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The Jade Peony

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 1,631 ratings · 128 reviews

"Beautifully written. . . . It renders a complex and complete human world, which by the end we have learned to love."
— The Boston Book Review

Chinatown, Vancouver, in the late 1930s and '40s provides the backdrop for this poignant first novel, told through the vivid reminiscences of the three younger children of an immigrant Chinese family. The siblings grapple with their i...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published February 17th 2007 by Other Press (first published December 1st 1995)

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Apr 17, 2008 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, historical-fiction

Set in Vancouver's Chinatown in the late 1930s and early 40s, The Jade Peony follows three children growing up in one family: Jook-Liang, the only sister; Jung-Sum, Second Brother and adopted; and Sek-Lung, Third Brother and sickly. This is a time when the Chinese who came to BC to work on the railway through the Rocky Mountains, paying the infamous Head Tax to do so, are the elders in the Chinatown society. Back home in China, the Japanese are steadily conquering land and reports of butchering...more Set in Vancouver's Chinatown in the late 1930s and early 40s, The Jade Peony follows three children growing up in one family: Jook-Liang, the only sister; Jung-Sum, Second Brother and adopted; and Sek-Lung, Third Brother and sickly. This is a time when the Chinese who came to BC to work on the railway through the Rocky Mountains, paying the infamous Head Tax to do so, are the elders in the Chinatown society. Back home in China, the Japanese are steadily conquering land and reports of butchering and genocide create more than tension between the Chinese-Canadians and the Japanese-Canadians of Vancouver - exacerbated when the Japanese take Pearl Harbor and the Japanese-Canadians are rounded up and put into camps.

Against this landscape of poverty, fear, racism and anxiety the three children relate a few years each, times of joy and sorrow and family conflict. Jook-Liang becomes best friends with an old Chinese man who worked on the railway, who has crippled legs and looks like a monkey - prompting five-year-old Liang to believe he is the Monkey King of legend. They go to movies together and she tap-dances like Shirley Temple to his applause. Jung learns to box and finds himself with a growing, unwanted attraction toward wildboy Frank, and Sekky insists he can see his dead grandmother, Poh-Poh, and becomes the only confidant of his neighbour's adopted daughter Meiying's secret liason with a Japanese boy.

Written in the style of short stories, with grace, delicacy and a light touch, Choy opens up a period in Canada's history that the country is still ashamed of (only recently has the government committed to paying back the Chinese immigrants the illegal head tax), when people died because the white locals didn't rush to save them - they were "resident aliens", even if born here, and had almost no rights.

The new generation of Chinese-Canadians are caught betwixt old China ways and westernised Canada ways, kept to tradition with the older generations belief in their ability to one day return to China, while their children want nothing more than to be Canadian. This is something that continues today, sometimes with seriously damaging side-effects as children are torn between family tradition and a very different lifestyle.

I have to say, that I was won over from the beginning by Liang's absorption with the Monkey King. I grew up watching Monkey, with Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, Horse and the beautiful priest Tripitaka (played by a woman, hence all the sexual tension between "him" and Monkey - yeah, we all wanted them to get it on ;), it was one of my favourite shows, and it was such a delight to find reference to the legend behind it here in this book.

The light and graceful quality of the prose, as well as moments of irony and humour, balanced out the darker undertones of the novel, including the sad ending. The setting and period felt very real, and it was great to be given the chance to understand and sympathise with a specific community like this, with all their flaws and faults, their generosity and acts of kindness, their determination and what drives them. It's also a great story, a slice of Canada's history opened-up, though I did struggle to keep up with the back-and-forth narrative, the non-linear timeline, which sometimes confused me.(less)

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Feb 19, 2013 Monty rated it 3 of 5 stars

There is much to say for this book about a family of Chinese immigrants living in pre-WWII Vancouver, BC. This historical novel partially filled in a gap for me of this time period and locality. It was interesting for me to read three different perspectives of the scene as told by each of 3 out 4 children (a sequel called All That Matters adds the voice of the fourth child, the oldest one and and the only one born in China). Anti-Japanese sentiment comes in loud and clear in the last part of the...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Anita rated it 5 of 5 stars

