Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion

Let's try a theme for the month. At first I will make a broad theme. In the future I will probably make a more narrowed focus.

I like that idea, but also like the idea of a somewhat broad focus (not as broad as this one, but not really narrow, either :) )

Karin wrote: "I like that idea, but also like the idea of a somewhat broad focus (not as broad as this one, but not really narrow, either :) )"

I am open to suggestions for the next challenge. I have noticed with other challenges that people vote on that they seem to like easier ones.

Suggestion for next Challenge theme? Escape

Escaping to freedom.

Whether from poverty, slavery, lockdown, their oppressive birth country, their unhappy marriage, or just escaping life itself?

Selina wrote: "Suggestion for next Challenge theme? Escape

Escaping to freedom.

Whether from poverty, slavery, lockdown, their oppressive birth country, their unhappy marriage, or just escaping life itself?"

Hmmm. Interesting. My intention is to keep the challenges easy as some of us do other challenges and I don't want to add one more so that it becomes overwhelming and they could possibly use a book they are using for another challenge. I am also hoping for more participation from members that don't post very often.

Well that one is easy for me because I already have books on that topic on my shelf.
It was for the next challenge.

I'm doing Bookathon at the moment but mostly with children's books. But it's basically ANY book.

A lot of bios and memoirs are about escape. You'll find certain themes crop up. Most bios are about people, that's a given. Unless its about cats or dogs, but usually its about people, or owners...

Another one just came in for me From A Dark Cave To New Zealand

haha are the Book Gods trying to tell me something.

Selina wrote: "Another one just came in for me From A Dark Cave To New Zealand

haha are the Book Gods trying to tell me something."

I will certainly take the 'escape' theme into consideration.

The Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir was about the author and Katherine Mansfield both escaping from New Zealand.
Except Mansfield escaped to Europe and Laing escaped to New York City. But then Laing came back to New Zealand. However Laing was actually born in the US.

It was the oppressive art scene in NZ I guess, artists and writers aren't valued as much as farmers and traders and bureaucrats. I guess when there's no literati and salons to frequent, artists feel stifled. Or maybe they were just bored.

Koren are you still doing monthly challenges?
It's now August just wondering if you have one for this month or the next.

Selina wrote: "Koren are you still doing monthly challenges?
It's now August just wondering if you have one for this month or the next."

You were the only one that did it so I don't think I will continue but thanks for participating.

I love the theme. I’d like to see what people read for the theme. Was the theme of freedom / escape ever designated to a mont(?

Rebecca wrote: "I love the theme. I’d like to see what people read for the theme. Was the theme of freedom / escape ever designated to a mont(?"

Well, I did that challenge am not sure if anyone else did it! Though the next memoir on my shelf is rachel hunter's tour of beauty so it is kind of an 'escape' for me as she goes to 13 different countries searching for beauty...really not something I've been able to do much of lately (travel).

Rebecca wrote: "I love the theme. I’d like to see what people read for the theme. Was the theme of freedom / escape ever designated to a mont(?"

I did not set up a challenge for 'escape'. If you two would like to do it go ahead and set up a challenge.

Just make it for September
Though I've already done it I can do it again with my next reads.

I was just curious as to a list of suggestions for the topic. (i tried to find some mid pandemic to give me some hope!) We used to get a lot of people who would list suitable books for the chosen topic but people in these groups seem to have dropped off, the world has changed in so many ways and the challenges are not attended any more, the discussions are quiet and peoples focus has shifted. Maybe in time people will come back, routines will be re-established. The whole momentum of things has been disrupted - there has been a real energy shift through the events and disappointments of the past few years.

I think it's been hard to organise group things over the past few years thanks to the pandemic and 'social distancing'. Possibly because in some areas lack of access to new books?

Since reading is so important to me (and part of my job) I just borrow a whole heap at a time in case libraries close which has happened a couple of times. I'm also generous with renewal periods. At one point the library said I could borrow up to 50 books, though they have now put it back down to 35.

