Boys Don’t Fry

Signifying the arrival of spring and beginning of a new year, the annual celebration of Lunar New Year traditionally takes place over several days, starting with the first new moon in the lunar calendar and concluding with the arrival of the incoming year’s first full moon 15 days later. It is widely celebrated in China, other Asia countries, as well as countries with a significant overseas Chinese population, each of which have their own unique cultural practices and traditions that are associated with it.

Boys Don’t Fry serves up an inspirational story set during the Lunar New Year that celebrates the vibrancy of Peranakan Chinese culture, through which it conveys a positive message of community and belonging oriented around cuisine. Focusing on a young Malaysian boy named Jin, the story accentuates the importance of food, family, and history and encourages people to pursue their interests, irrespective of preexisting gender roles that may be associated with particular realms of activity. In doing so, the book affirms that everyone can contribute, regardless of their background, as long as they are given the opportunity to do so.
The story opens with Jin who appears to be coming home from school, and his senses perk up from the wafting smell of food that floats out of his home. Excited about his family’s food preparations for their family’s reunion dinner on Lunar New Year’s Eve, Jin wishes that his three aunties would ask him to help in the kitchen because he wants to learn more about their culinary traditions and so that he can also distinguish among the different spices and flavours. However, they only ask his sisters, neither of whom are interested. When Jin offers to help, his aunties mention that he would get bored and simply get in the way, implying that the kitchen is no place for boys.

However, his grandmother Mamah says that there is nothing wrong with having Jin learn more about cooking. While in the kitchen, Jin helps with preparing ingredients and also hears about the history behind her recipes. Under the watchful eyes of his aunties, Jin feels nervous and wants to get everything right, but his Mamah encourages him and says, “Cook from your heart, not your head.” In the end, Jin’s efforts are validated with Mamah’s approval and his family’s compliments about the dishes.

In an interview with Maria Marshall, Lee mentioned that the impetus for writing Boys Don’t Fry stemmed from her desire to share the unique traditions, colours, and cuisine of Peranakan heritage from Southeast Asia. As Lee affirms, the story is “a loving ode to my Malaysian-Peranakan Chinese heritage and the glorious food and family that I’ve grown up with, here in Malaysia.” Indeed, Charlene Chua’s illustrations succeed in capturing this community’s heritage with the inclusion of various details which endow the book with a sense of cultural authenticity. To ensure that the book’s illustrations would depict Peranakan culture accurately, Lee also provided Chua with information that she located from various sources such as old family photos, videos of heritage houses, and the Melaka’s Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum.

When Jin and his grandmother prepare food, the accompanying illustrations of the kitchen and dining room evoke the atmosphere of Peranakan culture. For example, in one two-page spread depicting the kitchen, readers can see some ginger, spring onions, garlic, and lime on the kitchen table, sitting beside a stuffed fried fish that is cooling off on a plate. In other illustrations, there are items such as a rice cooker, steamer for steamed buns, as well as porcelain bowls and utensils, all of which are some of the things that can be found in Peranakan households.

The aesthetics of Peranakan culture are conveyed through the characters’ clothing, with their vibrant colours, glossy threads, and floral-inspired patterns. The women in the story are wearing Nyonya Kebayas, which are believed to have developed from the Malay baju panjang (long dress) and are characterized by tighter-fitting sheer embroidered blouse that is traditionally paired with a batik sarong. As reflected in the story, this clothing is often decorated with intricate, embroidered motifs known as sulam which are sewn on using a combination of stitches and can take weeks or months to complete. Popular sulam motifs for the kebaya include flowers, butterflies, phoenixes, dragons, insects and even people. Other effective touches that enhance the illustrations’ aesthetics arise from Chua’s attention to detail and colour when she depicts the house’s décor and furniture. Besides the interior’s colour schemes and decorative patterns, the illustrations include other recognizable items such as a porcelain vase, daily wall calendar, patterned rug, and Lunar New Year decorations. An attractive polyphony of colours also accentuate the illustration that displays the sumptuous feast that has been prepared for their family reunion dinner.

Although the book’s copyright page mentions that the illustrations have been created digitally in a software program, they are not overly stylized or refined. Instead, they appear more like hand-drawn, animation-style illustrations and evoke a warm atmosphere that complements the text. The story’s characters have expressive facial features and gestures that suggest their close-knit relationship and sense of camaraderie.

In addition, Chua’s rendering of Jin throughout the book evokes his attentiveness and eagerness around helping his Mamah in the kitchen. Readers will share Jin’s excitement of preparing Peranakan cuisine and may want to learn more about it themselves. For readers who would like to try Peranakan food, the book includes a Peranakan pongteh chicken recipe that is easy to follow. Readers can also learn about the different types of food items in Peranakan culture by referring to the two pages immediately following and preceding the book’s front and back covers respectively. These pages include pictures of foods with their names, such as galangal, belacan and candlenut.

Boys Don’t Fry, a simply told and attractively illustrated story, will appeal to young readers and be readily comprehensible on a general level because of its topic’s accessibility. Even if readers are unfamiliar with Peranakan culture, they will recognize the activity of preparing and serving of food from their personal experience. For younger readers who may not know some of the story’s words or may experience a bit of difficulty with comprehending the phrases, the illustrations provide a visual complement to the narrative, which will help them to understand what is happening in the current scene. That being said, readers could increase their appreciation for the story if adults were to provide some knowledge about that cultural context. In addition, the publisher’s website indicates that this book is targeted for readers four to six years of age, but older readers could also appreciate this book because of its insight into Peranakan culture.

Boys Don’t Fry will be a strong contribution to any library collection that would like to diversify its representation of Asian cultures and experiences. A wide variety of contemporary picture books feature characters from Asian backgrounds, but less of them for this age group focus specifically on Peranakan culture. In the classroom, teachers could use the book to start a discussion about the variety of gastronomic traditions in different cultures and use that as a basis for further exploration of these traditions through the students’ sharing of experiences from their own families and friends. Teachers could also approach the topic from a more personal level by asking students what their favourite foods are and whether there are culturally specific foods that their families may prepare, either regularly or for special occasions each year. The book could also be included in a social studies unit about Asian cultures or as part of a literature unit that features children’s literature about Asian cultures. With the proliferation of both children’s and adult works of literature that portray cuisine, this book could be examined from an analytical perspective and used to interrogate the significance of food, such as how it signifies as a material object, as an activity, as a locus for transmitting particular values or transmitting knowledge, or as a means for personal or collective agency.

A lawyer by training, Kimberly Lee is an author as well as the managing editor for the online parenting platform Makchic. After graduating from the UK’s University of Reading and qualifying as a barrister-at-law, Lee worked in litigation for many years before beginning her career in writing. She is motivated by how children’s books can help to guide its readers through their understanding of the world. More information about her is available at https://kimberlyleebooks.com/.

Originally from Singapore and now based in Hamilton, Ontario, Charlene Chua worked as a web designer, web producer, and project manager prior to becoming a full-time illustrator. Chua has illustrated a number of children’s books that have won awards, including the winner of the 2023 Stonewall Book Award Children's & Young Adult, Love, Violet. For more details about Chua, visit https://charlenechua.com.