"Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice": The Art of War without the Art of Power in Kerry Young’' Pao.

Kerry Young’s novel Pao (2011) narrates the fictional account of Chinese Pao, who emigrates to Jamaica at the age of 14 due to the conflict between China and Japan in 1938. He arrives in Kingston’s China Town on the advent of Jamaican Independence movements, and is keen to make Jamaica his home and “become” Jamaican. He negotiates this transition intellectually by reflecting on both Chinese and Jamaican revolutionary doctrines and anti-colonial speeches, even though in practice he remains a pragmatist who yearns for capitalist goals and power. During his lifetime he also builds a community of brothers across race and class lines. However, it is through violence and fear rather than involvement in social justice movements that he cuts out this space for himself: a space between Jamaican and Chinese, black and white, and crime and legitimate business.

Pao believes that by employing Sun Tzu’s The Art of War he can cross borders into the world of the privileged, whilst simultaneously stepping into the role of community “Uncle” and being brothers with the oppressed. In order to fully understand why Pao not only fails to realise any form of social justice, but also behaves unjustly to those closest to him, I will argue, one needs to pay close attention to the novel’s literary techniques, especially the first-person unreliable narration that omits important events. His account also never demonstrates compassion for or understanding of other people, two character traits that are, according to Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Art of Power, crucial for achieving real authority and power. Instead the narrative reflects Pao’s way of rationalising his behaviour through distorting revolutionary ideas, being emotionally isolated from others, and performing what he views as powerful masculinity.