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Chinese Fish
Winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry, and the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Award. Highly Commended for the Anne Elder Award.
When Ping leaves Hong Kong to live in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, she discovers that life in the Land of the Long White Cloud is not the prosperous paradise she was led to believe it would be. Every day she works in a rat-infested shop frying fish, and every evening she waits for her wayward husband, armed with a vacuum cleaner to ‘suck all the bad thing out’. Her four children are a brood of monolingual aliens. Eldest daughter Cherry struggles with her mother’s unhappiness and the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings, especially the rage-prone, meat-cleaver-wielding Baby Joseph.
Chinese Fish is a family saga that spans the 1960s through to the 1980s. Narrated in multiple voices and laced with archival fragments and scholarly interjections, it offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of women and girls in a community that has historically been characterised as both a ‘yellow peril’ menace and an exotic ‘model minority’.
When Ping leaves Hong Kong to live in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand, she discovers that life in the Land of the Long White Cloud is not the prosperous paradise she was led to believe it would be. Every day she works in a rat-infested shop frying fish, and every evening she waits for her wayward husband, armed with a vacuum cleaner to ‘suck all the bad thing out’. Her four children are a brood of monolingual aliens. Eldest daughter Cherry struggles with her mother’s unhappiness and the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings, especially the rage-prone, meat-cleaver-wielding Baby Joseph.
Chinese Fish is a family saga that spans the 1960s through to the 1980s. Narrated in multiple voices and laced with archival fragments and scholarly interjections, it offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of women and girls in a community that has historically been characterised as both a ‘yellow peril’ menace and an exotic ‘model minority’.
136 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2023
8 people are currently reading
339 people want to read
About the author
Grace Yee
6 books10 followersGrace Yee is a poet and writer living in Melbourne, Australia, on Wurundjeri land. Her work has been widely published and anthologised across Australia and internationally, and has been awarded the Patricia Hackett Prize, the Peter Steele Poetry Award, and a Creative Fellowship at the State Library Victoria. Her debut collection Chinese Fish (Giramondo Publishing) began as part of a PhD thesis on settler Chinese women's storytelling in Aotearoa New Zealand (University of Melbourne, 2016). In 2024, it was awarded the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry and the Victorian Prize for Literature in Australia; and the Mary & Peter Biggs Poetry Award in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Chinese Fish is slated for publication with Akoya (UK) in 2026. Her second collection Joss: A History is out in Australia and New Zealand with Giramondo in June 2025.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 4, 2025
Winner of the 2024 Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
4.5★
& Yee is a most deserving winner! Anyone who can make me forgive the fragment style is all right with me! (not all the poems are fragments)
A tip for anyone wanting to peruse this slim volume - read the index- properly! I missed that the translations were at the back. My fault but this stopped me totally engaging with the poems at first (I have now reread the first ones)
In it's simplest form this is the story of a Chinese family where the children are born in New Zealand where the beautifully named Cherry Blossom is trying to straddle two cultures. The fragment that has me close to tears is when Cherry is discovered to need glasses, the funniest is Joseph with the meat cleaver. But everything is beautifully & (in spite of the subject matter) elegantly written.
Most highly recommended.
4.5★
& Yee is a most deserving winner! Anyone who can make me forgive the fragment style is all right with me! (not all the poems are fragments)
A tip for anyone wanting to peruse this slim volume - read the index- properly! I missed that the translations were at the back. My fault but this stopped me totally engaging with the poems at first (I have now reread the first ones)
In it's simplest form this is the story of a Chinese family where the children are born in New Zealand where the beautifully named Cherry Blossom is trying to straddle two cultures. The fragment that has me close to tears is when Cherry is discovered to need glasses, the funniest is Joseph with the meat cleaver. But everything is beautifully & (in spite of the subject matter) elegantly written.
Most highly recommended.
https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...
February 14, 2025
like nothing I’ve ever read before
August 14, 2023
“Grace Yee’s Chinese Fish marks a unique point in the development of the family saga narrative. For one, Chinese Fish tells the story of the Chin family in the form of poetry rather than in prose. While countless other authors of the moment are telling narratives based on the migration of their family from a developing country towards the West, with many choosing poetry over prose, Yee’s foray into this particular sub-genre is marked by its franticness. Poems hop from left to right indentation, change perspective or positionality without any sort of warning, and sometimes cease to be poems altogether. (One particular poem interrupts itself to become pages and pages of pictures of Chinese boys and girls smiling en masse.) This is not a book for anyone who wants to enjoy simple storytelling. Even in a form as structurally free as poetry, Yee refuses to be contained.”
