The Jade Peony

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The Jade Peony: A Novel is a novel by Chinese-Canadian author Wayson Choy, which covers the life of a Chinese family living in Vancouver, British Columbia during World War II. It was first published by Douglas and McIntyre in 1995.

The story is told from the point of views of three different siblings: Jook Liang - Only Sister, Jung Sum - Second Brother, and Sek Lung - Third Brother. They all face different experiences as new Canadians and are often held back by their "cultural baggage". The grandmother, Poh Poh is the heart of the family and plays a large influence on the three children, especially Sek Lung. Many events do take place in this novel, including the death of close family.

The sequel to this book is All That Matters, which tells the story of the Jade Peony from the point of view of the three siblings' eldest brother, Kiam-Kim.

ǣ When the grandmother had died, she passed on the jade peony to sek lung which symbolizes to me the freedom they have to live in Canada and to keep him from losing his “culture” that many children do when they are immigrated to Canada. At one point the jade peony had broke and poh-poh (grandmother in Chinese) and Sek Lung spent days collecting glass from different panes of glass found from different churches to fix up the jade peony wind chime she had received as a gift by this guy she had fell in love with which later took off and never returned. When the grandmother became really sick she would see this juggler with a pale white face and red eyes which represented to me the death that was closing in on her because before she died she did not see the juggler but a cat with similar features. I think it is the death that sucked the soul out of her and yeah. But that is my opinion.