“Lyrical and moving” the opening words of the blurb for this book and I don’t think I can say it much better. This is one of those all too rare novels that truly transports you to another time and place, immerses you into a culture and a life experience that is far from your own. So much so that finishing it is rather a rude awakening.
The story is set in immigrant Vancouver, Chinatown in the 1940’s. In the family home of three generations of a Chinese family, we meet the matriarchal grandmother,...more “Lyrical and moving” the opening words of the blurb for this book and I don’t think I can say it much better. This is one of those all too rare novels that truly transports you to another time and place, immerses you into a culture and a life experience that is far from your own. So much so that finishing it is rather a rude awakening.
The story is set in immigrant Vancouver, Chinatown in the 1940’s. In the family home of three generations of a Chinese family, we meet the matriarchal grandmother, the worried and put upon parents and the children, through the eyes of whom the story is told. Three of the children tell their tales in the three different sections of the book as they try to cope with growing up as Chinese and Canadian, being of the old world and the new, being both and yet neither.
The first to narrate is Liang the only daughter who struggles with her dreams of fame and film stardom alongside the loss of a childhood friend, mentor and hero. Overshadowing her life is the constant reminder by her grandmother that she is -as a girl child, useless to her family.
Jung the second to speak, the adopted second son of the family trains to be a boxer whilst repressing memories of his first family and trying to live up to his elder brother’s example whilst coming to terms with his extremes of otherness.
Sek- Lung is the last to speak and perhaps the most moving. The youngest son and a weakling from birth, he documents the worlds decent into war and his palpable urge to be a part of the fighting. He plays his war games with unceasing resolve as his parents worry and cry over the fate of their people half the world away and try to stop their eldest son from joining the fight.
Sek –Lung lives in a simple world of school and play, where people fit neatly into the roles of good guys and bad, friends and enemies until he witnesses a beloved family friend and babysitter fraternising with the ‘enemy’ a Japanese boy. His boundaries blur as he gets to know the person beneath the appearance and tries to make sense of his newfound knowledge whilst protecting his friend.
The novel raises many issues of otherness, of third generation immigrants who are yet expected to adhere to the rules and superstitions of a land they’ve never been to, of neighbours who must hate and ignore each other, of the pressures we put on our children. It’s a thought provoking beautifully written novel.
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Feb 18, 2011 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: canada

Wayson Choy gives us three views of life in a Chinese-Canadian family in Vancouver in the 1930s and early 1940s. Each section is narrated by one of the children of that family, making the book feel more like a collection of interconnected short stories than a straightforward novel. They struggle with family expectations, the pressures of life in the Depression and the Second World War (despising the Japanese, wearing pins to identify themselves as Chinese so they don't get beaten up), the inheri...more

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Jul 24, 2010 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Much to my delight, I was randomly assigned to read and defend Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony for a local Canada Reads gathering. It was meant to be: I had Wayson sign a copy of his 1995 novel for me just a few months ago when he was in Halifax for a reading of his most recent work, Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying, and The Jade Peony has for many years been high on my favourite books list.

The Jade Peony so eloquently combines the familiar with the unfamiliar. The universal themes of c...more Much to my delight, I was randomly assigned to read and defend Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony for a local Canada Reads gathering. It was meant to be: I had Wayson sign a copy of his 1995 novel for me just a few months ago when he was in Halifax for a reading of his most recent work, Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying, and The Jade Peony has for many years been high on my favourite books list.

The Jade Peony so eloquently combines the familiar with the unfamiliar. The universal themes of coming of age, forbidden love, sexuality, racism, death and jealousy intertwined with the mysteries of Vancouver’s Chinatown, the disgrace of being a girl-child, the hardships endured by the first Chinese immigrants, and the loss and suffering as a result of Canadian immigration policies of late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The book’s appeal is certainly in part due to the story being told through the eyes of children. The three young narrators straddle two worlds, old vs. new, east vs. west, and through their eyes we glimpse into the world of their Chinese born elders, filled with worry, secrets, symbols, ghosts, and magic, intertwined with a child’s world of Eaton’s dollhouses, Shirley Temple, Joe Louis and Tarzan. They are an “in-between” generation, sheltered in their Chinatown neighborhood, but with glimpses of life beyond their community boundaries.