Also there are no fines anymore. My opinion is that reading is a relaxing activity rather than a challenge for me so I don't feel I need to race through books.. it's probably not the same for others though they need motivation and deadlines lol.

Anyone up for another challenge for October?

I thought maybe Royalty...(any..British, European, or any other kind of Monarchy)

I don't have any biographies at the moment on my TBR shelf. So am open to anything. Who knows maybe everyone's sick of reading or hearing about Royalty.
I'd love a new topic I have not read about yet.

Selina wrote: "Anyone up for another challenge for October?

I thought maybe Royalty...(any..British, European, or any other kind of Monarchy)

I don't have any biographies at the moment on my TBR shelf. So am op..."

Royalty is not really my thing. I will be focusing on paranormal, ghost stories and things like that for another group if you would like to do something along those lines.

I won't be reading any royal biographies :) I am reading one that counts as memoir-biography but it's an American author.

Koren wrote: "Selina wrote: "Anyone up for another challenge for October?

I thought maybe Royalty...(any..British, European, or any other kind of Monarchy)

I don't have any biographies at the moment on my TBR ..."
mm doesn't really appeal. Clairvoyant bios are a bit hit and miss IMHO. Usually they are of some person claiming they are channelling the dead spirit of someone famous, but everything they say is vague.

Karin wrote: "I won't be reading any royal biographies :) I am reading one that counts as memoir-biography but it's an American author."

Is it about a writer? I often like reading about children's authors lives. If there is any bio about Ann M Martin, I think that would be interesting.

Selina wrote: "Karin wrote: "I won't be reading any royal biographies :) I am reading one that counts as memoir-biography but it's an American author."

Is it about a writer? I often like reading about children's..."

Yes, she writes--it's one of two contrasting books I'm reading. I want to read two black authors of opposing viewpoints on some key black issues to represent my different friends of colour who fall on different sides of the American political divide.

I dislike political books so am not going to rate them or advertise reviews. I vote, but I am a woman of no political party because I am not keen on politicians in general, and that goes for both of my citizenship countries--the other is not a two party system.

What about a biography featuring a couple.
Any couple - but it has to feature them both equally.

I'm reading one at the moment called Truly, Madly: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century

I've been challenging myself to read some memoirs of where my mum came from - Hong Kong

I've got one on the shelf called The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung

Maybe the challenge for others is to read about the place one of your parents came from/grew up.

Or..just memoirs and bios about people in Hong Kong.
I've read one by Jackie Chan I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action or maybe it was this one - the childhood memoir Never Grow Up Apparently his parents beat him up thats how he became an ace kung fu fighter

Selina wrote: "I've been challenging myself to read some memoirs of where my mum came from - Hong Kong

I've got one on the shelf called The Impossible City: A Hong Kong Memoir by Karen Cheung

Ma..."

What a great idea! I had a number of friends who came from Hong Kong when I was still in Canada, so perhaps I should read some of these someday.

I grew up not knowing that Cantonese was a minority language, and love congee, which most people over here have never even heard of. Okay, I like other real Cantonese food, but sadly can't eat any of it now. This is because I managed to get into restaurants where they didn't have separate things for "round eyes." Plus friends.

That said, I am still amazingly ignorant of a number of things, obviously.

Well..I don't know everything either. lol
Mum never really talked much about her life in Hong Kong. But I know she can't ever be a real kiwi, like my dad. Its a big city but I was never keen on big cities and living up a 40 storey building. From the way she told it - they were crammed like sardines.

Selina wrote: "Well..I don't know everything either. lol
Mum never really talked much about her life in Hong Kong. But I know she can't ever be a real kiwi, like my dad. Its a big city but I was never keen on big..."

Yes, this happens a lot in large Asian cities, but also in places like New York City where housing is so very expensive and many people live in tiny apartments and can do most of their regular shopping for food, etc very close to their apartment building if not even at the bottom of the building for some of it.

My dad's parents didn't talk about where they grew up to us kids or even tell much to my dad and his siblings, but they had to escape and were quite bitter (or at least my grandfather was, but I never saw that side of him.)