- Check out more of my thoughts on Grace Yew’s debut poetry book at the link below: https://www.shanghailiterary.com/tslr...
Thanks Shanghai Literary Review for publishing it
- Check out more of my thoughts on Grace Yew’s debut poetry book at the link below: https://www.shanghailiterary.com/tslr...
Thanks Shanghai Literary Review for publishing it
March 4, 2024
A worthy winner of the Premier's Prize, I was left awed by Yee's family saga and the timbre of her poetry.
September 30, 2024
Yee's deft storytelling is matched by a virtuosity with form in this slim verse novel, making it a great read. Yee has particular skill in dialogue, capturing voice and through it, character. The polyphonic technique gives us a community, the stories of who we are together. And by interspersing the history of New Zealand laws and cultural attitudes towards Chinese migrants, this becomes part of a much bigger story. I appreciated the use of a translation section, enabling a better understanding for non-Cantonese speakers. Only real negative is that I did hate the cover.
October 5, 2024
2024 Winner of the VictorianPrize for Literature
A difficult one to rate, while it didn't really completely capture my heart, it is an eye-opener to systematic racism in NZ, particularly in the last century, for example, when Chinese Market Gardners were fined for working on a Sunday.
It's a wonderful family saga spanning from the 1960s to 1980s. Migrating from HK to NZ.
It takes huge talent to convey so much in so few pages.
One that I intend to keep in my poetry collection to reread.
A difficult one to rate, while it didn't really completely capture my heart, it is an eye-opener to systematic racism in NZ, particularly in the last century, for example, when Chinese Market Gardners were fined for working on a Sunday.
It's a wonderful family saga spanning from the 1960s to 1980s. Migrating from HK to NZ.
It takes huge talent to convey so much in so few pages.
One that I intend to keep in my poetry collection to reread.
July 2, 2024
entering my book club era
February 28, 2025
This was so unique..unusual. yet it lured me in 'like a fish on a hook'. 3.5 🌟 Rounded up
April 18, 2024
Chinese Fish, a verse novel by Melbourne-based poet Grace Yee, was the winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Prize for Poetry at the 2024 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.
While a novel is told through prose, a verse novel combines story with poetry. Published in June 2023, Chinese Fish tells a multi-generational story of a migrant family in the “Land of the Long White Cloud” – Aotearoa New Zealand.
Readers are introduced to the Chin Family, starting with Great-Grandfather who arrived in New Zealand to work as a laundryman in 1896 after the gold rush ended. His son arrived in 1921 but resettled in Hong Kong after the Second World War.
Grandfather and Grandmother have five children. Yet, it is the second son's wife Ping and her daughter Cherry who are the story's focus. In 1963, Ping, described as having “a face like a BBQ pork bun”, was told by a fortuneteller in Hong Kong that “she would live a life of unimaginable prosperity on the New Gold Mountain at the bottom of the earth”.
But life in New Zealand is not the prosperous paradise she was led to believe it would be. Like all migrants, she is terribly homesick and has difficulty adapting to the local language, food, lifestyle and work environment. Adding to Ping's trouble is her wayward husband:
“Stan returns at three a.m., falls into bed reeking of beer and cigarettes, reaches under Ping's nightgown, her elbow in his gut, his vomit all over the pink candlewick. every night he / go out come / home two three / clock I can't sleep / I waiting for him / use the vacuum / cleaner try to SUCK / all the bad thing out”
As this quote demonstrates, the verse novel is narrated in multiple voices, with Ping's words written in italics and often interspersed with Hong Kong written Chinese. In comparison, the third-person narrative is “laced with archival fragments and scholarly interjections” and often contains passages borrowed and adapted from media reports and opinion pieces of the middle decades of the 20th century, which are printed in grey colour.
Indeed, the book derived from the creative writing component of the author's PhD on the experience of settler Chinese women in New Zealand, who faced discrimination not just from their own patriarchal family and community, but also from the mainstream society in their adopted country. In the author's words:
“Because the settler Chinese community's experience of this word ['Chinese'] was for so long associated with stigma, the instinct to refrain from making overt displays of 'Chineseness' and assimilate into the Pākehā mainstream was strong. The title feels a little treacherous, almost illicit: a talking back that flies in the face of the 'model minority' imperatives we were brought up with – be quiet, lie low, know your place – all of which were amplified for women and girls.”
Chinese Fish is an honest and innovative probe into the inner workings of a Chinese family. Highly recommended.
While a novel is told through prose, a verse novel combines story with poetry. Published in June 2023, Chinese Fish tells a multi-generational story of a migrant family in the “Land of the Long White Cloud” – Aotearoa New Zealand.
