Dragonwings

Windrider Lee is a complex character, as presented through the perspective of his son. A Chinese immigrant to America, he initially works at a laundromat in San Francisco and sends money home to his family. As a young boy in China, Moon Shadow learns from his mother’s stories that Windrider is “a maker of the most marvelous kites” (4). He is a loving, caring father who disciplines and teaches his son. As Moon Shadow states, “I had found my true father, and more – a friend and a guide” (47). Windrider is hard-working, patient, and confident. He is not daunted by white American society and faces life’s challenges with courage: a trait he passes on to Moon Shadow. His son views him as “the superior man” (55). The full details of his past are somewhat shrouded in mystery, although he does admit that he was misguided in his youth and temporarily joined a criminal fraternity. As a responsible adult, however, he comes to oppose the criminal gangs, believing that they harm the Chinese community and “live off the misery of their brothers and sisters” (83). Windrider values sharing and a community mindset, and he is always willing to help his friends, both the Company and the Whitlaws. Simultaneously, he desires to accomplish his personal dream of achieving flight and fulfilling the directive of the Dragon King Story.

Windrider’s character is defined by the Dragon King story that explains his name and his life’s purpose. He relates to Moon Shadow the story of meeting the Dragon King, a figure of Chinese mythology. The Dragon King says that in a previous life, Windrider was “the greatest physician of all the dragons” (37) and was highly skilled in flying, but he was condemned to mortal life after committing a crime. Windrider heals the dragon’s wing, and the Dragon King allows him to fly. According to the story, his skill in constructing kites and machines is “a remnant of [his] old powers” (38). Windrider’s purpose in this life is “to prove [himself] worthy once again of being a dragon” (38). The Dragon warns him that he must conquer a number of challenges in mortal life to prove himself. For this reason, Windrider’s deepest desire is to construct an airplane and fly it. However, this dream coexists with the more practical dream of reuniting his family by bringing his wife to the United States. Oscillating between the two dreams, his yearning for freedom overtakes him and he declares, “It’s time I thought of myself” (199). With this statement, Windrider parts with the Company and builds Dragonwings, the airplane that will help him to accomplish his goal of flying like a dragon.

When the flight with Dragonwings almost kills him, Windrider finally comes to a new understanding of his “dragon-ness” (46). Throughout his struggle to achieve his goal, his son and his friends support him unconditionally, and he realizes that his family is more important to him than flying. The dragon story thus acquires a different meaning for him, and he decides, “There’s more to being a dragon than just flying. […] Dragons have immense families too” (242). Ultimately, Windrider is a free man who faces life’s hardships with resilience and cares for his family and community. At the end of the story, he goes back to China to bring his wife to America.

The leader of the Company that owns and runs the laundromat, Uncle Bright Star is an old man and a Chinese immigrant who has lived and worked in America for years. Moon Shadow describes him as a man “in his eighties and short and fat and built like a rock” (16). Moon Shadow admires and respects him upon their first meeting, saying, “They don’t make men like Uncle Bright Star anymore” (15). Uncle Bright Star has a long history in America “mining the California streams for gold” and “helping to dig tunnels through the mountains for the railroad” (15). Uncle Bright Star appears strict and hard and attempts to hide his emotions, but he is truly a caring fatherly figure for the other Company men. He often references the Confucian ideal of the “superior man” (21) which defines his values. Uncle Bright Star’s main principle is that “[m]en must help one another in dangerous times and places” (25). He is often in conflict with his son, Black Dog, who has joined the criminal brotherhoods in Chinatown and withdrawn from his father’s community.

Uncle Bright Star opposes Windrider’s dream of flying and scorns the idea in disbelief. He prefers to be a realist and declares, “[I]t’s too risky to fly. Better to stay on the ground and do something you know you can make money at” (64). Uncle Bright Star also disregards Windrider’s dragon stories by labeling them “nonsense” (84). However, he maintains his own attachment to Chinese traditions, as is indicated when he gives Moon Shadow “a wooden carving of Monkey” which he made himself secretly (47). He also keeps a cup of soil from China, and Moon Shadow explains that “[f]or Uncle, the soil was very special, being a bit of the Middle Kingdom and home” (93). Thus, Uncle Bright Star maintains a strong connection with his homeland, despite being a realistic businessman in the American world.