This story centres around family. This is a somewhat cobbled together family, with a servant who is elevated to stepmother status (even to her own blood children, however), an adopted second brother, a Chinese-born first brother, two Canadian-born siblings, the family’s father and, most importantly, sharp-tongued Poh-Poh, the grandmotherly glue that binds everyone together. Nevertheless, it is a family, and in the inscription in my copy of The Jade Peony Wayson wrote “For Sara: Family is who loves you.”

If this novel isn't on every Canadian high school reading list, it ought to be. It is an opportunity to delve into an often overlooked Canadian experience through the eyes of young narrators who take us to places most of us have never been or could even imagine.(less)

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May 19, 2010 Laura Neufeld rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In a word: beautiful. I absolutely loved The Jade Peony. Wayson Choy (yay Canadian author!) tells the story of an immigrant Chinese family who come to Vancouver in the 1930s, as the conflict between Japan and China in the East, and Canada, Britain, et al and Germany in the West heats up.

I loved this book for many reasons. First and foremost, Choy writes stunningly. His prose is lyrical and the stories that he tells are deeply moving. The family's story is told through the perspectives of three...more

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Sep 30, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, coming-of-age, immigrant-experience, canada, china, british-columbia, world-war-2

This one grew on me after I got used to its gentle, understated approach to coming-of-age issues in a Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver during in the 30’s. We get a sensitive and universal exploration of the challenges of growing up combined with a fresh children’s perspective on the conflicts between following traditions of their immigrant parents versus assimilation to Western culture in an urban multicultural society.

As in Kingsolver’s “Poisonwood Bible”, the novel uses the narrative appr...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Linh La added it

Mar 31, 2011

Usually when people read a book written in the first person, they focus on the main character and forget that they're only introduced to all the other characters through the main character. We forget that those people have their own stories or their own versions of the same story that we are currently reading. Wayson Choy provides the "side stories" of All That Matters in The Jade Peony. From Kiam (first brother's) point of view, I really only saw Liang as the useless girl, Jung as t...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Leya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canada-reads, library-book

The Jade Peony was one of those books that I lost myself in...I loved the setting, the 30's in Vancouver with immigrants and their children. The children grow up with the old country morals and tales while living in a different culture who doesn't necessarily understand where they are coming from. As a daughter of immigrants I can understand the confusion of blending the new and old.

Each sibling has a section in the book. Jook-Liang, the only sister, has a beautiful relationship with an elderly...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Adam Dunn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: glbt

An excellent, rich story of life in Chinatown in Vancouver in the 1930's.

The author does a fantastic job of painting his life as a child of immigrants, and the struggle to balance the old and the new ways. The character of his grandmother is amazing, in her 80's and born in 1850 she is such a wealth of knowledge and really represents the ways of old China.

Many times with this book I found myself talking to family and friends about it, relaying how the Chinese all believed in ghosts, how they liv...more

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Sep 25, 2010 Marie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, historical-fiction, war

In preparation for our trip to Vancouver, BC, last summer, I looked up books about Vancouver. Wayson Choy was one of the most frequently mentioned authors. I find that Canadian authors are not very widely read in the U.S., and I've found many Canadian gems.

The novel is divided into three sections, each telling the unique perspective of three siblings growing up in the Chinatown of Vancouver. It touches on many issues of race, family, rivalry, the battle between the old ways and the new ways, dis...more

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Oct 23, 2011 Jeanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: canada-reads, canadian

As part of the reading for my local library book club, we read the lovely, poignant story of The Jade Peony, by Wayson Choy. Set in Vancouver’s Chinatown of the 1930s and 40s, we see a Chinese family struggle to survive, through the eyes of three of the children. Each has a unique role in the family and of course a different perspective. As the story progresses, and we move from one child's narrative to the next, we see the family change and adapt and eventually face the consequences of war and...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Mary Billinghurst rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have been wanting to read this novel since it came out many years ago, so I am glad I have finally done so. It is a very powerful story of the Chinese community in Vancouver in the 1930s and 40s. Choy's decision to use three child narrators works very well to capture a troubled world through innocent eyes. I found myself caring about all of these children, and understanding why each had the struggles he/she did. In each case, a character outside of the family unit proves to be a powerful influ...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Olduvai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, reading-the-world-challenge

This book took a while to get going. Perhaps it was because I started off with a little wariness – I’m not all that fond of reading Chinese immigrant stories, partly because they’ve always seemed… perhaps a little too similar to each other. Perhaps because they also hit close to home, but in a different sort of way (my great grandparents moved from China to Singapore – essentially moving from one Chinese-dominated country to another). It’s hard to explain, but it’s always made me hesitant.

