Writing as a form of healing and final thoughts

[SCPL]

In an interview with the CBC Books, which can be found at this link: https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/...
Lindsay Wong discusses why she wrote the Woo-woo, and speaks specifically about writing for herself as a way to heal and cope with trauma and mental illness. She says, "I wrote this book for myself... It was something I felt I needed to do because mental illness is something that we don't talk about - especially in Asian culture, Chinese culture - we kind of dismiss it we ignore it" (Wong, para. 9), and throughout the book we see these moments of healing, although subtle.

Despite this book being very dark, it addresses the topic of mental illness from the harsh reality from which it spawned. The narrative voice is reflective and candid, and this is demonstrated when Lindsay recognises her inability to provide comfort for her grieving cousin, "As a person disconnected from my feelings and severed from any semblance of self-worth, I did not understand that my cousin and I were experiencing what was generally known as trauma and loss" (Wong, 258). Through the writing of this moment Lindsay is able to spot evidence of her own mental health/self-esteem issues and show the reader how she has matured by pointing out that she was unable to emote due to the conditioning she received being part of an emotionally distant family culture.

Additionally, at several points in the book she states that she wants to be different from her parents, but recognises that their influence will always inform her thoughts:

Yet leaving my mother in the hotel room felt like I was abandoning some grizzled fraction of myself that was not good or evil, lazy or nice. Like I was amputating an arthritic finger that I could not use, but it had been an intrinsic part of me for so long. Goddammit, I wanted to be somebody different from my mother, or at least, grow up to be someone with a job (Wong, 307)

Lindsay demonstrates a lot of maturity and compassion for her parents throughout her book, and never lets readers forget that her parents are also battling mental illness. I believe that is why, in the above mentioned quotation, when she describes her mother as being a part of herself she chooses to be neutral. The writing of this book has provided the opportunity to reflect on her own trauma, as well as the traumas faced by her parents and grandmother that are the cause of much of the family's dysfunction. Naturally, there is resentment, but in the end her mother is neither "good or evil", just broken by the mental burdens she has had to carry with her. Maybe if Lindsay's mother could find an artistic escape she too could begin the healing process.

This is the final posting for Lindsay Wong's "The Woo-Woo". Feel free to share your thoughts about this posting or just about the book in general.