Crossing
by Andrew Xia Fukuda
September 2010 Book Pick

Xing Xu is one of two Asian students at a predominantly all-white high school in Ashland, New York, where he is considered a shy loner. Xing is plagued with the struggles of being tormented and teased for his cultural differences, and his only friend who seems to understand him is the other Asian student at school, Naomi Lee. A secret gift from Xing's past life in China proves to be the vehicle needed to bring him out of the shadows and offer him the acceptance that he yearns for amongst his peers, Naomi included. But when his fellow students begin to disappear in a chain of puzzling kidnappings, Xing becomes tangled up in the crimes and rouses suspicion.

As this whodunit thriller starts to unravel, Xing starts to see and hear things that others miss out on because he is a quiet bystander who goes unnoticed. Will Xing's gift be the answer he needs to make him finally be heard? How will everyone around him react to his revelation and does he hold the answer to solving the crimes?

Book Club Picks: Crossing Opinion

It is easy to see why this book received the AmazonEncore award for its exceptionality as a first-time novel. The author cleverly combines a thrilling murder mystery with a well-crafted character development story about a young Asian boy trying to find his way in America. This page turner is sure to keep you guessing right up until the end, when you will have to face a decision about whether or not you can trust the narrator's credibility in telling his story in which you have become so invested.

Book Club Picks: Crossing Discussion Questions

1. What were the demographics of the student population at your high school? Did this book give you a new perspective when thinking about the high school experience for minority cultures in America?
2. What did you think of Naomi Lee's character? What was your reaction to her relationship with Xing and how was it important to the development of the story?
3. Who was on your suspect list as the story unfolded? Do you think that Xing can be trusted as the narrator of this mystery?

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda, author of Crossing

I have to admit, I myself attended a high school that had only four Asian students and was predominantly white. Your story gave me a new perspective (and insider insight) on the struggles that a young Asian student faces in high school in America. How important was it for you to let the reader really feel what those difficulties and struggles are?

Very. In fact, what I most wanted to accomplish in Crossing was to create a passage of empathy - for the reader to really step into the shoes and live in the skin of an immigrant Chinese teen, to fully feel his difficulties and struggles. The immigrant Chinese are a marginalized and largely voiceless community; being able to bring them to the forefront and give them a voice has been immensely satisfying.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

You make a lot of references to Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech. shooter from 2007. Do you think that the Virginia Tech. massacre has created a stereotype for a young Asian boy who might be considered a loner? What is the significance of that incident to the Asian population in the United States?

My deepest fear stemming from the Virginia Tech massacre was not so much the creation of the "Asian loner" stereotype so much as the further perpetuation and accretion of that stereotype. The loner stereotype - accompanied by the usual traits of being inscrutable, a peril, a silent and impassive menace that is both domesticated and exotic - has been around for decades now in various forms in the media. In many aspects, Seung-Hui Cho fit into that stereotype. Because of that easy fit, I think the Asian American community was afraid of a backlash, and that fear lent itself to a new fervor in my writing. I wanted to create a protagonist who was complex and layered and dimensional, who wasn't an easy fit, and who would "undo" some of the harm that Cho may have engendered. Realistic complexity and nuance in characters, after all, kill stereotypes.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Naomi started to grate on my nerves as the story went on. I almost got annoyed with how perfect and flawless Kris makes her out to be, yet she strings him along like he is her toy. Kris seems to have a deep love for her, but he also shows a lot of resentment for her success. Do you think that Asian girls in general have a more positive experience in high school? Is Naomi Lee meant to symbolize the typical Asian female in an all-white school?

At the risk of over-generalizing, Asian females have an easier time in America than Asian men. There are a number of theories floating around to explain this: females are inherently more tenacious than men, better instinctual survivors; females are better at language acquisition, a must for immigrant success; Asian women have an entrenched fit in white society that more readily accepts them, albeit only within certain stereotypes, e.g., the pliable and sexy professional whose submission and intellect make her the perfect office worker. Maybe the answer lies in combination with these or other reasons.

