Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat is reminiscent of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, which were mock folk tales that supposedly explained how an animal got a certain trait. Kipling’s stories included ’’How the Leopard Got His Spots’’ and ’’How the Elephant Got His Trunk’’. If he’d written Sagwa, he’d have probably called the story ’’How the Siamese Cat Got Her Markings’’, for that’s what it’s about. Like Kipling, Tan uses a narrator to tell the story; in this case, it’s a Siamese cat telling her kittens about their ancestor, Sagwa.
As per the story, Siamese cats were once pearl white and plain. Sagwa was a kitten whose family lived in the household of the Foolish Magistrate, a greedy provincial ruler who used his position to make himself rich. The cats in the Magistrate’s household apparently possessed human-level intelligence, for they could write with their tails. Sagwa’s parents had the unenviable task of taking dictation for the Magistrate, and writing down his foolish rules. One day, just after the Magistrate had conceived a particularly stupid rule forbidding singing, Sagwa jumped from a bookshelf into a pot of ink, getting ink all over herself and the scroll with the new rule on it...
Amy Tan, who has written adult books like The Joy Luck Club and The Bonesetter’s Daughter tells the story in a simple and charming way. Gretchen Schields, the illustrator, creates gorgeous and elaborate drawings that both complement the story and provide a definitely Chinese flavor to the tale.
Sagwa is the basis and inspiration for the cartoon of the same name, which plays on PBS channels. In fact, one of the episodes retells the book’s story.
Sagwa is recommended for children between 5 and 8 years old, and can be purchased from amazon.com. It is a paperback, and costs $6.99 in the U.S. and $9.99 in Canada.