Edward Lumsdaine

Rotten Gambler Two Becomes a True American Edward Lumsdaine

This printed version of the book differs only slightly from the Kindle format, in that it includes a few additional photos and minor changes in the text to meet page layout requirements. Also, two maps showing the geographic context of Edward's growing up in China and the subsequent voyages at sea have been inserted. This is the story of how a biracial child, penniless, with little formal education, hardly speaking English, and without a clue of how to go about it, reaches America and pursues the American Dream. His Cantonese mother occasionally calls him "larn doe yee" (which means rotten gambler two). His American father is imprisoned by the Japanese during their occupation of Shanghai. After the Communists take over, his father reluctantly leaves for America, leaving eight children behind. What perils does Edward face in war-torn Shanghai, being hungry, bullied, expelled from school, seen as unmanageable by his mother, and trying various schemes to earn money, one of which results in his being threatened with beheading? Many of his extended family do not survive. He escapes Shanghai at age 14. In Hong Kong he is hired as a cabin boy on a Danish tramp ship. Eventually, on an impulse, he joins the US Air Force and has more adventures, as he tries to fit into unfamiliar cultures to become a real American.