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        The book me and my group is reading is the jade peony, we chose the book because we all are chinese and we had a strong feeling for the things in the book. The jade peony follows a Chinese Canadian family in Vancouver around the time of World War II, through the eyes of the three youngest children of the family. The story draws on the history of Chinese labourers on the railway, the perpetual navigations of and tensions caused by cultural difference, perceptions of Japanese Canadians, and other national and cultural identifications dominant at the time. When i started reading the book i had a question in my head forming, how was the immigrants treated like at the time? were they treated unfairly? how are immigrants treated differently from others now? It came in my mind since I strongly hate racism, either its white bullying yellow or black, or yellow colored people geting in groups to isolate other colored people. I dislike it very much and people are trying to stop it, we see signs everywhere about it, its gotten better from before and people don't say racist things out loud now. but its still happening , we see it sometimes in the eyes of people, maybe how the person talked and we see it allot now in games. when people have their identity hidden their personalty might change a bit or more, some turn nicer to others, some selfish and some speak and do things they would not do in realty. racism is one of that actions, whites killing asian country players for fun or making fun of them and isolating them, then the asians gang up as a very large group and just wipe out the white people in servers and places just because the asians have more people and some have more skills they dislike all the other races. it happens everyday, i see it everyday, and when we think of racism in canada we usually think about immigrants treated unfairly. In the book we find out that the chinese families that came from china to get jobs in canada, thinking that they would have a better opportunity to get money and send the money back to their families in china that are poor or starving don't even get enough money to move back to china and people are starving in canada. The immigrants got less money then the people that where originally here and they where often tricked from words, government saying to give large amounts of money for a job and then when you do the job they take large amounts of the pay for certain reasons like food fee and shelter fee and if you don't want the food or shelter they give, then you starve to death leaving no choice to get the money left from all the money they toke, which is really just nothing at all. Today we don't have these issues anymore, we see that people are usually treated equally in payment or work amount, but in certain places still theres immigration and race discriminate. Some do very hard work and only get payed very little for certain reasons, but they still do it because its the only income they get. But for the more and more imaginations are getting treated nicely and like others, still we see some signs that people dislike or discriminate other races and immigrants in their eyes or hiding deeply in their hearts. Waiting for a world that theres no more discrimination in anyones heart or soul.

Theme

                                      Theme of the Jade Peony

   Theme of the novel is how Chinese people’s life in Canada between early 1930s and 1940s. They have different culture and lots of conflicts, the life is full of difficulties. That thing conflicting them is making lots of choices between Chinese culture and Canada’s.

In the novel, for the first child, Jook-Liang who hates Chinese culture and wants to be a Canadian is a good example to discuss with the theme. Chinese culture is so unacceptable in some ways, like in the novel when Jook’s little brother had born, everyone paid their attentions to the brother and no one cared about Jook. The reason why they ignored Jook was because she was a girl. Traditional Chinese opinions made Jook argue with her grandma for several times and finally she gave up and wanted to find her own value by joining the Canadian culture.

   In part three, the theme becomes clear and clear. Sek-lung, the third son in the family, he always confused about whether he was a Canadian or Chinese. When he realized he was a Chinese, he tried his best to refuse it, like arguing with his mom and said he won’t speak Chinese anymore. He wanted to be Canadian and everyone around him like his teachers or friends will accept him. The racism from his teachers and classmates would be disappeared. He would live with happiness and wealthy. That’s what Sek believed but the family didn’t allow Sek to abandon the Chinese culture and Sek began to fight in his way to make his dream possible.

   Confusion, angriness, thirst and self-confidence created the characters in the novel and that’s the theme for this novel.

Characterization--by Sara

The novel “The Jade Peony” by Wayson Choy, is a story which took place in Chinatown Vancouver, of the early 1940s, told through the reminiscences of the three young children of an immigrant Chinese family.

Jook-Liang is the “useless girl” of the family, who dreams of becoming Shirley Temple and escaping the rigid, old ways of China. Jung-Sum is the adopted middle son who triumphs over loss and prejudice through boxing, and soon finds himself grappling with a bewildering sexual attraction. Lastly, Sekky, the sickly youngest child, surprises the entire family by teaching them how to mourn, and how to go on living.

Jook-Liang, the only girl, who narrated the first section of the book, has the most distinct characteristics compared to other characters in the novel. Her best friend—Wong Suk, was a deformed elderly man from the old country. As the two of them form an unlikely friendship, Jook-Liang ambitiously dreams of escaping the unyielding old ways while grappling with the old Chinese convention of elevating the life of a boy above that of a girl. When they first met, everyone was scared of Wong-Bak’s face, except for Jook-Liang, because she thought that Wong-Bak was the “Monkey King”, a fictitious character from one of the stories that her grandmother told her. No matter what established this unusual friendship, Jook-Liang put so much emotion in it that when Wong-Bak decided to go back to China, Liang was almost desperate to hope Wong-Bak could stay. It showed that Jook-Liang was a really emotional person.

