Nuanced portrayals of characters’ relationships keep the themes of discrimination and allyship in focus the tenuous friendship between Mei’s father and the camp boss in particular highlights the difference between offering verbal support and taking meaningful action. When the logging company caves under a boycott, the White camp boss dismisses all the Chinese workers, leaving frustrated Mei angry at her own helplessness. But in the real world, anti-Chinese sentiments have turned into acts of violence. In these stories clearly inspired by Paul Bunyan, Auntie Po is a guardian figure, protecting the logging crew from threats including giant mosquitos and unscrupulous companies. At night, she entertains listeners with her made-up stories about Auntie Po, an elderly Chinese woman taller than the pine trees who has a blue water buffalo. Mei helps her father in the kitchen, feeding the dozens of hungry men who work at their logging camp. In a late-19th-century Sierra Nevada logging camp, a Chinese American girl spins tall tales and dreams of a better future.
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