The Green Turtle in China

On July 18, 2014, I had a morning appointment at the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. With me were my son, Aaron, and Professor Peng Changxin, of South China University of Technology, who drove us to the office.

I brought a suitcase full of books, periodicals, Playbills, comic books, menus, matchcovers, a watercolor painting and a hole puncher; all of them related to the Chinese in the United States. These items were donated for the Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Museum, which is under construction.

I presented the items to Deputy Director Feng Guang Jun and other officers. Included were copies of Blazing Comics, numbers three and four, and The Shadow Hero by Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew. I explained to Feng that the comics books featured a superhero, the Green Turtle, created by Chu Fook Hing, in the mid-1940s. I told him that a new story had been published about the Green Turtle by Yang and Liew. (I received an advanced copy of The Shadow Hero from Yang’s publisher, First Second Books.) Chu’s watercolor painting was donated, too.

Feng Guang Jun (left) and Alex Jay (right).
Photo by Professor Peng Changxin

As you may know, all of the Green Turtle stories took place in China. With my donation of Blazing Comics and The Shadow Hero, the Green Turtle really is in China. It’s up to the museum curator to decide how to use Chu’s comics and watercolor, along with Yang and Liew’s graphic novel.

Related post: Gene Yang at the National Book Festival.

(Next post on Friday: Bruce Lee in Hong Kong and Guangzhou)