Wayson Choy
Wayson Choy was a Chinese Canadian writer born on April 20, 1939, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Raised as an only child by adoptive parents in Vancouver's Chinatown, his early life experiences and cultural background profoundly influenced his literary work. Choy’s most acclaimed novel, *The Jade Peony* (1995), explores the lives of a Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver during the 1930s and 1940s, reflecting on the challenges of identity, heritage, and cross-cultural experiences. This novel, which earned him significant recognition and multiple awards, is notable for its nuanced portrayal of the immigrant experience, particularly through the perspectives of the Chen children.
In addition to his fiction, Choy authored memoirs such as *Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood* (1999) and *Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying* (2009), where he revisits themes from his upbringing and his health struggles, including life-threatening illnesses. Choy was a dedicated educator in creative writing, notably at Humber College, and received numerous accolades for his contributions to Canadian literature, including induction into the Order of Canada in 2006. He passed away on April 28, 2019, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate within Canadian literature and beyond.
Subject Terms
Wayson Choy
- Born: April 20, 1939
- Birthplace: Vancouver, British Columbia
- Died: April 28, 2019
- Place of death: Toronto, Canada
Biography
Chinese Canadian poet, short-story writer, memoirist, and novelist Wayson Choy was born on April 20, 1939, in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was raised by his adoptive parents as an only child within a community of Chinese Canadians in Vancouver's Chinatown neighborhood. Choy's mother worked in a butchery, and his father worked on a Canadian Pacific Ocean ship, leaving for long periods in Choy's youth. Choy only learned he was adopted in 1995, when he received a phone call from a woman who had babysat him when he was an infant, who heard Choy being interviewed on the radio and recognized his name. Choy learned that his biological father had been a member of the Cantonese Opera Company.
Choy attended the University of British Columbia, where he studied creative writing. Though he would later build his career on writing and teaching, he did neither until later in his life. He moved to Toronto, Ontario, in 1962 and began teaching English at Humber College's School of Writers in 1967.
In 1977 Choy returned to the University of British Columbia and enrolled in the creative writing program, where he wrote short fiction and poems. One story, "The Jade Peony," would later become the basis for his novel of the same name. He published the novel-length version of The Jade Peony in 1995. Choy's best-known work, The Jade Peony chronicles several generations of a Chinese family living in Vancouver during the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Upon publication of The Jade Peony, Choy was recognized as an emerging talent in Canada's literary circles, and he received several awards and honors. He was noted for being further along in his life and career than most debut writers; Choy was fifty-eight years old when The Jade Peony was published.
Choy's second book was the first of his two memoirs: Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood (1999), which covers his upbringing in Vancouver. In 2001, while writing All That Matters (2004), the sequel to The Jade Peony, Choy suffered a life-threatening asthma attack and heart attack. He also suffered heart failure in 2005. He later reflected on these traumas in Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying (2009).
In 2006 Choy was inducted to the Order of Canada, receiving the second-highest order of merit awarded to Canadian civilians. Choy received the Project Bookmark Canada Award in 2012 and the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Choy taught creative writing at Humber College in Toronto. He died on April 28, 2019, at his home in Toronto, after suffering a heart attack brought on by an asthma attack. He was eighty-years old.
Major Works
Choy's writing, both in his novels and his memoirs, is heavily influenced by his own life experiences. His major works draw directly from his childhood in Vancouver's Chinatown, his perspectives on Western culture as a Chinese Canadian, and his perspectives on life as a man who twice nearly died of heart failure.
The Jade Peony remains Choy's most successful and enduring work, winning him several awards and inspiring the 2004 sequel, All That Matters. The Jade Peony centers on the three children of the Chen family, an immigrant Chinese family living in Vancouver in the 1940s. The young characters experience the emotions of coming of age in a new city while their native China undergoes civil war and invasion.
Told in first-person perspective, The Jade Peony's narration passes between the three Chen children. The novel is about immigrants and children grappling with the influences of their heritage and ties to their native land. It also addresses sexuality and gender roles as the young Chens struggle to live up to the expectations of their family and Western culture. The Jade Peony won the 1995 City of Vancouver Book Award and led to Choy's selection, along with Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, for the 1996 Trillium Book Award. The novel was later selected as a notable book by the American Library Association (ALA).
Choy's critical success continued with his 1999 memoir, Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood, in which he reflected on his upbringing in Vancouver and the revelation in middle age that he had been adopted as an infant. Choy's first memoir won the Edna Staebler Creative Nonfiction Award in 2000 and was nominated for a Governor General's Award.
In All That Matters, Choy builds on The Jade Peony by including narration from the eldest Chen child, Kiam. The novel's action begins in the 1920s, before the action in The Jade Peony, and extends beyond the end of The Jade Peony's storyline, through the 1940s. All That Matters won the 2005 Trillium Book Award. .
Choy rewrote All That Matters after its publication, an experience he details in his second memoir, Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying. Inspired by his experiences with heart failure, Choy discusses the impact of his near-death experiences on his writing. He also wrote about considering himself part of two families, the Schweishelms, of Toronto, and the Noseworthys, of Caledon, Ontario.
Principal Works
Long Fiction
The Jade Peony, 1995
All That Matters, 2004
Nonfiction
Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood, 1999
Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying, 2009
Bibliography
Balser, Erin. "Wayson Choy, Author of The Jade Peony, Dead at 80." CBC, 28 Apr. 2019, updated 1 May 2019, www.cbc.ca/books/wayson-choy-author-of-the-jade-peony-dead-at-80-1.5114595. Accessed 6 Oct. 2020.
Choy, Wayson. Paper Shadows: A Memoir of a Past Lost and Found. 1999. Picador USA, 2000.
Choy, Wayson. Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying. Doubleday Canada, 2009.
Choy, Wayson. "Vancouver Native Wayson Choy on Chinatown, Coming Out as a Gay Man, and His Favourite Books." Interview by Yvonne Zacharias. Vancouver Sun, 10 June. 2015, www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Vancouver+native+Wayson+Choy+Chinatown+coming+favourite+books/11125837/story.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
Choy, Wayson. "Wayson Choy on Life, Death and the Hallucinations That Saved Him." Interview by Sheryl MacKay. CBC News, CBC/Radio-Canada, 11 June 2015, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wayson-choy-on-life-death-and-the-hallucinations-that-saved-him-1.3103859. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
Gambone, Philip. "Hyphenates." Review of The Jade Peony, by Wayson Choy. The New York Times, 9 Aug. 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/08/10/books/hyphenates.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
Pratt, Brooke. "Wayson Choy." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 2 May 2014, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wayson-choy/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
Slotnick, Daniel E. "Wayson Choy, 80, Whose Books Are Windows on Chinese-Canadian Life, Dies." The New York Times, 3 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/obituaries/wayson-choy-dies.html. Accessed 14 Nov. 2019.
"2015 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award." Vancouver Public Library, 3 June 2015, www.vpl.ca/news/details/2015‗george‗woodcock‗lifetime‗achievement‗award‗backgrounder. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.
"When a Stranger Calls." 1999. Quill and Quire, 9 Mar. 2007, www.quillandquire.com/authors/when-a-stranger-calls/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2017.