The Jade Peony

The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy was published in 1995 and is a co-winner for that year's Trillium Prize. The novel has been making the round in literary circles again of late because of the plagiarism accusation against Ling Zhang, author of the multi-continent success Gold Mountain Blues, published in 2011.

Ms. Zhang is accused of plagiarizing from The Jade Peony, and three other novels written by Chinese-Canadian authors about Chinese-Canadian immigrant experience.  This month I will be reading all four novels mentioned in the plagiarism lawsuit, as well Ms. Zhang's Gold Mountain Blues and forming my own conclusion..

The Jade Peony is set in Vancouver's Chinatown "Gold Mountain" in the 1930s and 40s, and told in three sections with narrative from three siblings.

Each section reads like its own story as a result of the changing narrators.  Jook-Liang, the only sister, opens the novel with her tale about her special friendship with Wong Suk, an old friend of her grandmother's. Wong Suk is known around Chinatown as monkey man because of his face that resembles a monkey face. Despite his appearance Liang forms a close relationship with him and comes to view him as her best friend. She is devastated when problems with his immigration papers force him to return to China.

The second section is narrated Jung-Sum, the adopted second son. Jung shares stories about how he came to be adopted, his pet turtle King George, and his attraction to his much older friend, Frank Yuen. The jade peony, that gives the novel its name, is first mentioned in this section, when Jung's grandmother "Poh Poh" tells his younger brother, Sek-Lung, that he can have her jade peony when she passes on. Just like people, no two pieces of jade are exactly alike, and each piece is precious.

The third and longest section is narrated by Sek-Lung "Sekky", the youngest brother. Despite being the youngest narrator, Sekky's section explores a lot of the hot-button issues of the 1930s. He takes the reader through his experiences of being neither fully Chinese or Canadian, the death of his grandmother, the struggle growing up in an immigrant family and dealing with racism, socio-economic and cultural differences, and finally in two of the most compelling chapters of the novel, Sekky details his teenage babysitter's clandestine love affair with a Japanese student and her death as a result of an abortion attempt after her boyfriend is sent to an internment camp.

The main themes in this novel are family and friendship. Particularly those special friendships that help form our characters. For Liang it is the monkey man, for Jung it is Frank Yuen, and for Sekky it is his grandmother. For Chinese-Canadians in the 1930s and 40s, family is more than blood ties, close friends quickly become aunts and uncles, mothers are called stepmothers 'to keep things simple', and friends from China become paper aunt and uncles in order to secure their entrance into Gold Mountain.

This novel is a pleasure to read. It's sweet, thought-provoking and insightful.

4/5