Little Yellow Wang-Lo – Little Black Sambo Exhibit

Cover of "Little Yellow Wang-Lo" — Cover of “Little Yellow Wang-Lo”

Little Yellow Wang-Lo drawn as an Asian caricature, complete with bright yellow skin

Wang-Lo and Fo-Pa cook dinner — Wang-Lo and Fo-Pa prepare a meal

Source

Description

Published alongside Little Black Sambo in the Dumpy Books series, Little Yellow Wang-Lo imitates Helen Bannerman’s text. This picture book centers on Little Yellow Wang-Lo, an Asian boy, who lives with his duck merchant father Fo-Pa. Notably, both characters are negatively depicted as Asian caricatures, complete with yellow skin and slit eyes.

Little Yellow Wang-Lo follows a more convoluted plot than Little Black Sambo. The story begins with Fo-Pa sends Little Yellow Wang-Lo to exchange ducks for a pig. The pig soon escapes, and the boy chases it back to a house inhabited by a talking pig family. Wang-Lo attempts to burn down the house to drive out the pigs, but the pig family shows him a cache of buried gold in exchange for their lives. The book concludes with “greedy old man” Fo-Pa returing to the gold stash, falling into the hole, and getting permanently trapped by his sack of gold (87) .

Creator

M. C. Bell

Contributor(s)

Illustrated in color by M. C. Bell

Publisher

Grant Richards

Publication Date

1903

Format

95 pages; 5 x 3 inches

Language

English