The Concubine's Children is Denise Chong's first book. It was published in 1994 by Penguin Books in Toronto. It documents the life of Denise Chong’s grandfather, Chan Sam, grandmother, May-ying, her mother, Hing (or Winnie, as she was known outside of Chinatown), her mother’s siblings, Ping, Nan, Gok-leng and half sibling, Yuen. As Chan Sam had two wives, May-ying in Canada and Huangbo in China, the family became divided between Canada and China and Chong’s mother Hing only knew one of her siblings, Gok-leng, while growing up. [1] The Concubine’s Children documents the story of this family which spanned two continents as well as the political, social, and cultural tensions in China and Canada between 1848 (when Chan Sam’s father, Chong’s great grandfather, first came to "Gold Mountain”, the nickname by which Chinese people knew North America) and 1987 when Chong and Hing first met the "China family". [2]
Chong was inspired to work on this family history–historical semi-fictional novel after moving to Beijing in 1985 with her companion and later husband, CTV correspondent Roger Smith. [3]
While living in Peking, Denise Chong convinced her mother Hing/Winnie to join her on a three-week trip of China, which would take them to the village of Chang Gar Bin. Chang Gar Bin was Chan Sam’s (Hing/Winnie’s father and Denise Chong’s grandfather) home town and the place where Hing’s sisters (Ping and Nan) and half-brother (Yueng), all of whom she had never met, had been raised. [4] Before going to Chang Gar Bin, Denise contacted the Chinese foreign ministry in Canton and discovered that two of her mother’s siblings were still alive and living in Char Gar Bing. Hing's sister Nan had died when Hing was still a child and she had been aware of this passing. [5] The Concubine’s Children ends with a chapter describing this trip and the first meeting between the then 57-year-old Hing/Winnie and her siblings. [6]
Before being written and published as a novel, The Concubine’s Children appeared as an article in the magazine Saturday Night. [7] Indeed, the editor of this magazine, John Fraser, was instrumental in encouraging Denise Chong to produce her book. [8] Since that time The Concubine’s Children has been converted into a stage play, by Chong herself. The play debuted at TheatreOne in Nanaimo, BC, where it was directed by Rick Scott in 2004. [9]
The book has also won several awards including: The City of Vancouver Book Award in 1994;[10] The Edna Staebler Award;[11] and The VanCity Book Prize. [12] It was on the bestseller list of The Globe and Mail for 93 weeks, [13] was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Literary Non-Fiction Award, [14] and has been translated into several languages.