Tolog Review: Colors of the Mountain

Colors of the Mountain
by Da Chen
reviewed by Chelsea Cheung

The Colors of the Mountain tells a story of a child who did not grown up from a poor family in China. Due to the social class that the Chen family was in, the government and the people in his community did not respect them at all. The marginalization of their family did not change the way how the parents educate their children; they were well education in the way of treating other with respect than the others who were richer than the Chen’s. When one of the children from the Chen’s family first went to school, he was accused and punish by a teacher for something that he did not do. That child was then forced to write a reflection paper to apologize to the teacher. He then went home and told his father about what has happened in school, but his father told him not to write it and not to apologize to anyone when he has not done anything wrong. In this novel, I can see the poor were treated awfully by government and other people as well as everything they do were seen as a sin back in the days in China. However, the poor has more integrity than the others think. Similarly to Black Boy by Richard Wright, Richard was poor and black therefore people look down him, but he does have more faith and integrity in himself than others do. Da Chen, the author of Colors of the Mountain tells us that being poor does not mean anything; integrity and diligence is what makes someone successful. If you like books that are realistic and books that tells a story of someone's life, you would love this book !