Readers are introduced to the Chin Family, starting with Great-Grandfather who arrived in New Zealand to work as a laundryman in 1896 after the gold rush ended. His son arrived in 1921 but resettled in Hong Kong after the Second World War.
Grandfather and Grandmother have five children. Yet, it is the second son's wife Ping and her daughter Cherry who are the story's focus. In 1963, Ping, described as having “a face like a BBQ pork bun”, was told by a fortuneteller in Hong Kong that “she would live a life of unimaginable prosperity on the New Gold Mountain at the bottom of the earth”.
But life in New Zealand is not the prosperous paradise she was led to believe it would be. Like all migrants, she is terribly homesick and has difficulty adapting to the local language, food, lifestyle and work environment. Adding to Ping's trouble is her wayward husband:
“Stan returns at three a.m., falls into bed reeking of beer and cigarettes, reaches under Ping's nightgown, her elbow in his gut, his vomit all over the pink candlewick. every night he / go out come / home two three / clock I can't sleep / I waiting for him / use the vacuum / cleaner try to SUCK / all the bad thing out”
As this quote demonstrates, the verse novel is narrated in multiple voices, with Ping's words written in italics and often interspersed with Hong Kong written Chinese. In comparison, the third-person narrative is “laced with archival fragments and scholarly interjections” and often contains passages borrowed and adapted from media reports and opinion pieces of the middle decades of the 20th century, which are printed in grey colour.
Indeed, the book derived from the creative writing component of the author's PhD on the experience of settler Chinese women in New Zealand, who faced discrimination not just from their own patriarchal family and community, but also from the mainstream society in their adopted country. In the author's words:
“Because the settler Chinese community's experience of this word ['Chinese'] was for so long associated with stigma, the instinct to refrain from making overt displays of 'Chineseness' and assimilate into the Pākehā mainstream was strong. The title feels a little treacherous, almost illicit: a talking back that flies in the face of the 'model minority' imperatives we were brought up with – be quiet, lie low, know your place – all of which were amplified for women and girls.”
Chinese Fish is an honest and innovative probe into the inner workings of a Chinese family. Highly recommended.
June 14, 2023
Yee is one of my favourite poets and short fiction writers. Everything she writes reminds me of an intricately crafted watch: each word is always in its exact and right place, fulfilling its tiny but utterly essential function.
Chinese Fish is a stunning debut, moving the reader smoothly between multiple characters via Yee's expert crafting. The reader witnesses (and viscerally feels) the poignant, the enraging, the hilarious, the frightening and the heart-breaking in an unsentimental but deeply affecting narrative woven from the inter-generational stories of women in a Chinese family struggling to make a life for themselves in New Zealand.
These women's voices are so distinct, and the scenes and language so vivid, I will not forget them. Nor will I forget the hideous contrast between these characters' acute individuality and the dehumanising voice of the archive - the oppressive, 'authoritative' and effacing voice of History - that powerfully punctuates the story, forcing the reader to confront the blatant and shocking racism that has shaped the lives of Chinese migrants in NZ.
Chinese Fish is truly such an unique, moving and beautifully made book. I loved it - and I highly recommend it to readers and writers of poetry and fiction, alike.
Chinese Fish is a stunning debut, moving the reader smoothly between multiple characters via Yee's expert crafting. The reader witnesses (and viscerally feels) the poignant, the enraging, the hilarious, the frightening and the heart-breaking in an unsentimental but deeply affecting narrative woven from the inter-generational stories of women in a Chinese family struggling to make a life for themselves in New Zealand.
These women's voices are so distinct, and the scenes and language so vivid, I will not forget them. Nor will I forget the hideous contrast between these characters' acute individuality and the dehumanising voice of the archive - the oppressive, 'authoritative' and effacing voice of History - that powerfully punctuates the story, forcing the reader to confront the blatant and shocking racism that has shaped the lives of Chinese migrants in NZ.
Chinese Fish is truly such an unique, moving and beautifully made book. I loved it - and I highly recommend it to readers and writers of poetry and fiction, alike.
September 22, 2024
Chinese Fish is the account of the family Chin who migrates from Guangdong to Aotearoa New Zealand, or New Gold Mountain as it is titled in Hoisan-wa. We are first introduced to the members of the family, a dramatis personae. Yee orients us in the family tree but includes telling details like great-grandfather who first went to Aotearoa in 1921, where he worked for the pākehā (white New Zealanders) and "starched their their whites and bleached the shit out of their underwear long after their were no more nuggets to be found in the riverbeds". Number Two Son Stan is "an avid consumer of Whittaker's peanut slabs", his wife Ping has a "face like a [BBQ pork bun]", a seemingly endearing detail that takes on more complicated meanings. Read more on my blog.
