Dragon in the Sky - Characters

Name: Joseph Lee
Chinese Name: Lee Jo-Yum
Born: August 21, 1964 at the Sand River Ranch, Southern Matabeleland, Rhodesia
Zodiac: (Wood) Dragon

Joseph is of mixed parentage: Chinese father and Caucasian mother, although few would guess this from his appearance. He is tall - at six feet four inches, his height and fair skin might place him as Northern Chinese but he lacks the narrow facial features so indicative of the Manchu or Northern Han.

Jo-Yum, Joseph's Chinese name given him by his paternal grandfather - Joseph's father died before Joseph was born - literally translates as 'Ancestor Shade'. It means that Joseph, having no father to guide and protect him, will be sheltered by his ancestors and also will inherit vast wealth from them. The choice of name was precise, but not as prophetic as one might assume: in secret long ago, 'Old Prospector Lee', as his grandfather was known, discovered a seam of gold as thick as a strong man's arm running through the quartzite rock of Southern Matabeleland, and claimed it. The old man, shackled by superstition and believing it was evil, never worked it. On his deathbed,he bequeathed the claim to Joseph, his only living relative, on condition that it be sold. Proceeds of the sale were put in trust for the then young boy, and the trust fund managers invested well: by the time Joseph turned twenty-five it was worth a small third-world government's annual income.

The old prospector was a big influence in Joseph's life; he taught Joseph well, carefully grooming altruism in the young boy. "One is put on this Earth to help others," the old man told him. "If, instead of looking after ourselves, everybody looked after each other, this world would be a far better place to live in."




Name: Sipho Lee
Chinese Name: Lee Tien-Long
Born: September 14, 1983 at the Sand River Ranch, Southern Matabeleland, Rhodesia
Zodiac: (Water) Boar

Sipho—pronounced Seep-ho—is an unusual name for a Chinese boy. Some mistake it for Shi-Hau, a Mandarin Chinese name meaning a brilliant and decent person who will be known throughout the world.

But they are wrong.

It isn’t a Mandarin name.

For that matter, it isn’t even Chinese.

Like his father, Sipho's appearance reflects only his Chinese heritage: a factor of strong Asian genes that predestined him to experience at a very early age man's inhumanity to man; the same predestination that forced him to witness brutality only mankind is capable of carrying out.

Determined to put the trauma of their past behind them, his father takes him to Canada and there attempts to pick up the shards of their shattered existence, to mend the threads of their life-quilt as best he can.

It is not an easy task. Flashbacks to the incident of three years earlier haunt Sipho's present and he withdraws into music. Music is his retreat, his sanctuary, and it soon comes to dominate his life. Yet in music he shows exceptional talent: by the age of six the simpler works of 'Mr Bach', 'Mr Beethoven', and 'Mr Brahms' as he refers to them, are well under his belt. At ten he wins the Pacific International Violin Competition, and by sixteen, following a natural disaster that leaves him suffering from psychogenic amnesia, it is again music that reminds him of who he is and brings him back to reality.

From Calgary, Alberta, to Wuzhou, on the border of Guangdong and Guanxi in China, 'Dragon in the Sky' takes the reader on an epic journey through the emotional spectrum of shock, horror, humour and relief.

Sipho is, as his Chinese name suggests, 'Dragon in the Sky'.