Wayson...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Nina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Wayson Choy set the story of The Jade Peony in Vancouver's Chinatown. The story follows three siblings in the years of 1930's and 40's, in the depression. Jook Liang begins the novel. She is the only daughter and is the third child. Jung-Sum is the second-brother, adopted into the family after his parents' deaths. Finally, Sek-Lung is the third brother, the fourth child of the family.
The reader follows their lives, loves, losses and gains. From red ribbons to old turtles, there's no shortage o...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Louise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Chinatown of the 1940's in Vancouver, three children of Chinese immigrant parents nurture dreams of making their own mark on the world around them. Jung-Sum is an adopted son who fights in the boxing ring and wrestles with uncertainty about his own sexual identity. Jook-Liang dreams of escaping the confines of tradition to become the next Shirley Temple, and Sekky, the youngest child, surprises the rest of the family with his own quiet wisdom." (Taken from the Editors).

As a born and bred Canadia...more Chinatown of the 1940's in Vancouver, three children of Chinese immigrant parents nurture dreams of making their own mark on the world around them. Jung-Sum is an adopted son who fights in the boxing ring and wrestles with uncertainty about his own sexual identity. Jook-Liang dreams of escaping the confines of tradition to become the next Shirley Temple, and Sekky, the youngest child, surprises the rest of the family with his own quiet wisdom." (Taken from the Editors).

As a born and bred Canadian and having lived here my entire life, I can only imagine what emigrating from another country must be like. It makes me wonder how I would deal with the langugage barrier, the differences in culture and tradition, observing and obeying the laws of the land and that of a society very different from the one I came from. But Wayson Choy makes my imagination come alive in this novel with well-written and carefully chosen words that make you feel a part of the story. I felt like I'd been transplanted back to 1940 Vacouver and could almost hear, see and smell the time of that era.

While the new family is trying to engraciate themselves into this new and modern life in Vancouver, their Grandmother Poh-Poh who lives with them, is stuck in her past in a country where she came to believe that the old ways, the world of ghosts, omens and superstition, and the ancient lore and sometimes complicated remedies for illness are the only way to live.

When reading this novel we have to remember that this family's story plays out during the the war which also brings more uncertainty and distrust to the newly arrived family. How do they recognize friends from enemies? How do they maintain their old ways and the culture of their homeland while trying to fit in and live peacefully in this new country? The children, as the younger generation, wants to forget about the old ways and welcome and embrace their new world with open arms, but the older generation is set in their ways and afraid to turn their back on the traditions and beliefs they were raised with.

"The Jade Peony" is a moving story of memory and loss, hardship and heartbreak, of reconciling the past with the future and is achingly real.

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May 28, 2010 Chana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Chana by: Bookcrossing

Shelves: canada, china, fiction-family-drama, historical-fiction, received-through-bookcrossing

A very fine book, it tells the story of a Chinese family in the late 1930's/early 1940's living in ChinaTown in Vancouver, Canada. The story is told through 3 of the 4 children in the family. Each child tells his story separately and it makes for very interesting reading. The family and community is seen through the eyes of each child, and the differences in the children's viewpoint is fascinating. I really loved reading it. In some ways it reminded me of the story of the four sons we read durin...more

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Apr 17, 2011 Kimberly Gould rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found a certain lack of cohesion. I kept hoping, in the final segment following Sekky, that some last tie would be made. These siblings are so separate, Liang as the only girl, the two boys by age, that is seemed like three stories rather than one. Four if you take the last story to be Maiying told through Sekky. I was a little disappointed at the ending. Similar to my feelings at the end of Jung-sun`s story, it seemed to be made bleaker than necessary.

