novel, stating that it is predominantly a work of fiction, told through the eyes of a traumatized eleven-year-old. For them, this story is a coming-of-age journey.

      Author Biography

      Yoko Kawashima Watkins, who is of Japanese descent, was born in Manchuria. Although Manchuria is part of China, and sits on China's eastern seaboard, Japan had invaded Manchuria and controlled the area by 1931. Watkins's family was living there in 1933, in Harbin, when she was born. Later, the family moved to Nanam in northern Korea, possibly thinking they might avoid the conflicts that were threatening between the Japanese and Russian armies. Although the family moved, Watkins's father continued to commute the fifty miles to his station in Manchuria and thus was often away from home. The setting of So Far from the Bamboo Grove at the beginning of the story is in Nanam.

      As Watkins relates in her novel, when she was eleven, in 1945, it became apparent that Japan was fighting a losing battle in World War II. Her family was warned to leave with just enough supplies and belongings to get them to the port of Pusan on the southern point of the Korean peninsula. After making it to Japan, they discovered that much of their homeland had been destroyed, and they had to survive by eating out of trash cans and earning small amounts of money by selling trinkets door-to-door.

      Watkins credits her older sister Ko for encouraging her studies despite the challenges of poverty they faced after their mother died. Watkins would later attend Kyoto University, where she specialized in English. Upon graduation, Watkins worked

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