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75 pages 2 hours read

William Bell

Forbidden City

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1990

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Chapters 1-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “March 29”

The narrator, 17-year-old high school senior Alexander Jackson, comes home from school one day to find his animated father talking away in his home office, clearly excited by something he is reviewing on the phone. A new Betacam sits on the floor beside his desk, a clue to Alex that something interesting is afoot. Alex decides not to wait and instead heads to his room to examine the display of miniature soldiers, all neatly aligned in formation. Admiring them, he thinks inwardly: “There was six months’ research and then a year’s work of casting, finishing and painting. Now the display was almost ready” (3). The display Alex is working on is of the terra cotta soldiers from the Qin dynasty, discovered in a burial site at Xi’an, the ancient capital of Northwest China. While Alex is admiring his craft and thinking of the spring competition he plans on entering, his father walks into the room to tell Alex that they are going to China. Alex is proud of his father, as Ted is “one of the top news cameramen in the country” (2), but Alex wishes “he’d realize that there are other things in the world than cameras and film and lenses and video cassettes” (3). Alex is intrigued about the possibility of going to China but is distressed that his father can’t pin down just how long they’ll be staying, which could be more than a few months. They are going to “play it by ear,” although Alex knows “play it by ear means not having a clue what we’re doing next” (8).

Chapter 2 Summary: “March 30-31”

While sitting on the plane beside his father, Alex writes to pass the time. His father is a nervous flyer, one who requires anti-nausea pills, Valium, and alcohol in order to cope. His father passes out and begins to snore loudly, keeping Alex from getting any rest: “I know that a normal seventeen year old would be a little embarrassed to be sitting beside him” (11). Alex isn’t embarrassed but finds his father “silly” (11). Alex discusses his parents’ breakup, which happened when Alex was 12. Alex relates that he thought it was his fault at first. Then Alex details: “I figured if it wasn’t my fault she left, Dad must be to blame” (11). Alex continues to feel this way until he sees his father crying alone in his room late one night, and he comes to see how badly his mother’s leaving his wounded his father. It’s around this time that Alex develops an intense fascination with military history: “Pacifists are just simpletons as far as I’m concerned. There’s nothing I like better than a war movie with lots of battle scenes, noise and smoke” (11). This interest coincides and intensifies with his parents’ breakup.

Chapter 3 Summary: “April 1”

When they arrive at Beijing, they are greeted at the airport by a guide, Lao Xu, who escorts them to the Beijing Hotel. This will be their home away from home during their stay in China. They also meet Eddie Nowlan, “one of the CBC’s top news correspondents” (16). As soon as Alex shakes Eddie’s cold hand, it’s clear that Alex’s father had not let on that he was bringing his teen son with him. Still, Ted assures Alex that everything will be fine. The newsmen share a drink together, and Ted shoos Alex off into the next room to get some rest. When Alex wakes up, it dawns on him with greater intensity that he is really in China.

Chapter 4 Summary: “April 4”

Alex, Ted, and Eddie enjoy a banquet held in their honor. Alex decides that Eddie is “making a crummy first impression” by bossing Ted around all the time “as if he were his assistant or something rather than a colleague” (22). The food they are offered is strange, and Lao Xu tries to explain each dish to Alex as it arrives. One item they try is sea cucumber, which Lao Xu explains by moving “his hand in the same motion a worm of snake would make,” leading Alex to realize “he meant the word slug” (23). Though the food is exotic and odd to him, Alex enjoys most of it. He also learns about Chinese etiquette. He thinks at first they should box up all the leftovers as they would at home, but Lao Xu convinces him otherwise, explaining that “the host must always offer much more food that the guest can eat. If there isn’t more than enough food, he will lose face” (23). For this reason, the Westerners and Lao Xu leave the banquet with food still unfinished or untouched.

Chapters 5 Summary: “April 6”

Lao Xu takes Alex to see the Great Wall of China, which is a life-changing experience for Alex. He feels that all of his history education has “just been a pile of dust” (25) before this. Lao Xu talks knowledgeably about military history with Alex, inspiring his deep admiration. Alex feels that he’s found a true friend in Lao Xu, but he is informed otherwise by Eddie when he returns back to the Beijing Hotel where Eddie and Ted are waiting and working. Eddie tells Alex: “Lao Xu is the nicest spy you’d ever want to meet” (28), which stuns Alex. Eddie then explains that Lao Xu is there to escort the three Canadians around and to keep a close eye on the reporters. Eddie reminds Alex that China’s government does not work the same way as the government in the West does. Freedom of press does not exist and is seen as a threat. Ted and Eddie tell Alex he can be friendly with Lao Xu but to be careful and to stay mindful of whose agenda he serves.

Chapter 6 Summary: “April 7”

Alex is already beginning to feel homesick, ready to call friends up and “eat real food” (32). He is running out of English reading material and is feeling the stress of being unable to travel around, shop, or sightsee without a translator along with him. Eddie shoots him too many “I’m Busy and You’re in My Waylooks” (33), and Alex can tell his father is also preoccupied with work, enjoying the thrill of it all. Alex hopes his father doesn’t want to extend their stay but decides that if need be, he will head home alone.

Chapters 1-6 Analysis

In the first five chapters of the novel, Alex is a static character. He is firmly rooted in particular hobbies and habits of mind that help him make sense of his world. His passion is military history. He reads of battles from various cultures, especially Asia, in order to escape from the stresses of home life. His parents’ divorce occurred in his youth, but he is still feeling the effects of his mother’s abandonment of the family. He lives with his father, who he struggles to understand and identify with. He respects his father’s commitment to his work but sees his father as foolish for some of the risk he takes getting the shot or the story when covering a reporting assignment.

Alex is initially excited to go to China with his father. He is looking forward to sightseeing and observing up close the battlefields and important military locales that he’s read a great deal about. Before long though, he begins to feel isolated. The food is different than he expected, and he is linguistically isolated from those around him. His father and Eddie are busy with work. He is limited in company to Lao Xu, who may or may not be a trustworthy friend. Alex can’t decide.

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