Despite these misgivings on my part, eac...more

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Nov 30, 2010 Mrsgaskell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadiana, library, 9-star, bookclub

This novel presents life in Vancouver’s Chinatown during the ‘30s and ‘40s from the point of view of the youngest three children in a family of immigrants. Each child has their own dreams, unique bonds within the family, and different influences beyond the family circle. Jook-Liang is the only daughter, frequently told by her grandmother Poh-Poh that a girl-child is mo yung, useless. But she dreams of dancing like Shirley Temple and develops a strong relationship with an unattractive family frie...more This novel presents life in Vancouver’s Chinatown during the ‘30s and ‘40s from the point of view of the youngest three children in a family of immigrants. Each child has their own dreams, unique bonds within the family, and different influences beyond the family circle. Jook-Liang is the only daughter, frequently told by her grandmother Poh-Poh that a girl-child is mo yung, useless. But she dreams of dancing like Shirley Temple and develops a strong relationship with an unattractive family friend, an old Chinese bachelor, Wong-Suk, who reminds everyone of Monkey Man. Jung-Sum is the second brother, adopted and fully accepted into the family after the death of his own parents. He is drawn into the world of boxing where he discovers certain truths about himself. Sek-Lung (Sekky) is the sickly third son, very close to the grandmother who cared for him during his illness. His play is dominated by war themes and through his babysitter Meiying, he becomes exposed to the world beyond Chinatown. The family’s life is strongly influenced by historical events of the times, the Depression, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Head Tax, World War II, and the Japanese Occupation of China. The real power in this family resides with the eldest member, grandmother Poh-Poh. The father is busy working at various jobs to support his family, and the mother plays a subordinate role. Referred to as “stepmother” by all, even though she is the biological mother of Jook-Liang and Sek-Lung, she was bought as a family servant and concubine after the death of the First Wife, mother of the eldest son. Poh-Poh has decided that she will be known as stepmother to keep things simpler. And certainly, within this community, there appears to be a need for simplicity and secrecy as well as “paper histories” to deal with the alien culture and bureaucracy surrounding them. These individuals were considered “resident aliens”, even the children born in Canada. I loved this book with its themes of family life, cultural differences, identity, racism, gender and sexual roles. It was interesting to see the rising prejudice against the Japanese and their eventual internment from a Chinese perspective. I felt immersed in the times and in the life of this family, and although there was sadness and tragedy in this story, it was handled so deftly that the book did not feel heavy or depressing. I'd highly recommend it. (less)

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Feb 09, 2010 Kokeshi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: china, canada

The story of three children from a family (Jook-Liang, the only sister; Jung-Sum, Second Brother and adopted; and Sek-Lung, Third Brother and sickly)living in Vancouver's Chinatown in the late 1930s and early 40s.

A very interesting and informative view of Chinese culture in Vancouver. The writing is so good that you are completely drawn into the story and feel everything the characters are going through. As well, the story was at times heartbreaking, but also really hilarious.

I thought that I wo...more

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Jan 15, 2012 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

Immigrants often struggle to balance their old and new worlds. This tale is not different. Told by 3 siblings of Chinese descent, The Jade Peony explores Vancouver B.C. during the 1930s and 1940s tackling issues such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, the Depression, WWII, and the need to wear "I am Chinese" pins to differentiate themselves from Japanese children to avoid harrassment. Balancing the values of Old China and Modern Canada was difficult and often isolating. Like the experience of...more

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Jan 23, 2011 Vionna rated it 3 of 5 stars

A very enjoyable read about Chinese life in Vancouver during the depression and up to the beginning of World War II. The story is told through the eyes of Jung, the second son, Liang, the daughter and Sekky, the third son. The family struggles with the old ways versus the new ways - Canadian life. They encounter a lot of prejudices not only from Canadians, but also within their multicultural community where poverty is rampant. There is also a great deal of tension between the Japanese and Chines...more

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Jul 02, 2011 George Copley rated it 3 of 5 stars

insight into 3 chinese-canadian children in Vancouver BC as they discover their chinese heritage
as it contrasts with canadian upbringing.. one natural birthed female child looks at the value/worth of a female in chinese society and her place in the family; a second son who is adopted when his natural parents die in Kamloops and he is delivered by the Tong to a family in Vancouver and the natural born third son who is weak health wise (asthma??) and his endeavours to adapt to his grandmothers de...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Fari rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Fari by: School