But Naomi isn't meant to symbolize the typical Asian female, because the typical Asian female isn't stunningly beautiful, highly intelligent, Harvard-bound, and highly sought-after. The typical Asian female is like a typical female of any ethnicity: not gorgeous, not lights-out smart, not Ivy League-bound, not swarmed by boy-attention. In short: average. But I created Naomi the way I did because I wanted to throw into harsh relief the divergent experiences I've often found between the male and female Chinese immigrant experience. Plus, Naomi was very insistent that she be written that way. And you know, if you've read the book, how she usually gets her way.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

The murder mystery aspect of this novel is riveting. Where did you come up with the idea for this particular plot?

In the summer of 1997, I was living in Japan, near the city of Kobe. A series of grisly disappearances and murders of school children occurred in that area over a span of a few months, culminating in the discovery of a decapitated head of a student outside a junior high school. Nobody had a clue who the perpetrator might be. I witnessed firsthand the kind of frenzy of fear a community can become paralyzed with when violence erupts within. Wild theories started to formulate and I saw society's need to find a suspect, any suspect if simply to even superficially placate the sense of fear within. Though not conscious of this at the time of writing, I now see some similarities between what happened in and to the city of Kobe with events depicted in Crossing.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Miss Durgenhoff was a character whom I couldn't put my finger on. Every time there was an interaction between Kris and her character, it left me guessing. Why did you decide to put her in the story, and what did you want her to bring to the mystery part of it?

I can't really fully discuss her function in the book without giving away something crucial. It's a great question for a book club that's already read the book, though. But she's actually one of my favorite characters. She has an aspect of kindness that draws me to her. Kathryn Stockett said "When a person has that much sadness and kindness wrapped up inside, sometimes it just pours out as gentleness." That's Miss Durgenhoff to a T, and I can easily see why the lonely Xing would find such warmth and comfort in her, and find in her the mother-figure he's lost. At a deeper level, Miss Durgenhoff is also symbolic of a certain ideal of America, and of how that ideal is found and/or eventually lost. You'll need to read the book to understand that last sentence.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Kris's voice was the central part of the story that tied in his past with the present. Why did you decide to make his voice the gift that would surprise his community and make him finally be visible to others?

I'll need to confess something in order to answer that: I can't sing a lick. I croak like a frog when I try to sing. I've often wondered what it must be like to be able to sing lights-out beautiful, to own a musical instrument in your voice box. They say authors often live vicariously through their protagonists and this is certainly the case with me here. That's the simple answer. If you push me for a deeper answer, I suppose I could say that Xing's rediscovery of his voice is symbolic of how a voiceless marginalized person finds significance, but the simple answer to the question is I finally found a way to sing, albeit vicariously.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Why did you end the story the way you did? Do you want the reader to feel sorry for Kris or angry with him for choosing to end things the way he did? Can we trust Kris?

It was the only way the novel could end. I tried various kinds of endings, but nothing really seemed to fit. When I eventually arrived at the ending, I saw it as a perfect fit - the novel suddenly couldn't end in any other way. The ending has aroused quite a reaction among readers, but I would like to make something clear. It's not a twist ending like a M. Night Shyamalan movie. The ending in Crossing is completely congruous with what preceded it, and, rather than turn everything on its head (like a typical twist ending), it really only adds depth to Xing's character consistent with what we already know about him. Admittedly, it is done in dramatic fashion, but nothing about it is an upheaval of what preceded in the novel, but, rather, is simply a further (dramatic) layering.

As for trusting Xing, that is a question for the reader to decide. But I will say that the novel forces the reader to confront her own reasons for trusting or distrusting Xing, to question the formulation of trust or distrust, and to admit to certain racial assumptions necessary for those formulations. (I am now congratulating myself for writing the most cryptic sentence ever, but one, I hope, makes sense to those who've read the novel).

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda, author of Crossing

Can you tell us anything about your current writing projects?

At the moment, I have the opposite of writer's block: two stories have tumbled into my head and heart, and both, apparently, are jostling to be written before the other. They are completely different genres involving drastically different writing styles: one is literary romance (this caught me by surprise) and the other is a YA novel with a neat spin on the dystopian genre. It's a bizarre experience; if I spend too much time on the one, I feel unfaithful to the other. Both are flowing so well that I dare not put either aside out of fear that that might somehow dry up the creative stream.

Crossing interview with Andrew Xia Fukuda

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