Why a Booktrail?
Late 1960s: A beautifully evocative picture of Hong Kong during the time of the Vietnam war.
White Ghost Girls
What you need to know before your trail
White Ghost Girls is set in Hong Kong during the 1960s.
Frankie and Kate are two American girls who are taken to live abroad in a foreign land at a very turbulent time. Living with their mother, their father is in Vietnam photographing the war.
The two sisters could not be more different – Kate is quiet and shy. Frankie, rebellious. Their nanny, Bing does her best to look after them but one day in the market the two sisters decide to explore…and the consequences are devastating.
Travel Guide
Ah the places you go and the things that you’ll see!
There is much made of Chinese traditions and the belief system here which cries out for further research –
The Vietnam war – the war which dominated around 30 years of history and ended with the fall of Saigon. Interestingly, Americans refer to the period from 1965 to 1973 – as the “Vietnam War” – and the Vietnamese call the “American War” as this was when the US intervened.
As well as the war, there is a lot more interesting snippets and themes in the book such as the Chinese traditions such as the significance of the colour red and the obsession with ghosts. There is also the language aspect which is always fascinating in a book like this – Gwaimui means white girls in Chinese in the book. Hong Kong is beautifully evoked via the sights, sounds and smells of the time and place And the prose is as haunting as the Chinese obsession with ghosts.
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