Shelves: i-own-this, signed, r

Random Update: 17/01/2013

So, he came to our school today to talk about his book, and I have to say, it was an absolute pleasure listening to him. I like his book way more now that I have heard him speak. He was really interesting and spoke about a lot of interesting things. AND, he signed my copy. :D

Review

Slight spoilers below

I had to read this book for school, and as far as books for school go, this wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. It's about this chinese family in Canada during the tim...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Florence MacIntosh rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Cultural: Vancouver Chinatown

Recommended to Florence by: Michael Edwards

Shelves: lit-canada, historical-fiction, debut, race, gender, 2013, lit-asian, reviewed

An easy and entertaining novel, if you’re interested in Chinese culture you’ll love this immigrant coming of age story. Wayson Choy transports you to Vancouver’s Chinatown circa 30’s - early 40’s up to the outbreak of WW2. He does a beautiful job portraying a Chinese-immigrant family, poignantly illustrated by the polar opposite personalities of grandmother Poh-Poh and her westernized grandchildren. Jook Liang the Shirley Temple wanna-bee; Jung-Sum the adopted boy struggling with his awakening h...more An easy and entertaining novel, if you’re interested in Chinese culture you’ll love this immigrant coming of age story. Wayson Choy transports you to Vancouver’s Chinatown circa 30’s - early 40’s up to the outbreak of WW2. He does a beautiful job portraying a Chinese-immigrant family, poignantly illustrated by the polar opposite personalities of grandmother Poh-Poh and her westernized grandchildren. Jook Liang the Shirley Temple wanna-bee; Jung-Sum the adopted boy struggling with his awakening homosexuality and Kiam the essential 1st born male. In Poh-Poh’s eyes all 'mo no' (no brains), born without an understanding of boundaries, neither Chinese nor Canadian. She clings desperately to traditional Chinese ways, ways her grandchildren are equally determined to reject.

Wayson shows a talent for strong characterization, grandmother Poh-Poh’s resonates. (view spoiler) Your typical long-suffering 'I die soon' type, content with her lot in life, her potions and ancestral ghosts. With a heavy hand and a mantra of 'Old ways, best ways' she’s duty-bound to raise her grandchildren as she was. To believe all girls are worthless, that children over the age of six should work not play.'Aaiiyaah! The tea is bitter, but we drink it'

Recommended, this is a great story gently & gracefully written. Just not convinced it’s deserving of all the accolades. The POV switching between the 3 children was disjointed and their stories left unresolved. Good news is Wayson has published a well received sequel All That Matters- I plan on reading it.
Solid 3 1/2 stars rounded to 4

“Furnish your mind,” Father said to us. “You don’t have to be poor inside, too.”

If you like this try The Concubine's Children A memoir set in the same time and place, reads like fiction, bit obscure and a real gem.(less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Janet rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was an odd book. It is really three short stories told from the narrative of three people from the same family. One the one hand I enjoyed reading the stories, the references to Vancouver's Chinatown, and what it was like to grow up in a Chinese-Canadian home in the 40's. One the other hand I felt a sense of "that's all?" when all three stories ended very abruptly. For example in the first story the character, a little girl, meets a deformed old man who she decides is the "The Monkey Man" f...more

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Oct 22, 2011 Davytron rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, non-heteronormative

The Jade Peony is one of my favourite novels. Of all the Asian fiction I've read, I was moved the most by these stories. The fact that it's set in Canada is a plus, I guess, even though the country is understandably not presented in the greatest light considering the story is set during the 30's and 40's.

The novel is divided into three sections - one for each child excluding the eldest whose point of view is presented in the sequel All That Matters (which I have yet to read!). The reason I love...more

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Jun 21, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian

Asian-Canadian fiction is my favourite branch of fiction, and Wayson Choy solidified that realisation.
He writes of Vancouver's Chinatown during the depression, and his blend of magical-realism and the mundane is extraordinary and something that I particularly love about Asian-Canadian fiction.
He writes about a family's life; there is no flashy or suspenseful plot, which makes a novel so much better to me, so much braver. There is no distraction or elaborate for poor characterization to hide behi...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Dutch rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, canadian

I would have liked this book better if it had not been narrated by children. That's just me. I got through it only because I love Asian culture and as a Vancouverite, could easily follow along with the descriptions of the settings.

