An Important Author's Note
We all know that not much is known about Ray's history except for the fact that he grew up in Bumblefuck, China with the White Tigers and then took off to travel the world to become a stronger blader when he couldn't have been older than fourteen years old. That's when it hit me: What would have been the logical consequences of Ray becoming an underaged transient with VERY little knowledge of how the world works? The village would have left him extremely isolated, and his age would have prevented him from developing any real job skills except for beyblading, cooking simple meals and doing a few kung-fu moves. Ray's a smart cookie, but it's impossible to be inherently street smart too—that's something you need to develop with experience.
Since Ray inherited Driger from Lee's grandfather, it's safe to say that he was adopted into his family. It is also safe to say that his parents are dead, or even that he never knew his parents, because they're not mentioned in the anime or the manga. Ray and Lee act so much like brothers because they were probably raised that way. That being said, something very drastic would have had to happen to cause Ray to up and leave the only family he's ever known, and I believe this thing has to do with everyone in the village putting him on a beyblade pedestal. (Enough that the village elder gave him their clan's sacred bit beast over his blood grandson.)
Ray just doesn't seem like the type of guy who would be comfortable with everyone kissing his ass constantly, even as a kid. Kid Ray was never arrogant about his immense talent, and was always supportive of Lee whenever he lost to him, and Mariah when she was first learning to beyblade. He also knew that even though he was the best in his village (I believe Lee has a line in the dub where he says that no one could beat Ray, even as a little kid.), there was still room for improvement. He became hungry for knowledge that the village couldn't teach him, so much so that he left everything behind. What I'm interpreting from all of this information is that Ray was always curious about the world, had enough self-awareness to know that he wouldn't progress as much if he stayed in his hometown, and feared that he wouldn't be worthy of Driger if he remained a "big fish in a little pond" so to speak.
And he's risking a lot too. He loves Lee's family. Also, being Chinese, he knows just how absolutely shameful it is to just desert family, especially if you're the heir.
I had planned to spend the day researching what kind of consequences there are for Chinese runaways getting picked up by the cops…only to learn that the cops usually don't care enough to do that. There are approximately one million orphans in China THAT WERE COUNTED, and the whole issue was swept under the rug so much that it's JUST being talked about. Ray could easily be a homeless kid in China without having to worry about getting caught because the orphanages are so full that they legitimately let children die so that they won't have to feed them. The problem for him will be saving up enough money for a passport—saving up enough to live AT ALL, more importantly. According to one article, 20% of Chinese orphans leave home to see the world. There are at least 50,000 real kids out there like Ray.
For the purposes of this story, Ray will be eleven when he inherits Driger. He needs about three years to get smacked in the face with how hard being homeless is, stumble into the restaurant business in Hong Kong and grow as a blader enough to get discovered by Mr. Dickinson.
I also made up the village and its location, since it's not explicitly said in the anime what it's called. I named it Laohu, meaning "Tiger". I wanted it to have at least something to do with tigers considering who their resident sacred spirit is. It's a tiny, ancient village just outside of Linfen, nestled in the Lüliang Mountains. I picked the Shaanxi Province because, canonically, it needs to be west enough to be away from coastal cities, but not west enough to be desert. The mountains in Shaanxi look an awful lot like the ones pictured in the White Tiger X reunion scene in G-Revolution, too.
According to several Chinese linguistics maps that I looked up online, Ray would grow up speaking Mandarin, which makes things easy for me, but difficult for him because it means that he makes it all the way to Hong Kong only to learn that the majority of people speak Cantonese. That's what you get for deserting your clan, Ray. Grandpa Wong says that you can speak gibberish all day long, cry in frustration and write individual symbols to communicate so that you learn your lesson.
Enjoy! Thanks for reading!
-Tash