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All our ordinary stories [graphic novel] : a multigenerational family odyssey / by Wong, Teresa,1976-author,illustrator.;
"Beginning with her mother's stroke in 2014, Teresa Wong takes us on a moving journey through time and place to locate the beginnings of the disconnection she feels from her parents. Through a series of stories--some epic, like her mother and father's daring escapes from communes during China's Cultural Revolution, and some banal, like her quitting Chinese school to watch Saturday morning cartoons--Wong carefully examines the cultural, historical, language, and personality barriers to intimacy in her family, seeking answers to the questions "Where did I come from?" and "Where are we going?" At the same time, she discovers how storytelling can bridge distances and help make sense of a life. A book for children of immigrants trying to honour their parents' pasts while also making a different kind of future for themselves, All Our Ordinary Stories is poignant in its understated yet nuanced depictions of complicated family dynamics. Wong's memoir is a heartfelt exploration of identity and inheritance, as well as a testament to the transformative power of stories both told and untold."--
Subjects: Biographical comics.; Nonfiction comics.; Graphic novels.; Wong, Teresa, 1976-; Women cartoonists; Chinese; Chinese; Chinese Canadians; Chinese Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Do not say we have nothing / by Thien, Madeleine,1974-author.;
"An extraordinary novel set in China before, during and after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989--the breakout book we've been waiting for from a bestselling, Amazon.ca First Novel Award winner. Madeleine Thien's new novel is breathtaking in scope and ambition even as it is hauntingly intimate. With the ease and skill of a master storyteller, Thien takes us inside an extended family in China, showing us the lives of two successive generations--those who lived through Mao's Cultural Revolution in the mid-twentieth century; and the children of the survivors, who became the students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989, in one of the most important political moments of the past century. With exquisite writing sharpened by a surprising vein of wit and sly humour, Thien has crafted unforgettable characters who are by turns flinty and headstrong, dreamy and tender, foolish and wise. At the centre of this epic tale, as capacious and mysterious as life itself, are enigmatic Sparrow, a genius composer who wishes desperately to create music yet can find truth only in silence; his mother and aunt, Big Mother Knife and Swirl, survivors with captivating singing voices and an unbreakable bond; Sparrow's ethereal cousin Zhuli, daughter of Swirl and storyteller Wen the Dreamer, who as a child witnesses the denunciation of her parents and as a young woman becomes the target of denunciations herself; and headstrong, talented Kai, best friend of Sparrow and Zhuli, and a determinedly successful musician who is a virtuoso at masking his true self until the day he can hide no longer. Here, too, is Kai's daughter, the ever-questioning mathematician Marie, who pieces together the tale of her fractured family in present-day Vancouver, seeking a fragile meaning in the layers of their collective story. With maturity and sophistication, humour and beauty, a huge heart and impressive understanding, Thien has crafted a novel that is at once beautifully intimate and grandly political, rooted in the details of daily life inside China, yet transcendent in its universality."--
Subjects: Political fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Composers; Storytellers; Musicians; Mathematicians; Chinese Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Superfan : how pop culture broke my heart : a memoir / by Lee, Jen Sookfong,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."A memoir in pieces that uses one woman's life-long obsession with pop culture as a lens to explore family, grief, the power of female rage, Asian fetish, and what it's cost her to resist the trap of being a "good Chinese girl." For most of Jen Sookfong Lee's life, pop culture was an escape from family tragedy and a means of fitting in with the larger culture around her. Anne of Green Gables assured her that, despite losing her father at the age of twelve, one day she might still have the loving family of her dreams, and Princess Diana was proof that maybe there was more to being a good girl after all. And yet as Jen grew up, she began to recognize the ways in which pop culture was not made for someone like her-the child of Chinese immigrant parents who looked for safety in the invisibility afforded by embracing Model Minority myths. Ranging from the rise of Gwyneth Paltrow, the father-figure familiarity of Bob Ross, and the surprising maternal legacy of the Kardashians, to the long shadow cast by The Joy Luck Club, Jen uses pop culture icons to understand her emotionally fraught upbringing. She also dissects how pop culture created both unrealistic ideals and harmful stereotypes that would devastate her as she struggled to carve out her own path as an Asian woman, single mother, and writer. With great wit, bracing honesty, and a deep appreciation for the ways culture shapes us, Jen draws direct lines between the spectacle of the popular, the intimacy of our personal bonds, and the social foundations of our collective obsessions."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Lee, Jen Sookfong.; Asians in mass media.; Model minority stereotype; Popular culture; Stereotypes (Social psychology) in mass media.; Women authors; Authors, Canadian (English); Chinese Canadian women; Chinese Canadians; Popular culture;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Restaurant kid : a memoir of family and belonging / by Phan, Rachel,author.;