In any event, NZ always sounds so cool to me. I even bought a kids' music CD for my kids after my sister and her husband plus kids spent 9 months there by the Minstrel. They're all in their 20s now (my kids and my sister's) so it's been nearly 20 years since she was there.

Minstrel? What is?

I have never been to Hong Kong, but lived in Singapore for five months while studying my library degree. I didn't like living up high in a tiny apartment! I didn't get used to hanging my washing out over everyone else's, in case my undies fell to the ground. Also, sometimes I forgot and I left my window open. But I figured nobody was going to climb that high to get in.

Selina wrote: "Minstrel? What is?

I have never been to Hong Kong, but lived in Singapore for five months while studying my library degree. I didn't like living up high in a tiny apartment! I didn't get used to ..."

The book that had the CD isn't on GR, but here is a photo I found:


He's on Youtube under "hiwi the kiwi" but not singing any of the songs on the CD or in this book and he's older than in this photo.

haha

Well I did end up reading a few BBC (British Born Chinese) and ABC (American Born Chinese) novels. Since I couldn't find many memoirs written by Hong Kongers apart from the one already mentioned.

I think because of CCP censorship not many are able to be published about the truth of the situation in Hong Kong, and any that are published in English would be by English ex pats, who don't have the fortune (or misfortune) of being born there.

Any Chinese books I would need a translator apart from Old Master Q - he doesn't need much translation lol.

Selina wrote: "haha

Well I did end up reading a few BBC (British Born Chinese) and ABC (American Born Chinese) novels. Since I couldn't find many memoirs written by Hong Kongers apart from the one already mentio..."

Okay, how about a Chinese born Canadian memoir plus a novel? I read the novel, Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates. Although most of the book is set in Canada, it is quite good,

She also has a memoir I want to read someday called The Year of Finding Memory: A Memoir

Canada is constantly being overlooked, and since the largest Chinatown in North American as mostly been in Canada (Vancouver), plus Vancouver now has whites at a slight minority (mostly to Asians from different countries, but primarily China since that's 29 percent of the GVRD's population--Greater Vancouver Regional District, not the city itself--Richmond, where the airport is, is majority Asian--only 25 percent white.)

However, Fong-Bates ended up in Ontario--Vancouver isn't the only place, but the climate certainly is a bigger draw for Asians.

ooh yes please I'll have a look for that one.
I have relatives in Toronto. I'm not sure why they skipped Vancouver and ended up in Toronto.

I've read most of Margaret Atwood's novels but she's never had any Chinese characters that I know of. I recall there was an Indian character in Cat's Eye but most of her Canadians are either English or Irish or European descent - Jewish, Hungarian, Italian etc.

I found this one - the only one but its only avaialble in audio in my library

Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui

A recent children's novel I read was along similar lines but set in the US. Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Then there's this one

The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

Selina wrote: "ooh yes please I'll have a look for that one.
I have relatives in Toronto. I'm not sure why they skipped Vancouver and ended up in Toronto.

I've read most of Margaret Atwood's novels but she's n..."

Quite a few Asians ended up in Toronto and Montreal, plus other places. However, Vancouver was one of the first to have a Chinatown due to both the Klondike and Yukon gold rushes, etc. Plus Chinese labourers were brought in to build the transcontinental railroads (can't recall which one was finished first, but at one time there were both the CPR and the CN running them--each through a different pass in the Rockies, etc, but both ending up in Vancouver in the west.)

There were also Japanese labourers brought in, and, in the 20thc century some of the Indians in the anti-Imperialist diaspora ended up in BC. They are called East Indians in Canada.

Apparently the first Chinese visitors to North America (the oldest recorded one)--in modern times--was in 1788 when 30-40 of them were employed as ship builders in Nootka Sound to build the first European type vessel made in North America. Well, this is what Wikipedia says. Nootka Sound is on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

In any event, it's an even longer history than in California, but bear in mind that there

Dunedin was initially where it was at for the Chinese goldminers in New Zealand.

