A young adult novel set in the Bronx and Shanghai, DEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS is a beautiful, haunting story of growing up and accepting life's challenges—and its joys.
Meet Tony Cheung: a 15 year-old Chinese boy who is obsessed with graffiti culture, Tony gets kicked out of his Bronx high school for spray painting a teacher's car. As punishment, his parents send him to Shanghai to spend the summer working in his uncle's restaurant.
In Shanghai, Tony's troubles continue as he struggles to adjust to his uncle's discipline and the vast new city around him. But fortunately, he also befriends the great Chinese artist Zhu Qizhan.
Zhu Qizhan was born in 1892 and lived to be 105 years old. During his life, Zhu witnessed the Boxer Rebellion, the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, the Sino-Japanese War, Japan's occupation of China during World War II, the Cultural Revolution...a full lifetime indeed, packed with struggle, love, conflict, and always, art.
In 1992, when DEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS begins, Zhu, the teller of tales, is 100 years old, still pushing himself to create, still experimenting with form and color. With the help of Master Zhu's stories and lessons, Tony learns not only about Chinese painting, but about Master Zhu's incredible life, about Chinese history, and how to approach work and life with dignity, honor, and integrity.
