The Blue Dragon: A Tale of Recent Adventure in China
When Joseph Lee arrives in the small manufacturing village of Hatton, America greets him with stones and slurs. A Chinese boy in early 20th-century New England, Jo has crossed an ocean to pursue an education, only to discover that some lessons cannot be taught in any classroom. The local children see only his difference; they mock him, chase him, and teach him that the color of his skin makes him a target. But not everyone looks away. Rob Hinckley, son of the village parson, stands against the mob. In defending Jo, he risks his own standing among his peers, forging a friendship that becomes both a refuge and a test of loyalty. As Jo navigates this hostile new world, the novel asks what it truly means to belong, and whether understanding can bloom between worlds that have been taught to fear each other. Written with hope and urgency, Kirk Munroe's forgotten novel speaks across a century to readers still grappling with the same questions: Who deserves a place in a nation? And what does it cost to stand beside someone the world tells you to hate?