     Furthermore, the second son Jung-Sum, who was adopted by the Old One, did not feel well when he first came to the Liang’s family. However, he felt he belonged there after starting boxing in the gym. It was surprised that he was so gritty that he could forget about his biological parents and started a new life. It exposed a very strong mind inside of his boney body.

     In conclusion, each of the character in this novel had different characteristics. These unique characteristics helped these three children surviving hardships and heartbreaks with gift and humor, discovering a new land without forgetting their common ground.

The Jade Peony - Connection to Political System

In the Canadian book, "The Jade Peony" by Wayson Choy has many interesting connections to political system. The book mentioned some political system in the 1930 to 1940 which still effect on us today. Political system is a broad general topic but in the book, the author mentioned some specific political systems which are pretty interesting. The political system in the book mentioned two major specific topics such as jobs and languages. They are both important because they seemed to kind in some of the ways. There are few minor topics that lead some into the political system like government control of immigrant’s arrival and education system in Canada.

During the 1930 to 1940's, China was under attack by Japanese armies because World War 2 had almost started. As years goes along, Japanese armies took over most China mainland including some major cities. Many Chinese people were preparing themselves to flee to Canada for refuge and others flee to the States. These Chinese people as known as Chinese immigrants arrived in Canada for settling. The story focused on a Chinese immigrant family who fled to Vancouver and they lived in Chinatown. During this time, a lot of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver were beaten up by the locals assuming they were from Japan because some locals thought they looked like Japanese people.  In Vancouver, many Japanese shops were destroyed. All Japanese Canadian were sent to different places, mostly in camps as the local doesn’t want them to communicate to their home country.

 

Many Chinese immigrants were looking for a good job to raise their family but because this time it was a hard time and due to war chaos. Many of Chinese immigrants couldn't find any good jobs. They get paid less but worked more than the locals. The Chinese immigrants worked for the railway company because it was the best job for them at that time. Some of them die because they die of starvation or get injured, or beaten up. In short, they couldn't find a good job and get a lot of money.

Languages are important, too because many Chinese immigrants spoke poor English, so that's part of the reason why they couldn’t find a good job. Most jobs in Vancouver even today, require good English. This includes good writing skills, communication skills, and thinking skills. In short, Languages are the major key that lets you to become a successful person because you need it a lot, not just only for jobs but also everyday communication.



The setting of "The Jade Peony" (group blog )

Story “The Jade Peony” by wayson Choy, is about a Chinese family that has just immigrated to Vancouver, British-Columbia, and is experiencing trouble adjusting to the new lifestyle.  The novel takes place during the 1930s and 1940s and among other events, explores the ways in which the Chinese and majority of Canadians once viewed the Japanese, especially during Japan's occupation of China during the Second World War and in the events following Pearl Harbor. The narrator gives vivid descriptions of the setting around her and takes the reader on a journey through her unhappy childhood as "useless" girl. One aspect regarding the setting that shows up through the novel is the superstition and feudalism. Through the three sections in the novel, the narrator use the setting to illustrate her interior mind about how Chinese families in a strange land, struggling to adapt to the new society and get rid of the old Chinese feudalism.

In Chapter one, the grandmother insisted the whole family simplify their kinship terms in Canada, so the narrator’s mother became “Stepmother”. Nobody protested, however, this showed superiors and inferiors of “the older you are, the honored you are”. The narrator stated “that was the order of things in China”. The order revealed the class among the old Chinese family, the narrator felt the powerfulness of the Old One: her grandmother because of her age.

Later on, the narrator mentioned a game that they played named “Enemies of free China” which made in Hong Kong. It illustrated that when the narrator was a child. Besides, the narrator described “One enemy head swooped up and clacked onto the linoleum floor.” This revealed the detestation inside the Chinese people’s mind. This special setting showed how resentful people were during the wars, all they felt is that without the war, they did not have to leave their home country. For example, Old Wong, during all their hard time in British Columbia, still hoped to return to China.

In conclusion, there are many descriptions of the superstitious setting in this novel. This novel include the sense of belonging to a nation, and how young children of immigrants felt at this time, trying to find their identity when they were alien residents in Canada. The setting in this novel fully illustrates the depressive lives of Chinese people in Canada and the  struggles of Canada-born Chinese children of having a brand new identity.