As long as I can remeber, I have wanted to know about the Land of the Golden Mountain, but my mother had never wanted to talk about it. All I know is that a few months before I was born, my father had left our home in the Middle Kingdom, or China, as the white demons called it, and traveled over the sea to work in the demon land.There was plenty of money to be made among the demons, but it was also dangerous. My own grandfather had been lynched about thirty years before by a mob of white demons almost the moment he set foot on their shores.

The beginning passage shows Moon Shadow's overall impression of America. I found it interesting the way he called Americans white demons, and how he reviewed them as terrible people. Stories of his grandfather had given him belief that America was a dangerous place. He called America the demon land, but also the Land of the Golden Mountain. He recognized that America was rich, but did not approve of the country. Moon Shadow didn't like the way the "white demons" called his country China. He believed that the Middle Kingdom, he and the rest of the people's name for China, was a safe and prosperous place. This was and interesting passage because it showed how his aspect of his country was different to other country's aspect of his. This was a great beginning paragraph to this amazing story.

Carmen M. 7/10/11