Wayson Choy lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario. This excerpt is used with the kind permission of the author. Among Choy’s many awards and honours is his appointment, in 2005, to the Order of Canada. Choy’s other works include two memoirs ( Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood and Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying). All That Matterswon the Trillium Book Award in 2004 and was shortlisted for the 2005 Giller Prize. The Jade Peony shared Ontario’s Trillium Book Award for best book in 1995, and won the 1995 City of Vancouver Book Award. The American Steam Cleaners cited in this passage was located at the corner of Pender and Gore. The Jade Peony and its companion novel All That Matters (published in 2004) feature many recognizable locations around the city. Mingling with the realities of Canada and the horror of war are magic, ghosts, paper uncles and family secrets. The Jade Peony is told through the eyes of three children in an immigrant family, living in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the 30’s and 40’s. Wayson Choy was born in Vancouver in 1939, and his family’s experience in that city has inspired much of his writing, including his first novel, The Jade Peony, published in 1995.
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