Customer Reviews

The Concubine's Children

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

but I did find that I had a bit of a difficult time getting myself through this book, maybe because this story with the exception of a concubine, hits close to home. My Grandfather had come to America without his wife and three children looking for a better life. This occured in the 1930's around the same time that Sam Chan sent for a concubine from China. May-Ying was a young girl sent alone on a long journey to Vancouver, B.C. to become a concubine to Sam Chan, who would father two daughters. As the girls got older it was decided that they would be schooled in China. The entire family returned home where May-Ying, although the mother to the girls, became the second wife next to Hungbo, who was to be known as the "big mother" to the girls. Hungbo had replaced Sam Chan's first wife who had passed away some years earlier.

May-Ying had started out as a young innocent girl who came to North America on falsified papers and was thrust into a life that she didn't desire. It was in Vancouver and the numerous Chinatowns that dotted the area that her wild side let loose, especially when Sam Chan returned for an extended stay in China to build a house. Now May-Ying was forced to work in a tea house to support not only herself, but also her infant daughter (the author's mother) as well as those in China. She was required to send back money to support the building of the house.

The rest of the book goes on to describe the hardships that she faced as well as the emotional and physical abuse suffered by the third daughter Hing. Sam Chan did indeed have very good intentions to try to provide well for the families on two continents, but it would all back fire during The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution that would take place. This is when Sam Chan would return to Vancouver and start living apart from May-Ying and Hing.

The last few chapters deal with the author trying to reunite the two families and helping her mother come to terms with the demons that were inside her. Her mother felt that the happiness that she should have had was sacrificed for the other family in China. After meeting her siblings for the first time, she was able to answer a lot of questions that for a long time she had suppressed.

An interesting look into what life was like for those looking for the pot of gold in another country and the sadness that was shared among the many who made the trip.

The strength of this book is in the human drama of a family split apart. On another level, it is one of the clearest and most compelling descriptions I have ever encountered of the conflicting ties Overseas Chinese have between their adopted homelands and their ancestral homeland; the conflicting forces of family sentiment and the need to earn money to support the family; and the disparate economic opportunities at home and abroad. Like other economic sojourners who travel abroad to work, the author's grandfather faces tremendous pressures from those back home who expect him to give them the world on what are really very low wages; and he risks loss of face if he does not meet their expectations. The author paints her family members not as saints nor sinners but as real people and does an amazing, touching, fascinating job of bringing to life the story of a family pulled apart over the span of three generations.

Denise Chong reveals a world of immigration that this very Anglo Texan had no idea existed. With each multicultural title I read I become more and more amazed by the sacrifices that immigrant people make by seeking their fortunes in a New World. Learning about the U. S. closure to Chinese immigration was news to me. And realizing that the only course for Chinese men was to immigrate through Canada opened up at least two new vistas. The one in Canada of Chong's grandmother, the child of the concubine, was so primitive and pain filled; I was intrigued to know that it could be survived. To learn of the custom of the Chinese man having family in China that was honored and in the New World that was less highly regarded surprised me even more. The child's struggle through rejection, poverty, parental alcoholism and addictive gambling, and sexual promiscuity seemed nearly impossible.

To enrich Chong's narrative, a biography no less, she includes family pictures. And the links back to the family in China show the culture that is stuck in another century, another time. It is a picture that reveals family that is revered though separated by distance and time. Reading this book enriched my understanding of a people about which I knew very little. I highly recommend this book. It is an extension past the very excellent fiction of Amy Tan and well worth the read.

I may be a white, teenaged, american male, but I still can appreciate the value and hard work that went into this book.

This book was absolutely wonderful in that it covered the family history so well, leaving out very few details, even though it was all put together by word of mouth, letters and photographs!

This must have been an extremely difficult book to write for all parties involved, and for that the author and her relatives have my deepest respect.

This book is absolutely beautiful and represents Chinese culture very clearly and in an interesting manner. I would recommend this book to ANYBODY

I'm surprised that this book has been given so little publicity compared to Amy Tan's, Jung Chang's Wild Swans etc. Like the other reviewers, I have found this book to be a gem. Even better that Amy Tan's books or Wild Swans for that matter because this book has been written from the heart. Denise Chong has not held back in telling the stories of 3 generations in her family, the characters - warts and all. And that she has written this book from bits of letters, photographs and talking to her mother is truly an amazing feat. Reading it, was heart wrenching at times, it had its ups and downs and what an ending to the tale.

Because I am a man, I cannot truly and fully appreciate this book more than a woman would. I strongly recommend this to any of your female readers.

The Concubine's Children is the story, of a woman from China who came to Britsh Columbia, Canada to be the concubine, (not wife) of a rather unimaginative, and very traditional man. Her story, which really isn't a happy story, gives the reader an unusual insight into the imigrant experience of Asian Americans, and is written by the granddaughter of the "Concubine" . This book was so good, I read it in one night. I then sent it to my mother who did the same

I couldn't put it down, and lent it to several friends who had the same experience. Brilliantly and honestly written, it will completely pull you in to a new "old" world.

Being a 1st generation Chinese Canadian I feel very close to this story. Although my circumstances are not as dark as that of the people in the story, I feel a certain kinship.

Denise Chong is honest and her story is remarkable. I read that book in one night and had to miss school the next day because I could not put the book down. The pictures in the book gives a dimension to the characters.

In this fascinating tale, Denise Chong deftly writes the story of her migrant Chinese family on two soils - Canadian soil, and Chinese soil. Her grandmother ("concubine" May-ying) moves to Canada following Chan Sam, her assigned husband. Times prove not to be so easy for the Chinese in "Gold Mountain". Their isolation and institutionalized exclusion from mainstream Canadian society stifled any progress. May-ying moves almost constantly from Nanaimo to Vancouver (the two Chinatowns) waitressing to support her husband, Hing (the third daughter and author's mother), and also the family left in China. Following relations in this book is key to understanding how the story unfolds.

Denise Chong tells the story of May-ying's taut life in trying to fulfill the obligations of a Chinese wife in a polygamous setting. She also gives historical accounts (political and cultural) both at home and in China. When family and history are intertwined, both become inseperably tangible. I don't think that this book is an exploitation of Chinese culture as one reviewer pointed out. I think this book will be enlightening to many a reader with sparse knowledge and misconceptions about early Chinese migration to the New World.

For those of you who think polygamy works when it is culturally supported, this is the book that will give you a new viewpoint to consider.

This book was written by the granddaugther of a concubine, a second wife taken while the first wife was still in the picture. Culture and practicality allowed and supported concubinage in China of the 1920s, yet this family suffered greatly for generations under the practice. It is the history of her grandparents' marriage, a second marriage. The grandfather took a concubine to be his wife in the New World while he worked to make a better living from his At Home family and to elevate his social status in his home community.

The story tells of the struggles of being a "second family," of the depravation that had to go hand-in-hand with supporting two households, with the shame of having parents who were together for the convenience of sex and income, of the pain of being separated from siblings who were being raised by the first wife. It's about the descent from being a merely disfunctional family unit to being essentially an out-of-control single-parent household when the bonds of dependency and culture were broken by the stress of having two wives and two families.

I couldn't put this book down once I started because it's like watching a train-wreck. I could anticpate the troubles and sorrows, as could the family involved, yet they were just as powerless as I to change things.