Part of what made this book a bit of a drag to read was the constant busyness of multiple characters thrown in, nevermind the fact the book has three different child-narrators. With all the bustle of many characters comes a lot of background information, flashbacks, f...more

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Feb 15, 2011 August Bourré rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Please excuse me for some vagueness, and if I make some minor factual errors. Immediately after finishing The Jade Peony, I loaned it to my mother to read, and since she lives in Waterloo and I'm now back at home in Toronto, I'm unable to have it in front of me while I write this (and I don't take notes while I read). So: I once wrote on this blog that I'm not interested in literature as social work, and I'm certainly not interested in an author behaving like my case worker, and that's what a lo...more Please excuse me for some vagueness, and if I make some minor factual errors. Immediately after finishing The Jade Peony, I loaned it to my mother to read, and since she lives in Waterloo and I'm now back at home in Toronto, I'm unable to have it in front of me while I write this (and I don't take notes while I read). So: I once wrote on this blog that I'm not interested in literature as social work, and I'm certainly not interested in an author behaving like my case worker, and that's what a lot of The Jade Peony felt like to me. I wasn't just supposed to be reading a decent novel about Chinese people, I was supposed to be absorbing a culture, learning about history, becoming a better person. Like broccoli, it wasn't actually bad, but knowing it was supposed to be good for me made me not want to finish it.

But finish it I did.

It's difficult to write in the voice of a child. Children are not simply minature adults, and they certainly aren't stupid. There's an extremely delicate balance that has to be maintained; children don't see the same things we do, the way we do, and writing them as though they do is unconvincing at best. What details will they pick out as important? How will they interpret those details? Choy has an especially difficult task, because he chooses not one just child's voice, but three. Additionally, a great many of his readers may not be Chinese, and the novel takes place in a time that those readers most likely don't have any direct experience of. He has to include sufficient cultural and historical detail to situate the reader in a particular time and place, but he also has to balance it against what a child would pay attention to, how much they would understand, how they would understand it, and so on and so on. I find that there are moments when Choy is convincing, particularly with Jung-Sum and Jook-Liang, but most of the time he swerves around all over the place. Jook-Liang seems to miss far too much even though she's quite young, and Jung-Sum sees far too much for his age. The scene in which Jung-Sum runs to the cinema with his friend, leaving behind his beloved turtle, is told with far too much telling detail and sadness for what a child his age could have mustered, and I don't get the feeling that Choy is trying to present us with an unreliable adult narrator looking back at his past.

It wasn't a bad novel, and I enjoyed the clash between Poh-Poh's ideas of Old China and the new Canadian ways, but for the most part I found it unnecessarily sombre, and a little dull. I think it would have worked better as a collection of linked short stories. The chapters were almost episodic, and there didn't seem to be any definite narrative arc, except perhaps in the second half of Sek-Lung's section, which was so charged with meaning that it was as subtle as a freight train. To be honest I think this is the worst of the four Canada Reads books I've read so far. As much as I hated Generation X, at least it moved me in some way, made me react, even though that reaction was very strongly negative. It's frankly taken all my will to gather enough interest to write even this little bit about The Jade Peony. My final reaction is that I just simple don't care. It probably doesn't help that my edition (earlier than the one pictured here, with a much different cover) was riddled with typos, huge gaps between words, and other production oddities that made it feel more like I was reading an un-corrected proof.

I'm sorry to be so brief, but I just can't find anything I want to say about this novel. Typical CanLit, perhaps?(less)

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About Wayson Choy

Born in Vancouver in 1939, Wayson Choy has spent much of his life engaged in teaching and writing in Toronto. Since 1967, he has been a professor at Humber College and also a faculty member of the Humber School for Writers. He has appeared in Unfolding the Butterfly, a full-length bio-documentary by Michael Glassbourg, and was recently a host on the co-produced China-Canada film In Search of Confu...more

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“Yes, yes," Gee Sook said. "Look how Jung stands like a man today.” — 4 people liked it

“While we played, Meiying often sat by herself on the bench, huddled against the chill, looking at the library books on her lap, the pages glowing under the street lamp. The pages would sometimes turn in the wind, but she did not notice.” — 3 people liked it

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