Chasing the Dragon is an autobiographical account of an English woman who sojourns into the foreign realms of the infamous Walled City in Kowloon (九龍城寨) during the 70's to serve the drug addicts, prostitutes and spiritually lost. Not knowing where God was leading her and having no sense of where her destination was, Jackie Pullinger vividly depicts her struggles with her family, her mentors, local ministries and lastly herself. The author makes it clear she's not specially gifted or talented in anyway and she makes it a point that it's only through God's grace and mercy that an Average Jane like her can accomplish what she chroniclizes. The book, like her ministry, has no clear ending or conclusion, so I got a feeling of being left hanging out to dry at the end. But that's what the author was trying to connote...that her work is neverending. Her legacy lives on in St. Stephen's Society Drug Rehabilitation Center where God's glory continues to shine. Jackie Pullinger is a music teacher by training and missionary by trade. What she isn't, is she's not a writter. I personally found the book choppy to read and at times, lacked fluidity -- mainly because she was trying to write about a Chinese culture in an English language. The book, originally written in English, has been translated and will most likely be more intimate if read in Chinese.
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