Annette LeBox's Blog, page 4
January 6, 2013
Wilma Robinson, Bird Woman of the Pitt Polder
October 19, 2012
Amanda Todd: In Memoriam
June 26, 2012
Sisterhood
June 4, 2012
Circle of Cranes Reviews
June 1, 2012
One Helps One Program: Educating Girls in China
April 3, 2012
The Miao Minority: A Step Back Into the Past
On my visit to China to research my YA novel in 2000, I discovered the wonderful world of the Miao people. I became so fascinated by the richness of the Miao culture and history that I decided that the heroine of Circle of Cranes, Suyin, would belong to this ethnic group. The majority of the Miao or the Hmong, their self-referenced name, live in Guizhou, the poorest and least visited province in China. Because the Miao villages are so remote and often tucked away high in the mountains, these ethnic groups have kept their traditional ways. I felt as if I had stepped back into the past.
Miao girls are taught to embroider at a very young age and the girls are often judged by the skill of their embroidery. A girl's embroidery is considered a part of her dowry. She must prove to her prospective in-laws that she is an exquisite embroideress. A girl who can't sew well would have poor marriage prospects.
Miao women and girls stitch their history on their clothing using a variety of secret symbols and patterns. The symbols are meant to be read and translated and then passed on to subsequent generations. To a Miao woman, embroidery is an expression of self and an indication of her talent and ingenuity. Miao festival dresses are amazing works of art and take several years to complete.
Silver ornamentation make up an important part of a Miao girl's clothing. Silver is the symbol of light which can dispel evil spirits. Minority women and girls often wear silver crowns, earrings and neck chains. Some of this silver weighs more than ten kilograms. I bought the fish earrings in the photo from a Miao woman who lived in a collection of houses perched on the side of a mountain near Langde in Guizhou province, China. The fish symbolizes fertility.
March 28, 2012
What inspired me to write Circle of Cranes
An interview with a Canadian foster parent inspired me to write Circle of Cranes. Patty Lister (not her real name) was a foster parent who had worked for the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Families for many years. After a migrant ship was grounded off the west coast of B.C., Patty fostered two migrant children, a seven-year-old orphan girl and a nine-year-old boy. Although Patty had worked for the Ministry for many years, the experience of caring for the migrant children had left deep scars on her.
Over many months, Patty accompanied the foster children to a detention centre to visit the children's 'parents' who were held in custody while the adults awaited their immigration hearings. While the boy and his mother were obviously related, Patty soon realized that the woman the little girl visited was not her mother. In fact, Patty was convinced that the woman was little more than a stranger to the girl.
Meanwhile, the children thrived in their Canadian foster mom's care, attending school, making friends and bonding with Patty and their teachers. The bond between Patty and the little girl was particularly strong.
One night, Patty woke up to find her foster children gone. She immediately phoned the police (the R.C.M.P.) to report the children missing. The police found the children at a nearby transit station, but the snakehead or people smuggler who had contacted the children escaped.
A few days later, the authorities informed Patty that the children would be deported and she was to keep this fact from her charges. Patty was devastated. She felt it was wrong not to tell the children. Defying her orders, Patty told the children the truth and she gave them a going-away party, inviting their classmates, neighbours and friends. Patty broke down as she described packing the children's suitcases, knowing they would arrive home in disgrace for their failure.
When the authorities discovered what Patty had done, she was fired.
Less than a year later, Patty received a telephone from an 'uncle' of the children saying that the two children had been successful in reaching Chinatown, New York where the little girl was a working in a garment factory and the boy was working in a restaurant. The girl was then eight and the boy ten.
Was I glad for them or saddened? Both I guess. I was sad these children were sent from their home to slave for pennies in sweatshops or restaurants, but perhaps for the children, reaching New York City's Chinatown, was a sign of success. I would like to think that the climb up Gold Mountain will be easy for them but I know that's unlikely. They will owe fifty thousand American dollars or more for their smuggling debt and they will have to work for years to pay it off. The children will sacrifice their childhoods to work for long hours under terrible conditions in factories or restaurants to achieve the American dream. Some do make it, despite their hardships but many realize, too late, that reaching the summit of Gold Mountain is reserved for only a very few.