I haven't really read a good narrative focussing on them, although I know some of the history books.

The one to read about Chinese in Auckland its this one Chinatown Girl : the diary of Silvey Chan, Auckland, 1942 in the My New Zealand story series written for younger readers.

My grandparents were not goldminers they were from the market garden tradition. My granddad owned a fruit shop. They immigrated to New Zealand to escape the Japanese who were invading China about 1911. My granddad had an arranged marriage to my grandma and sent for her in 1940s.

Selina wrote: "Dunedin was initially where it was at for the Chinese goldminers in New Zealand.

I haven't really read a good narrative focussing on them, although I know some of the history books.

The one to ..."

Wow--my brother and his wife are enroute to Dunedin to do a 4 month sabbatical. He has done only one other and that was in the original Edinburgh in Scotland. (but of course there has to be the right programme and he had to be accepted. He specializes in teaching and has invented brand new ways of teaching certain Physics concepts. When in Scotland he even went to continental Europe to speak on it--yes, of course I'm bragging for him since he is so very modest IRL. He has his Ph.D plus a post doc but was one of so very many who didn't get to prove their idea so gave up research so he could "have a life" :) )

They flew to Auckland and then are going to travel by train down the North Island. I can't remember if they'll then fly right down south or if they are taking another train on the South Island if there is one.

There is a Chinese garden you can visit in Dunedin and a small Chinese community still living there but I myself don't have relatives there, my family came from a later migration and was based in Auckland.

Selina wrote: "There is a Chinese garden you can visit in Dunedin and a small Chinese community still living there but I myself don't have relatives there, my family came from a later migration and was based in A..."

Yes, I knew you were on the North Island because of your profile page -- I checked to see if it was at all close to where they'll be. I used to have friend in Auckland for some years. He's Irish and she's American, but they ended up in the States (again, for her.) I used to see them every summer in Ohio and one summer in the UK when they stayed there for while before spending a few months in Kenya and then going back to NZ. I know--world travellers!

In any event, he'll be my second sibling to spend months in NZ. Back in the early part of the century my sister and her husband took their kids down under for almost a year. They spent 9 months in NZ sharing a doctor job and the other months seeing Australia.

This is how I ended up with this book and CD that isn't on GR for some reason

Chinglish by Sue Cheung

I found this in the teens section and is a mostly true story about growing up Chinese/English (parents from Hong Kong) in Coventry UK in the 80s. It's in diary format from 1984-1986 and got graphics, although Sue calls herself Jo Kwan in this book!

Some of it you'll laugh, and others you'll cry. but like Tiger Daughter by Rebecca Lim, children of immigrant parents who don't speak the lingo, can't always tell if their parents are looking after them or actually abusing them. That's why their's 0800 numbers for Lifeline at the back.

As daughter of immigrant grandparents/parent, I can relate. Somewhat.

Selina wrote: "Chinglish by Sue Cheung

I found this in the teens section and is a mostly true story about growing up Chinese/English (parents from Hong Kong) in Coventry UK in the 80s. It's in di..."

Interesting. My dad was the son of immigrant parents, but back then there were no 800 numbers or Lifelines, etc. He had lots of freedom as a boy, but discipline was harsh, especially for his older sisters. My dad was the favourite, but he got his share.

Ok I've read The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family by Lindsay Wong

Aside from all the swearing basically it's a coming of age for the author who is Chinese Canadian and living in Hongcouver (Vancouver for the rest of us) with her crazy Hong Kong Chinese parents - mum is mad, and her grandmother is schizophrenic, and she fears she may be as well. Her aunty has a dramatic jump of the bridge suicide attempt. Things are not rosy in the 'poteau' eg the mountain suburbs where Hong Kong Vancouverites live, trying to make a living growing cannabis as that's what Canadians regularly buy. Growing up the family camp out at Walmart parking lots and mum buys end of the world junk food to stock up in their basement from Cost Co.
Dad trains Lindsay to be a Hockey bully. She gets straight A's so she can escape to university, but ends up having a breakdown in NYC. However she still manages to write about it for her MFA in creative writing - and the result is this book.

