Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories

From the book cover

The characters in these stories are men and women, rich and poor, greedy and good, young and old - all Chinese immigrants struggling to make new lives for themselves in North America. Yet wherever they go, they are followed by reminders of their home country - the curse of a friend betrayed, the ghost of a faithful spouse, the spirit of a dead parent.

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Paul Yee's Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories was published in 2002. It is getting new literary reviews of late because of the plagiarism accusations against Ling Zhang, author of the multi-continent success Gold Mountain Blues, published in 2011.

Ms. Zhang is accused of plagiarizing from the title short story in Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories, and three three other novels written by Chinese-Canadian authors about the Chinese-Canadian immigrant experience.

I am reading all five novels involved in the dispute to decide whether Ling Zhang plagiarized.

Below is a brief summary of the stories contained in Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories

Dead Man's Gold
Two childhood friends, one from a rich family and one from a poor family, decide to seek their fortune in Gold Mountain.

Fong, from the rich family, decides to suffer through the first winter in order to buy his own claim, stating 'No one grows rich working for bosses' and warning his friend 'Don't stop here.' Despite his friends warning, Yuen decides to take a job on someone else's claim earning $2 a day.

Fong eventually gets rich and is murdered by a jealous Yuen kills, steals his gold and returns to China. Yuen gives his family gifts purchased with the stolen gold. His mother goes deaf, his father becomes paralyzed and his sister's son becomes mute.

Seeking penance, Yuen returns to Gold Mountain to break the curse by sprinkling gold dust over the spot where he killed his friend, and burying and killing himself in place of his friend's body that has been devoured by wild animals. To this day, it's said that miners see Yuen's pale face in Gold Mountain.

Digging Deep
Chong, the cowardly on son of a poor peasant family escapes to Gold Mountain to build his courage and earn some money so that he can make his family proud and take a wife. Too late for the gold rush, he takes a job in the mines and makes an agreement with the spirit of courage: courage will be his until he takes a bride. All goes well for several years until Chong refuses to take a bride. The spirit abandons him and he dies in the mine.

Sky-High
Shu, the youngest son of a formerly well-to-do Chinese family escapes to Gold Mountain to earn a living. He becomes a logger and becomes protector of a large tree he calls sky-high. Shu takes his own life in a scheme to save the tree, to this day it's said that his spirit continues to protect the tree.

The Memory Stone
Willow gives her departing fiance, Ox, her jade pendant to remind him of their engagement with the promise that he will return it, if he changes his mind about marrying her. Ox meets and a women from a wealthy family in Gold Mountain and decides to marry her, without telling Willow, thus he doesn't return her jade pendant. Instead, he gives the pendant to daughter despite his wife's warning that it will bring bad luck. When the child is five, he takes her horseback riding. The horse gets spooked and throws him from the horse killing him and leaving his daughter, Blossom, with a jagged scar on her forehead. Blossom's mother throws the pendant into the ocean, only to have it turn up in the belly of a fish. So they decide to return it to Willow. Willow gives it to Blossom and advises her to use it to get rid of the scar on her forehead. The scar eventually goes away and Blossom lives happily ever after, passing the pendant on to her children.

Seawall Sighting
Two young lovers who try to escape to the new world end up being jailed for illegal entry and break and entry. Eventually they are reunited on a boat carrying all of the Chinese residents being deported. The ship carrying them sinks and they die. Their spirits remain at Pig Pen (Immigration Building) where the young woman was detained and the young man tried to break into to rescue her.

The Peddler
Little Lo was thought by many in Chinatown to be slow. He didn't have any skills or means of supporting himself, he spent his days loitering and cleaning the bathrooms in the gaming halls. He wasn't asked to do this work so no one paid him. One day, a peddler wins the lottery and gifts Little Lo with his old horse and cart. Little Lo becomes one of the best peddlers in Chinatown. Then a little boy sets fire to his horse, destroying his livelihood. The little boy's parents refuse to compensate Little Lo for the loss. Little Lo dies a few days after the death of his horse. It is said that Little Lo's ghosts haunts the house where the little boy's family lived.

The Brothers
Shek and Ping, are two brother from a poor village in China. Their mother borrows from a money leader in order to send them to Gold Mountain so that they can find jobs and send money home to improve their condition. Before their ship sails, she ask Shek to look out for Ping and prays the Ping will return to China an honest man. In Gold Mountain, Ping lives a carefree life and does not save any money so when the depression hits he is forced to live on his brother's farm. Farm work does not agree with him so he tries to convince his brother to sell the farm so that they can take the money and live a life of leisure in China. His brother refuse so Ping murders him. Even in death, Shek continues to look out for Ping. After seeing Shek's ghost, Ping returns to China to confess his sin to their mother. She is happy because Shek kept his word and looked out for Ping, and Ping has returned to China an honest man.

Alone No Longer
Ko buys a cafe that haunted by a farm girl turned waitress. When he sponsors his wife, she becomes depressed, die and the spirit of the dead farm girl takes over her body.

First Wife
Lew So-ying is raising her son Jee-wah while her husband works in Gold Mountain. When Communist party gain control in China, her husband sends for them. In Gold Mountain she discovers that her husband has a second wife and two daughters. So-ying is so overcome with loneliness she decides to go live in the moment she was last happy: the train ride before she found out about her husband's second family.

Reunited
In 1955, Tong Lung is a spoiled teenager who's never met his father but enjoys spending the money his father remits from Gold Mountain. Then one day his father decides it time for Tong to move to Gold Mountain and start working in his dry cleaning shop. They argue about his father's thriftiness and not enjoying life but saving all his money for retirement. One day Tong is late getting back to the dry cleaner because he stopped to see a car at a dealership. The store is robbed and Tong's father murdered. With his inheritance, Tong buys a car and his father's spirit appears in the car. The spirit tells Tong that he was right. From that day on Tong keeps a cushion in his car so that his father can go everywhere he goes and get to experience the things he missed out on when he was a live.

3.5/5