March 16, 2024
a family story told through fragments of inner thoughts, stories of life in New Zealand, newspaper articles and advertisements, and an unnamed distanced pakeha narrator who makes declarative statements. the story goes in chronological order.
this book is a narrative, rather than lyrical or more typical type of poetry.
a lot of Chinese history is quite patriarchal. this book tells a story with more focus on the women.
I really enjoyed this book!
the title poem:
Chinese food
is supposed to be good, but it is strange and uncanny.
In a bowl of clean water there were several
things that looked like the specimens
that are kept in spirits in surgeon's museums. 'Fish!'
explained the cook. 'What sort?' 'Oh,
Chinese fish!'
this book is a narrative, rather than lyrical or more typical type of poetry.
a lot of Chinese history is quite patriarchal. this book tells a story with more focus on the women.
I really enjoyed this book!
the title poem:
Chinese food
is supposed to be good, but it is strange and uncanny.
In a bowl of clean water there were several
things that looked like the specimens
that are kept in spirits in surgeon's museums. 'Fish!'
explained the cook. 'What sort?' 'Oh,
Chinese fish!'
October 10, 2024
I really enjoyed this book.
This book of poetry covers themes of family, immigration, racism, and sexism. The poems follow a Chinese family as they immigrate to New Zealand and their experiences setting up a business and interacting with the locals.
The prose poems are interspersed with some extracts of old New Zealand immigration laws which was beautifully done to juxtapose the harsh reality of the law with the experiences of real people.
Several poetry techniques were also used in creating distinct voices for the various narrators which made this read more like a narrative than a book of poetry.
Overall, was beautifully done and well written, I had some fun analysing it (which is a surprise since me and poetry usually don’t get along)
This book of poetry covers themes of family, immigration, racism, and sexism. The poems follow a Chinese family as they immigrate to New Zealand and their experiences setting up a business and interacting with the locals.
The prose poems are interspersed with some extracts of old New Zealand immigration laws which was beautifully done to juxtapose the harsh reality of the law with the experiences of real people.
Several poetry techniques were also used in creating distinct voices for the various narrators which made this read more like a narrative than a book of poetry.
Overall, was beautifully done and well written, I had some fun analysing it (which is a surprise since me and poetry usually don’t get along)
August 30, 2024
3.5 stars. An original, short book in poetic and narrative format about the Chinese experience and family life in New Zealand with factual lines about government policy on Chinese immigrants from 1900 onwards. Set mainly in NZ in the 1950s and 1960s.
An interesting book about Chinese culture in New Zealand. The Chinese immigrant tended to only mix with Chinese people, staying indoors, working hard, living frugally, experiencing discrimination and racism.
This book was first published in 2023, won the 2024 Victorian Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
An interesting book about Chinese culture in New Zealand. The Chinese immigrant tended to only mix with Chinese people, staying indoors, working hard, living frugally, experiencing discrimination and racism.
This book was first published in 2023, won the 2024 Victorian Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.
July 28, 2024
I just didn’t find either the poetry or the story behind it amazing -knowing it was the subject of a PhD thesis might have made me expect more. I liked the running theme that linked all segments. There were often clever little details. But overall, would I pick it up again or talk about it? Not really. Plus most single sided tales of immigration and its difficulties bore me. I am an immigrant. I knew I was always going to be a second rate citizen. I knew things were going to be difficult. I got over it. 🤷🏻♀️
December 18, 2024
This book tells the story of Ping and her family who have moved from Hong Kong to New Zealand. it spans the 1960s to 1980s and is told through the voices of many female family members, giving you an insight into their struggles as Chinese immigration but most are authentically English as spoken by a learner. There are also facts distributed in between the story about New Zealand’s immigration policies at the time. The story is told authentically and cleverly in poems giving the reader an insight into the lives of others in a different time in a quick read.
June 12, 2024
Poetry.
Fascinating writing about a Chinese family emigrating to NZ and assimilating (or not) there.
Clever (but horrible) use of historical facts (printed in a paler shade) to show the racism experienced by people from Asia at the turn of the last century.
Lots of Chinese characters used throughout, which as a white person reading in, I found attractive to look at ... but was too lazy to use the translations at the back to see what they meant (some of my own racism coming out there).
Fascinating writing about a Chinese family emigrating to NZ and assimilating (or not) there.
Clever (but horrible) use of historical facts (printed in a paler shade) to show the racism experienced by people from Asia at the turn of the last century.
