Collaboreads Link Up: The Jade Peony

 

I love the #Collaboreads book lovers link up that Rachel A. Dawson & Amber from Mr. Thomas & Me host. Often if I need a good book recommend I come here. 

The short version of this link up is that the hosts Rachel & Amber pick a random criteria for a book & then near the end of the month they meet up & talk about their choices following the R.E.A.D.S. review format. For August they selected a book written by someone that's a different ethnicity than ourself.

Wayson Choy's novel A Jade Peony explores the tension between "old world" traditions and "new world" ways; between cultural alienation and acceptance.  The story is told through the accounts of three siblings within a Chinese immigrant family growing up in Chinatown, Vancouver, in the early 1930s & 40s. 

Riveting

My favorite aspect of the narrative was that each character's story was told from their childhood. As a reader we recall the wonder and confusion of childhood through their experience. Particularly I enjoyed the last narrative from Sekky's perspective. Sekky, the sickly child, that within Jook Liang's & Jung-Sums narrative was overlooked finds himself invested in keeping a secret. Sek-Lung’s babysitter, the beautiful Meiying has committed the unpardonable sin of falling in love with a Japanese boy.  I was interested to learn & had never considered that between the Japanese & Chinese communities within Canada there was tension. 

Elements

The narrative is told from the point of view of three narrators: Only Sister Jook Liang, Second Brother Jung-Sum, & Third Brother Sekky. As novelettes their account illuminated each other & provided depth to their character development.

Character development is stronger in this novel than plot line. There is a faint tragic plot line that runs through each of the narrators story of losing someone. In Jook-Liang's story she wins the affection of Wong-Bak, the elderly "monkey-man" who becomes her only friend & confident only to have him leave on a ship to return to China. Sek-Lung loses both Poh-Poh (grandma) & Meiying. 

My heart broke for the women in this novel. Stepmother is called "stepmother" even by her own children that she gave birth to. Prior to the novels start she had been purchased as a concubine. Throughout the book this title continues to belittle and disrespect her in attempt to “simplify the kinship terms in Canada." Only-Sister Jook-Liang is relentlessly described by Poh-Poh (grandma) as being mo yung-useless. “A girl-child is mo yung” This creates much confusion for the young girl. She doesn’t understand why her grandmother would deem her useless when “after all, she was a girl, too.” 

Associate

This book reminded me of The Joy Luck Club. While in each they discuss some rascist governmental policies and rascist incidents rascism is not the central conflict. Instead the novels focus on relationships & families. Tensions are between generations. Additionally the children struggle with their hyphenated identity. The older generation is frustrated that the children are not Chinese enough while the younger generation is frustrated with the old ways. The children are viewed as only Chinese outside their homes and less than Chinese within their homes.

Just prior to reading this novel my family came to visit & my mom & I visited the tunnels of MJ on the tour of the Chinese immigrant experience within Canada. In the early 1900’s the majority of the large buildings in MJ were being heated by steam. Engineers who looked after this heating system in the basements decided to create a network of tunnels linking the buildings together, so they can easily move themselves and their equipment from building to building without freezing in the cold prairie winters.  During this time, many Chinese immigrants had begun to arrive in MJ to work for very low wages. In order to survive off their poor wages, the immigrants adopted the tunnel system as living quarters and workplaces which were cheap to run, and hidden from the occasional hostile populace. The Chinese laundries presented on the tour were a cruel punishing way for the Chinese men to pay their passage to Canada & later head tax. By consequence the Chinese community presented in novel had much more freedom to go to school, see films at the cinema and have their own businesses. It is possible that the older generation of Choy's novel endured this harsh existence to build the community that the younger generation of the novel grows up in.

Design

It is likely I would not have picked up this novel based on its cover. It is a lucky that I learned of this book as a recommended read for grade 12 students in Saskatchewan and requested it through inter library loans rather than perusing the shelves & picking a book based on its cover. All the while I was reading it I was thinking the cover really needed some design assistance. 

Stars

I would give this book a 5 star rating. I would highly recommend this read. This book is highly acclaimed. I later learned this book was selected in 2002 as the inaugural book for One Book, One Vancouver for the Vancouver Public Library and the 2010 edition of Canada Reads. With this book Wayson Choy won the Trillium Book Award & the City of Vancouver Book Award.