There is A Lonely Kid inside Us

When you were young, did you ever have lonely but hot-blooded dreams?

Dragon Raja is a novel about such dreams. LU Mingfei, an ordinary Chinese senior high student, lived in a small city with his aunt’s family. He felt like the past 18 years of his life was a tedious circle and he was a total failure himself. Just when he thought life would always be so, a mysterious letter from an American private college was sent to him and saved him from his pathetic life. He went to America but only to find that dragons really exist in this world and the college’s mission is to slaughter them. Under the call of blood and mystery, the boy chose the unknown and took to his extraordinary journey.

Many say that Dragon Raja is the Chinese version of Harry Potter. Indeed, the background of the main character LU is a lot like Harry, but there’s something more. On the title page of the first book, the author JiangNan wrote, “When you are most lonely and hopeless, a door will open beside you. LU Mingfei has been waiting for 18 years. At the moment when he was most frustrated, the door opened.” Kids like LU Mingfei, who are ordinary, weak and quiet, can be seen everywhere in this world. We may have underestimated and laughed at them because they look like losers to us, but no one is born to be strong. In fact, that kid hides in everyone’s heart and one day, this kid will grow up.

An illustration of Dragon Raja

Readers love Dragon Raja, because they see themselves in LU Mingfei. LU had a crush on a pretty girl he can’t get; he hasn’t heard from his parents for years and has an aunt who always looks down on him; he is good at nothing but video games; when faced with tough situations and dragons, he is the first to run away while the elites around are busy saving the day; sometimes he also dreams of being the top student in school and being admired… However, you have no idea that unimaginable power can burst out of this boy, which makes him slaughter a mighty creature like a dragon. At that very moment, the rest of the people look at his figure and worship him like a god.

If he can do things he never dared to imagine, so can we. All we need is something to trigger that little kid inside of us. Our dreams aren’t so different from LU’s, are they? They can seem absolutely ridiculous because no one believes you can achieve them, even yourself. No matter however hard you try, there is no praise or encouragement for you. You can’t make any difference and when you can, it doesn’t change the bad ending of your story at all. Hard as it is, characters in Dragon Raja will make you understand that you still need to have faith. The day when you are strong and brave enough, your fury will make the world tremble with fear.

Dragon Raja is an incredible novel about friendship and love, struggle and hate, loneliness and growth. Every character has their own secrets. You might feel a little bit bitter in their stories, for some pain they are going through is too much to bear; at the same time you might be very excited to see them growing up and conquering the world. You don’t know how the stories of this book will end or where your own life will go, but don’t worry and keep your fire burning. Dreams are not something to give up so easily. After all the tears and blood, you will embrace everything that is yet to come. No matter whether it’s joy or challenge, they’ll give you power.