On the Move

An Immigrant Child's Global Journey

by Philip Guo (philip@pgbovine.net)

In Dec. 2007, my first book was published by Whittier Publications, a small academic press in New York. Entitled On the Move: An Immigrant Child's Global Journey, it's an autobiography of my early life. At only 200 pages, it's a fairly short and easy read, but it covers a wide variety of socially relevant topics relating to my experience of being an immigrant child.

The front cover is shown above, and the blurb from the back cover is shown below:

Before his 12th birthday, Philip Jia Guo had already lived in six cities spanning three continents, learned three distinctively different languages, and attended seven schools that had almost nothing in common with one another. On the Move traces his global journey to places as drastically dissimilar as his birthplace in South China, a quaint town in Switzerland, the American Deep South, both the poorest and wealthiest neighborhoods of New York City, and an affluent suburb in Southern California. He poignantly describes his struggles to fit in as a perpetual outsider and his feelings of being constantly forced by circumstances beyond his control to adapt to new environments, schools, languages, and cultures. On the Move interweaves candid narratives of this immigrant boy's unique childhood experiences with critical observations of such hotly contested social issues as race, ethnicity, class, religion, child development, peer group relations, immigration, assimilation, and national identity. This book appeals to anybody who is interested in learning more about the experience of being an immigrant and especially its impact on young children.

Potential audiences

On the Move is a memoir for a general English-speaking audience. It appeals to Asian American teenagers and young adults, who are most likely to relate and to draw parallels to their own lives. But it would also be of interest to parents. Although it is undoubtedly influenced by my own Chinese background, it addresses issues with immense cross-cultural appeal to other Asian Americans and immigrant children of all ethnicities.
It may serve as a supplemental text for high school and college courses. It is relevant for the fields of Asian American studies, American studies, cultural studies, ethnic studies, psychology, and sociology, particularly for courses in race and ethnicity, ethnic diversity, immigration, assimilation, and the contemporary American experience.

How On the Move differs from memoirs by other Asian-American writers

It focuses exclusively on the experiences of a young child (under the age of 12) while much related work focus on the teenage and young adult years.
It avoids repeating familiar themes present throughout the works of many Asian American authors, such as parent-child conflicts, academic achievement and college admissions, immigrant self-exploitation and self-denial, the exoticism of the Orient, and romanticized images of the ancestral homeland.
It interweaves narratives with social analysis and commentary. It is told from two simultaneous perspectives: one of a young child making observations about his surroundings and the other of an adult framing these experiences into a more general social and historical context.

Ordering

On the Move is currently not yet available to be purchased anywhere except directly from my publisher, Whittier Publications. They specialize in selling wholesale to university bookstores and other academic venues, but they can probably accommodate individual sales as well. Please contact them directly or email me at philip@pgbovine.net if you have any questions.

Created: 2007-12-20
Last modified: 2009-09-10