The Concubine's Children (1994)

This is a family biography, the story of a family split by an ocean and by different ways of life. It’s a sad tale of prejudice, war, and brutality, as well as of love.

Chan Sam had a wife and land in southern China in the 1920s, but word was that one could make enough money at ‘Gold Mountain’- Canada or the USA- for a person to set themselves up for life. So Chan Sam went to Canada to make his fortune. He didn’t like being alone- there were very, very few women in the Chinatowns at the time. He acquired a concubine from China: a 17 year old May-ying, who was basically sold. Chan didn’t have the money to pay for her, so he made a deal with a tea house owner: the girl would be Chan’s concubine, but during the days and evenings she would work at the tea house to pay off her own purchase price. That’s not an auspicious start for a relationship.

As time went on, May-ying had two baby girls. Chan wanted them educated in China, and between the two of them they had made enough money to go home for a while. When Chan Sam and May-ying returned to Canada, her daughters remained in China with Chan’s wife. They returned just in time for May-ying’s third child to be born on Canadian soil. It wasn’t the hoped for son that would have given her some prestige in the family, but another daughter- worthless in her eyes. In time, Chan Sam returned to China without May-ying to try and sire a son on his wife. This left the young May-ying in the unenviable position of financially supporting not just herself and her daughter, but Chan Sam, his wife in China, and her two daughters over there. Not to mention the costs of the mansion (by rural Chinese village standards) that Chan Sam was building in his village. That’s a lot to expect of a young woman. Even after Chan Sam returned to Canada, but had separated from May-ying, he showed up every week to collect the money she had earned. Not that he was lazy; he did back breaking work in the shingle mills and at any other job he could find. Employment was severely limited for the Chinese in North America.

May-ying was a badly damaged person. She sought solace in alcohol and gambling, and abused her daughter both physically and emotionally. I was horrified by the way she treated her, but the circumstances of May-ying’s life might have broken anyone. Thankfully, the daughter, who took the English name Winnie, had the inner reserves to survive, concentrating on school and getting away from home. She succeeded in doing so, through hard work and marriage, and brought up a great family. The author is Winnie’s second daughter.

After 50 years, the Canadian sister and the Chinese sister finally managed to meet in a 4 day visit that brought tears to my eyes. But what really hit an emotional chord was the way the Chinese family viewed May-ying: basically ignoring the money she’d sent for years, they saw her only as a very bad wife who brought only misery to Chan Sam. They were only given half the story.

It’s a very sad story of the miserable lives the Chinese in North America lived during the first half of the 20th century thanks to prejudice, and an even sadder one that as bad as those lives were, they were considered worth while because monetarily it was even worse in China. I’ve read a number of books about the Chinese in North America, and this one is the grimmest. But it’s a story I couldn’t put down and stayed up half the night reading. ( )

i could not connect with all the different people at this time. I might have to give it some rest and try it again at some other time. ( )

The Concubine's Children is a wonderfully crafted non-fiction book written by the granddaughter of the main characters. Chan Sam, a peasant, leaves his wife behind in China in order to go to the fabled "Golden Mountain" as Western Canada was refered to at the time (1913). He brings with him his Concubine, a beautiful but no-nonsense girl, to British Columbia, living in Vancouver's Chinatown. Expectations are high that Canada was a land of riches. All spare money was sent back to Chan Sam's wife in China, and the Concubine and her children did without. The wife, Huangbo, raised their son & two daughters by the concubine in China; May-ying, the concubine worked hard as a tea-room waitress to earn money to support both the family in China and her husband and their own two children. Life was harsh, there were moves from Vancouver to Victoria's Chinatown. Gambling became a problem particularly with May-ying. This is a historical account of a time in the Lower Mainland of B.C. that every Canadian and American should read, there is so much history both of early B.C. and China, with China occupied by Japan, then the rule of Mao Tse Tung. A few years ago, the narrator Denise and her mother made the trip to China to visit what relatives they had there, and so the two families finally came together. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and read it when it first came out (about 1989; it has now been reprinted) and still keep my precious first copy paperback; I've loaned it or bought one for some friends through, that is how much I care about it. I have now read it a few times. Highly Recommended. A quote from Denise Chong: "I didn't realize the extent of it, until I did my history, that my grandparents lived in Canada at a time when they could not participate in White society." ( )

This book was a real page-turner. I was fascinated by the historical account of Southern China and Vancouver in the early part of the 20th century. The fact that this is a biography of the author's grandparents made it all the more poignant and unbelievable.

I picked up this book after reading another that the author had written. This one is a story about the Chinese experience in Canada. The family is split between China and Canada and the story follows both sides. There are visits back and forth. There is alot to learn about the immigrant experience in Canada and the harshness they lived through. It was also interesting to read about how each side of the family viewed the other side and the misconceptions. A very good read. I recommend this one and will make a bigger effort to read more about the Chinese experience in the US. ( )