The Jade Peony [Paperback]

Wayson Choy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

Three weeks before his 57th birthday, novelist Wayson Choy received a surprising phone call during his publicity tour: a mysterious woman told him that he had been adopted. Inspired by this startling revelation, this beautifully-wrought memoir reveals uncanny similarities between the secrets that enrich Wayson Choy's award-winning novel The Jade Peony, set in prewar Chinatown, and the subsequently discovered secrets of his own life.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Jade Peony, Wayson Choy's first novel and a RUSA Notable Book, is a genre-bending, memoirlike collection of stories about a family in Vancouver's Chinatown before and during World War II. Three siblings tell the stories of their very different childhoods in a world defined by change, each in their own way wresting autonomy from the strictures of history, family, and poverty. Sister Jook-Liang aspires to be Shirley Temple; adopted Second Brother Jung-Sum, who struggles with his sexuality, finds his way through boxing. Third Brother Sekky, who never feels comfortable with the multitude of Chinese dialects swirling around him, becomes obsessed with war games, and learns a devastating lesson about what war really means when his 17-year-old babysitter dates a Japanese man, with terrible consequences.

One of Choy's most compelling subjects is the fluidity of the extended family. The shadowy woman everyone calls Stepmother is a house servant and concubine who moves into the role of mother, giving birth to two of the siblings but never quite achieving full status. Many chapters focus on the powerful effects friends and neighbors have on the family and the importance of their names and titles. Choy's evocations of life in Depression-era and wartime Vancouver are especially memorable: the bewildered air of Little Tokyo during the first Christmas after Pearl Harbor, a burned-down church that Sekky and his grandmother pick through for bits of the stained-glass windows--a metaphor for the family's task of sorting out what to keep and what to abandon as it moves into the future. Like the jade peony of the title, Choy's storytelling is at once delicate, powerful, and lovely. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Told through the eyes of three Chinese Canadian siblings, Choy's first novel gives readers a historical glimpse at life in Vancouver's Chinatown during the 1930s and 1940s. Jook-Liang, the only sister in a family of three boys; Jung-Sum, the second adopted son; and Sek-Lung (Sekky), the sickly youngest son are searching for their identities, each presenting a moving account of love and loss that combine to tell the story of their family. Although Choy's work is fictional, it realistically echoes the difficult life struggles of early Chinese Cantonese immigrants as captured in such biographical works as Denise Chong's The Concubine's Children (LJ 11/15/94) and Ben Fong-Torres's The Rice Room (LJ 4/1/94). This book was a number-one best seller in Canada and co-winner of the Trillum Prize for the best book of 1995. Highly recommended for medium and large fiction collections.?Shirley N. Quan, Orange Cty. P.L.., Garden Grove, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA; 1st Picador USA Pbk. Ed edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312186924
• ISBN-13: 978-0312186920
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,569,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great tale of the pull between old and new culture, January 12, 2005

By 

Elizabeth (Calgary, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jade Peony (Paperback)

I was initially drawn to read The Jade Peony by a review in the National Post about Watson Choy's new novel, All That Matters. I have always been fascinated with literature about Asia and Asian culture (such as Life and Death in Shanghai and Wild Swans ) and novels about Asian-Canadian life, such as Denise Chong's Concubine's Children have held a particular appeal to me. Hence my interest in this book.

I found The Jade Peony enjoyable for two reasons. First, it is a tale of Vancouver's Chinatown during the Second World War. It gave me a glimpse into what life would have been like in this city and in Canada during that time. In particular, the forbidden relationship between a teenage Chinese girl and a Japanese boy really demonstrates the cultural struggle faced by Canadians during the war. The lines between friend and foe are confused by fear of dreadful events far away.

Second, it carefully and successfully expresses the delicate dance that immigrants and their children go through when they move to Canada: how to retain the old way and still embrace the new life. In The Jade Peony, we see these first-generation Chinese-Canadians want to run from the old culture and the older generation vainly grasping to keep them aware. It is hard to decide who should win out, because to change is required for survival but so much is dying out. (I suppose it is what every parent and grandparent goes through as they see their children grow up and away.)

If you have ever lived in or near Vancouver, read this book. If you have ever experienced the duality felt by anyone who immigrates to a new country or who is born of immigrant parents, read this book. If you have experienced or seen neither of these things, read this book to get a good sense of what you have missed.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful ...., April 29, 2000

By 

"peng-ah" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jade Peony (Paperback)

THis is an amazing book! MY father grew up in Chinatown (Vancouver) at appox. the same time, it's nice to read and try to understand his early life.

I read the first part in a matter of days. It was so powerful that I cried, in the middle of the waiting room at my doctors office. I still have not read the entire book as I'm scared to experence such powerful emotions, in public. I will finish it though.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Read, March 17, 2005

By 

fiona (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jade Peony (Paperback)

The Jade Peony is a poignant tale about three Chinese children growing up in Vancouver's Chinatown during world war 2.
Wayson Choy's writing is beautiful, searing, and eloquent. This book will keep you hooked. No wonder it won the Trillium Award.

I had the honor of meeting Wayson Choy. He is a delightful person, and his talent definitely shines through in his works.

Highly recommended to anyone!