"A warm and poignant narrative about finding one's self amidst the grind of restaurant life, the cross-generational immigrant experience, and a daughter's attempts to connect with parents who have always been just out of reach. When she was three years old, Rachel Phan met her replacement. Instead of a new sibling, her mother and father's time and attention were suddenly devoted entirely to their new family restaurant. For her parents--whose own families fled China during Japanese occupation and then survived bombs and starvation during the war in Vietnam--it was a dream come true. For Phan, it was something quite different. Overnight, she became a restaurant kid, living on the periphery of her own family and trying her best to stay out of the way. As Phan grew up, the restaurant was the most stalwart and suffocating member of her family. For decades, it's been both their crowning achievement and the origin of so much of their pain and suffering: screaming matches complete with smashed dishes; bodies worn down by long hours and repetitive strain; and tenuous relationships where the family loved one another deeply without ever really knowing each other. In Restaurant Kid, Phan seeks to examine the way her life has been shaped by the rigid boxes placed around her. She had to be a "good daughter," never asking questions, always being grateful. She had to be a "real Canadian," watching hockey and speaking English so flawlessly that her tongue has since forgotten how to contort around Cantonese tones. As the only Chinese girl at school, she had to alternate between being the sidekick, geek, or Asian fetish, depending on whose gaze was on her. Now, three decades after their restaurant first opened, Phan's parents are cautiously talking about retirement. As an adult, Phan's "good daughter" role demands something new of her--and a chance to get to know her parents away from the restaurant. In Restaurant Kid, Phan deftly combines candour, wit and insight to craft a vibrant and important narrative on the strength and foibles of family, and how we come to understand ourselves."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Biographies.; Autobiographies.; Personal narratives.; Phan, Rachel.; Phan, Rachel; Children of immigrants; Restaurateurs; Restaurateurs; Chinese Canadian women;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The Chinese head tax and anti-Chinese immigration policies in the twentieth century / by Chan, Arlene.;
Includes bibliographical references, Internet addresses and index.An in-depth examination of Canada's treatment of Chinese immigrants during the 20th century.LSC
Subjects: Chinese; Chinese; Emigration and immigration law; Race discrimination; Chinese Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The woo woo : how I survived ice hockey, drug raids, demons, and my crazy Chinese family / by Wong, Lindsay,1987-author.;
"In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family who blame their woes on ghosts and demons when they should really be on anti-psychotic meds. Lindsay Wong grew up with a paranoid schizophrenic grandmother and a mother who was deeply afraid of the "woo-woo" -- Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo's sinister effects; when she was six, Lindsay and her mother avoided the dead people haunting their house by hiding out in a mall food court, and on a camping trip, in an effort to rid her daughter of demons, her mother tried to light Lindsay's foot on fire. The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, and when Lindsay starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family. At once a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience and a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, The Woo-Woo is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself."--
Subjects: Autobiographies.; Biographies.; Wong, Lindsay, 1987-; Wong, Lindsay, 1987-; Wong, Lindsay, 1987-; Wong, Lindsay, 1987-; Chinese Canadians; Psychoses; Psychoses;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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The tiger and the cosmonaut / by Boudel Tan, Eddy,1983-author.;
"A noirish page-turner about a mysterious disappearance and a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian family navigating insecurities, expectations, and simmering anger in their small BC town. Casper Han grew up the dutiful son of immigrants who never felt entirely welcome in their remote corner of British Columbia. Now an adult, living in Vancouver with a boyfriend whose white privilege he quietly resents, Casper rarely returns to his hometown, the site of a grief his family doesn't discuss: the loss of his identical twin, Sam. Over twenty years have passed since Sam went missing, and a pressing crisis has brought Casper and his siblings back. Their father has vanished, only to be found wandering the vast woods beyond the family home, confused and showing signs of memory loss. In order to move forward, the Han family, accustomed to fleeing their problems and accepting the hand dealt to them, must stay put and finally confront the past--untangling the mystery of what really happened the night of Sam's disappearance, and how the town failed them in the aftermath of it."--
Subjects: Gay fiction.; Queer fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Psychological fiction.; Novels.; Families; Gay men; Grief; Loss (Psychology); Missing persons; Chinese Canadians;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Chinese New Year / by Hudak, Heather C.,1975-;
Introduces Chinese New Year and how Chinese Canadians celebrate this holiday.
Subjects: Chinese New Year;
© 2010., Weigl,
Available copies: 2 / Total copies: 2
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Blood and iron : building the railroad / by Yee, Paul.;
LSC
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Diary fiction.; Canadian Pacific Railway Company; Chinese;
© c2010., Scholastic Canada,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Denison Avenue [graphic novel] : a novel / by Wong, Christina(Christina M.),author.; Innes, Daniel,illustrator.;
"A moving story told in visual art and fiction about gentrification, aging in place, grief, and vulnerable Chinese Canadian elders. Bringing together ink artwork and fiction, Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text) follows the elderly Wong Cho Sum, who, living in Toronto's gentrifying Chinatown-Kensington Market, begins to collect bottles and cans after the sudden loss of her husband as a way to fill her days and keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, Cho Sum meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life as a widow in a neighborhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders like her behind. A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable."--
Subjects: Graphic novels.; Upside-down books.; Chinatowns; Chinese Canadians; Gentrification; Grief; Older people; Widows;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 2
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