February 8, 2012
Migrant ships in Circle of Cranes
I found it hard to believe that people, particularly children, could survive a two-month journey in a dark and cramped hold of a migrant ship with little food, only rice and water, and no toilet facilities. I doubted it could be that bad until I interviewed a Canadian immigration officer who had boarded one of the migrant ships.
The squalor on the rusty decrepit ship shocked even the most experienced of the immigration officers who called the ship a 'death trap.' Rats overran the ship. The stink was overpowering. Most of the migrants had lice and scabies. Others suffered seasickness. The migrants told the immigration officers that enforcers kept order by beating people or threatening the migrants' families back home.
Writing about Suyin and her friends' experiences in the hold was the most difficult part of Circle of Cranes to write. While I wanted to show the tension among the migrants and the escalating threat of violence, I didn't want to turn away readers with the darkness in the story. I rewrote those chapters more than a dozen times in an attempt to balance hope with despair.
February 1, 2012
Snakeheads in Circle of Cranes
I became fascinated with snakeheads the way I am fascinated, but repelled, by people who commit horrible crimes. The Chinese call people smugglers snakeheads because of their ability to slither through borders and transport people without documents into different countries.
The people smuggler in Circle of Cranes is Snakehead Lao who lies to the unsuspecting villagers about the conditions on board the migrant ship. Lao tells the villagers …"in China, people are like snakes in cages, poor and powerless. But once they are set free in the Beautiful Country (the U.S.) the snakes become rich and powerful dragons."
In my research, I discovered that, more often than not, the migrants didn't realize that they would be risking their lives crossing the ocean on floating death traps or that enforcers on board would keep order by beatings or by threatening the migrants' families back home. They didn't realize that if they couldn't pay off their smuggling debt, often fifty thousand U.S. dollars or more, they would be imprisoned in a so-called 'safehouse' and beaten until their families came up with the money. Sometimes, young girls or women would be forced into prostitution.
Despite these brutalities, I was surprised to learn that some Chinese respected the snakeheads for bringing relatives to America. They believed that the snakeheads improved the economy back home because immigrants would send overseas money to their families. According to an expert in illegal Chinese immigrants and U.S. labour practices, the American authorities often turn a blind eye to illegals working in the garment industry in New York. After all, the garment industry depends on low cost labour; illegals working in sweatshops seldom complain for fear of being deported, despite the fact that deportation rarely happens, except in high profile cases.
January 14, 2012
Craniac
My husband, Michael, is a craniac –– a person who is fascinated, maybe even obsessive, about the tall wetland birds called cranes. Michael is not alone. There are thousands of craniacs in the world, watching in awe as these birds dance, take flight and sing.
Craniacs count the number of birds they spot, photograph them and observe them. Some like my husband, a former biologist, have a scientific bent. He likes to record the time, date and whereabouts of the cranes he spots. He keeps lists. His binoculars look so familiar slung around his neck that they often seem part of his body.
'Crania' is contagious. I caught the bug shortly after I met Michael, falling in love twice, once with him, and a second time with the birds he loves.
An admission is due here. I no longer get up at five o'clock in the morning to take part in the twice-yearly crane count. That was early on in our relationship when I was trying to impress Michael. To be honest, I'm not a good birder. To bird well, you have to be patient. You have to be able to keep those binoculars fixed to your face for a very long time, even when you're soaked in the rain and your feet are freezing. I'm too hyper to stand for very long in one spot, yet witnessing the cranes dance was a magical moment for me. I can't fully explain what these birds stirred in me, but I know I'm not alone in my fascination.
Recently, I discovered a website called Operation Migration, a website dedicated to re-introducing a migratory flock of Whooping Cranes to eastern North America. www.operationmigration.org/craniackid...
I was so happy to find kids across Canada and the United States who care enough about cranes to take action to help save Whooping cranes from extinction. That completely made my day.
