East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee A novel by Younghill Kang Book Description . About the Author . Excerpt . Reviews . Events . Buy Books Now It was in New York I felt I was destined really "to come out from the boat." The beginning of my new existence must be founded here. In Korea "to come out from the boat" is an idiom meaning "to be born," as the word "pai" for "womb" is the same as "pai" for "boat"; and there is the story of a Korean humorist who had no money, but who needed to get across a river. On landing him on the other side, the ferryman asked for his money. But the Korean humorist said to the ferryman who too had just stepped out, "You wouldn't charge your brother, would you? We both came from the same boat." And so he traveled free. My only plea for a planet-ride among the white-skinned majority of this New World is the same facetious argument. I brought little money, and no prestige, as I entered a practical country with small respect for the dark side of the moon. I got in just in time, before the law against Oriental immigration was passed. But New York, that magic city on rock yet ungrounded, nervous, flowing, million-hued as a dream, became, throughout the years I am recording, the vast mechanical incubator of me.