Lots of Chinese characters used throughout, which as a white person reading in, I found attractive to look at ... but was too lazy to use the translations at the back to see what they meant (some of my own racism coming out there).
July 20, 2024
This was wonderful storytelling, highlighting the often forgotten perspectives of Chinese women and girls. I enjoyed the interwoven historical elements juxtaposing with the inner voices (I do recognise that it does flow more smoothly if one can read the sprinkling of Cantonese words instead of flipping back to the translation guide) - it was tastefully done.
Would particularly recommend to all my ABC pals.
Would particularly recommend to all my ABC pals.
February 4, 2025
Chinese Fish is a book of contemporary poetry, telling a family saga covering the Chinese-New Zealand diaspora experience with wit, charm, and tenacity.
There's a wonderful mix of poetic style, voice, and scholarly text interspersed throughout, and it was a very good read. I can see why this has won so many awards, and the expertise of the author (who has completed a PhD in the subject area of the poem) really shines through. Would highly recommend!
There's a wonderful mix of poetic style, voice, and scholarly text interspersed throughout, and it was a very good read. I can see why this has won so many awards, and the expertise of the author (who has completed a PhD in the subject area of the poem) really shines through. Would highly recommend!
March 8, 2024
4.5 Loved this collection; part prose, part historical racist snippets, part poetry, some language, it all conveyed such an insight into Chinese fish n chip family in NZ. Wonderful, not laboured and more powerful for it. Will deserve a reread sometime. Tender and light and yet powerful and deep, great read
June 4, 2024
Loved this book. Well deserved winner of all its awards. I had to pace myself and not read it all in one sitting. Great poetry and reflection. Sad to read the factual information based on race. Hope we have made positive inclusive steps since then.
June 21, 2024
Poetry which is well-researched, economically crafted, and which juxtaposes the intimacies of a whānau against hard proof of the bitter world around them in the best use of collage writing I've seen. Maaasterful
Read
August 15, 2024Placed me firmly within the migrant family experience, the different voices create a human narrative that overpowers the historical found pieces, presenting xenophobic ideology as something belonging to the past but unfortunately constantly pervasive.
December 30, 2024
Eye-opening exploration of historical/(ongoing?) systemic racism against Chinese immigrants in New Zealand. Loved the experimental form and vivid storytelling; definitely leans more towards prose poetry.
Read
May 19, 2025This book of poetry covers themes of family, immigration, racism, and sexism told through multi-generational voices. Woven between these voices are fragments of historical documents and scholarly interjections making it an even more engaging and heart-breaking experience.
February 4, 2024
This book is so good I wish I wrote it myself
June 15, 2024
A short novel in verse that tells the story of a Chinese family resettled in New Zealand, mostly through the eyes of the mother, first generation migrant, and of one of her daughters. Exceptional.
September 26, 2024
This book of poetry somehow weaves a narrative and historical data seamlessly.
May 6, 2025
A lovely little poetry book. Very familiar content, painted the life of a family very well. A bit heart pulling for Chinese New Zealanders.
March 20, 2025
Between a 4 and 4.5 but definitely among my most favourite reads - this one really is unique. The language is simple but effective. The story telling is intimate and vivid. Also laugh out loud funny. Loved the in parallel use of historical opinion pieces and news headlines to support the portrayal of the family’s experience and the movement through time. My favourite parts were reading Pings narration in italics.
Missing 0.5-1 star for the way in which the author used Cantonese-Taishanese writing. I think this could have been done better. I appreciate the homage to the authors ancestry and the cleverness in perhaps portraying the mixed / loss of language experienced by children of migrants and the mix of language used by immigrant parents but from a readers PoV it was jarring and disruptive. When looking at the translations they feel random and not significant as they are singular words. I wish the author would have used this writing to progress the readers view into the Cantonese-Taishanese language. For example, capturing certain phrases or meanings that are unique to the mother tongue that don’t flow well in English.
Overall great vibes. Will stick around on my bookshelf.
Missing 0.5-1 star for the way in which the author used Cantonese-Taishanese writing. I think this could have been done better. I appreciate the homage to the authors ancestry and the cleverness in perhaps portraying the mixed / loss of language experienced by children of migrants and the mix of language used by immigrant parents but from a readers PoV it was jarring and disruptive. When looking at the translations they feel random and not significant as they are singular words. I wish the author would have used this writing to progress the readers view into the Cantonese-Taishanese language. For example, capturing certain phrases or meanings that are unique to the mother tongue that don’t flow well in English.
Overall great vibes. Will stick around on my bookshelf.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews