Lost In Taiwan by Mark Crilley

Paul is visiting his older brother, Theo who is living in Taiwan. Paul has been there for four days but has done nothing but sit on Theo's couch, withdrawn and with attitude. He was sent seven thousand miles across the ocean by his dad, who thought it might be a good idea. Theo's girlfriend arrives early and overhears their argument. Although she is friendly towards Paul, he's glad when they both leave. 

Alone, Paul decides to hunt down a Nintendo Swoop after being encouraged by a random online friend. After searching online, Paul believes he's found one at Future Now Electronics and sets out to find it. However, after travelling all over the city, Paul finds that the shop he thought had a Nintendo Swoop, finds it is a children's toy. Furious at his friend Kyle, Paul isn't paying attention while walking and drops his phone on the street. Without his phone, Paul has no way to find his way back to Theo's apartment. Completely distraught, Paul sits down lost. That is until a young Taiwanese girl named Pei-Jing comes along.

With Pei-Jing's help, Paul finds his way back to Theo, but not before becoming friends with her, eating real Taiwanese food at her aunt and uncle's shui jiao restaurant, meeting her grandparents, going to a temple and meeting her cousin, Wallace.

Experiencing life in Taiwan offers Paul a new perspective on life and gains him a real friend in Pei-Jing.

Discussion

The beautiful artwork of Mark Crilley tells the physical and inner journey of a young American boy when he becomes lost in Taiwan in five chapters over the course of one day.

Paul, who is visiting his older brother Theo, admits he has no friends and simply wants to sit on the couch for the entire two weeks he's there. When he gets lost, it is a Taiwanese girl, Pei-Jing who offers to help the distraught American. 

Pei-Jing who has to deliver star fruit to her family, takes Paul around Taiwan, introducing him to her culture: the delicious food, her elderly grandparents, her religious beliefs and her cousin Wallace, who eventually helps Paul home. 

For Paul there are two journeys he experiences: the physical journey to return to his brother Theo's apartment and the internal journey where he is forced to relate to others because he's lost in a strange city. He is also forced to learn about another culture very different from his own. 

Pei-Jing and Wallace help Paul with both journeys. Pei-Jing however has the more significant impact as she challenges the assumptions Paul, as an American, has about Taiwanese people and their culture. When he first meets Pe-Jing he is astonished she speaks English. When she takes him to her aunt and uncle's shui jiao restaurant, Pei-Jing encourages Paul to try to pronounce the Mandarin words properly. A visit to her elderly grandparents shows Paul the value and respect Pei-Jing has for them. At the Buddhist temple, Paul's view that Pei-Jing's beliefs are "exotic" upset her and she tells him, "Your culture isn't the 'normal' culture. And mine isn't the 'weird' culture." Gradually, Paul comes to appreciate Pei-Jing's culture, enjoying the food, appreciative of how complex the Chinese characters are, and experiencing the beauty of the rice fields and the mountains. 

Pei-Jing and Wallace are stunned to learn that Paul has few friends. But when he tells them that his fear of being rejected leads him to leave friends if there are any signs of conflict, Pei-Jing tells Paul that overcoming these obstacles makes a friendship stronger. At first Paul is upset but later realizes that his fear of failure has paralyzed his life. The helping isn't all one-sided though. Paul encourages Pei-Jing not to give up on her dream to own a tea shop in Taiwan where people can have real British tea.

Author-illustrator Mark Crilley has crafted a touching story of self-discovery when  young boy whose lost his way in life gets hopelessly lost in a strange country and must rely on the kindness of a stranger to find his way home. It is through a blossoming friendship and experiencing a new culture that he finds both himself and his way back home.

Crilley, like the character of Theo in the graphic novel, taught English in Taiwan for two years in the 1970's. The experience  in a new culture motivated Crilley to do pen-and-ink drawings while in Taiwan, several of which grace the intro to each chapter. Like the main character Paul, Crilley found the Taiwanese people kind and generous. But unlike Paul, Crilley was eager to learn Mandarin and experience the culture of Taiwan.

Lost In Taiwan is an ode to the resilient, courageous people of Taiwan, and to the possibility of friendship that can exist between peoples from different cultures. 

Book Details:

Lost In Taiwan by Mark Crilley
New York: Little, Brown and Company    2023

245 pp.