Windrider and Uncle Bright Star clash several times throughout the story as Moon Shadow explains that Uncle Bright Star regards Windrider “as his spiritual son” (244). He initially prevents Windrider from bringing his wife to San Francisco, saying that it is not a safe place for women. Despite their philosophical differences, however, Uncle Bright Star always supports Windrider and Moon Shadow in times of crisis. By the end of the story, his stubbornness lessens. He sees Windrider flying on Dragonwings and tells Miss Whitlaw, “I never thought I’d be friends with a demoness, nor see a man fly through the air. I will admit that I may not be right in everything” (242).

Miss Whitlaw is Windrider and Moon Shadow’s property manager. She raises her niece, Robin, after the girl’s parents died. She is an important figure in Moon Shadow’s life: a friend who is open-minded and loving. Initially afraid and suspicious of white people, Moon Shadow’s fears subside as he meets her and realizes that “[t]here were demons, after all, who could be kindly disposed” (101). This meeting signals a shift in Moon Shadow’s understanding of white people. Unlike many other people he has encountered, Miss Whitlaw is not prejudiced toward the Chinese people and has “a genuine interested in learning about people as people” (116). Her openness to different cultures enables her to transcend cultural boundaries and form a genuine, caring connection with Moon Shadow and Windrider. She has a profound impact on Moon Shadow that makes him think they share a special bond. As he muses, “I even toyed with the idea that perhaps we had been close to each other in some former life – a mother and child, even” (112). She and her niece, Robin, help Moon Shadow to improve his English, and their friendship contributes to Moon Shadow’s ability to develop a sense of being home even outside Chinatown.

Miss Whitlaw is also associated with the dragon symbolism. As she plays the piano, Moon Shadow notes the reflection of the dragon on her skirt as the light shines through the window and thinks that she must be “the ghost of a Tang woman” (111). This thought emphasizes his familiarity with her and Miss Whitlaw’s ability to connect with those who belong to other cultures. In a moment of particularly high praise, Windrider characterizes her as “a superior woman” (174), extending the Confucian concept of the “superior man” beyond the traditional Chinese framework. When the earthquake hits San Francisco, Miss Whitlaw shows the true quality of her character as she mobilizes to help her community, not thinking of herself as an individual. Thus, she, Windrider, and Uncle Bright Star share the principle of helping others, a trait that contributes to their mutual friendship.

Black Dog is the antagonist of the story and serves as a foil to both Moon Shadow and Windrider. He is Uncle Bright Star’s son. However, unlike his father, he is an active member of the criminal underworld of Chinatown. Moon Shadow describes Black Dog as “a strange, brooding man in his forties” (28). He also explains that Black Dog never wanted to come to America, and upon witnessing several incidents of racial violence, he even “began to despise his own father” (28). The discrimination against Chinese people comes to define how Black Dog sees the world around him. When he cynically welcomes Moon Shadow to “the land of the demons” (30) after the attack against the laundromat, it is clear that his life and mindset have been powerfully shaped by the hatred and prejudice against Chinese people that he has witnessed, and he is incapable of seeing anything positive in the world around him.

Black Dog becomes increasingly detached from the Company community and frequents the opium dens to escape the harsh realities of his life. Although he briefly attempts to change after Windrider brings him back to the Company and to his father, he soon leaves and falls back into his old habits and addictions. Despite his failings, however, the men of the Company still consider him to be a part of the Chinese community. Despite the community’s offers of support, Black Dog ultimately becomes a recurring antagonist in Moon Shadow’s life, repeatedly impeding his and Windrider’s journey in various ways. His first attack on Moon Shadow starts a chain of events that leads father and son to leave Chinatown, and his second attack delays Windrider in his goal of flying Dragonwings. As Moon Shadow gains wisdom, he comes to understand Black Dog’s character and says, “I think he had lived so long in this land of the demons that his mind had become poisoned and he had begun to think like a demon and to despise the Tang people around him” (77-78). Throughout the novel, it is clear that Black Dog resents living in America and has a sour outlook on life in general. In his first encounter with Moon Shadow, he relates his own story about opium, and his narratives allude to the historical mid-19th-century Opium Wars between Britain and China. Black Dog suggests that he uses opium as a means of escape, admitting, “The only good thing I ever got out of my ugly life was the flower [of opium]” (80). He describes himself as “a lonely man” (217) who is alienated and moves away from the Company. By the end of the story, Black Dog runs afoul of dangerous yet unknown elements and is violently murdered.