Harrowing. She's the eldest of 3 but her siblings aren't mentioned much in this book, she's dealing with 'The Woo Woo' eg ghosts/demons that her parents refuse to have treated by Western medicine i.e drugs or talk therapy, but fail many times to exorcise them as well. As I was reading it I think back to my own times dealing with mental illness but its different for everyone. Lindsay only has partial insight to the traumas her mother and grandmother faced coming to Vancouver i.e fleeing the Japanese, or the Communists all she can see is the mad symptoms and break from reality is decidedly not normal.

I think if this book had been written when she got a bit older it would have been a different story but the context of it is escaping/survival from parents who don't make much sense. Unfortunately the reader never really knows what Chinese ghosts they are dealing with until Lindsay falls victim and her mother for the first time tells them to take her instead of her daughter.

Am reading another Chinese Canadian book though this time it's a novel called Gold Mountain Blues. Spans 5 generations so goes back to the construction of the the Pacific railroad in Vancouver. Many nearly starved to death building it.

Finished reading Gold Mountain Blues. It was a bit of a slog to get through and modern times (post 1949) were given short shrift. As family sagas go, it was kinda interesting though I didn't really like any of the family or rooted for any one character!

Selina wrote: "Finished reading Gold Mountain Blues. It was a bit of a slog to get through and modern times (post 1949) were given short shrift. As family sagas go, it was kinda interesting though..."

I took a look at it, but it didn't really interest me much because it didn't look like I was going to like any of the family. Your review has confirmed that for me.

Will read this one next The Interpreter's Daughter: A remarkable true story of feminist defiance in 19th Century Singapore by Teresa Lim

Finished reading The Interpreter's Daughter: A remarkable true story of feminist defiance in 19th Century Singapore

The interpreter's daughter is the author's great aunt. Fanny Law took a vow of celibacy and went on to study at Hong Kong University, became a teacher and looked after the sister's children (nieces and nephews) who's father had taken a concubine, so his wife decided to leave him and go back to her family. One of her nieces adopted a child, who turned out to be the author's mother.

All this family history is centred around Singapore, during the war it surrendered to the Japanese in the infamous Fort Canning siege. The family had initially emigrated to get out from under Manchu rule and then Japanese invasion, while both Chinese Communist and Nationalist regimes fought for power in the new republic. The patriarch of the family found work as an interpreter and had two sons and 3 daughters, the first two married and the third was her grand aunt who didn't and who's story the author is trying to trace as not much as said about her.

The author married an Englishman she met in Hong Kong (at the same University he grand aunt's alma mater) and now lives in England. In uncovering her family history, she became fascinated with her great-aunts story, who did not marry which was against the norms of the day, and had an education instead, becoming the breadwinner for her family. But it ends rather tragically when the Japanese over power Singapore, who blithely never thought the Japanese would take it. The British were loose colonists at the time and never seriously defended its exotic trading post.

I liked reading this raw history a lot more than the fictionalised Gold Mountain Blues. I find it interesting all the shifting alliances in history. The other thing is it had a perspective on the opium wars too, the thing is after a days hard labour what do workers really had to look forward to? Gambling and opium at the time were the vices/answers while today it might be said tv, porn, are what keep the masses happy. Whatever the case, China had to let the drug traders in by then people had become so addicted to it that there was a huge market they could not turn away. Hence all those unequal treaties and foreign trading posts, and where we come across the Chinese diaspora today. But I would say education actually is the thing most Chinese want from the British (did the whole opium trade dry up or it just changed to heroin and meth and P?) and they could have realised that instead of exchanging all that silk and tea for opium, and just built a lot of schools instead!

Now reading Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong


Is anyone else up for new challenge? Cancer survivor stories.
Any memoir about beating cancer.

I can make a list.

Yellowface is next in my pile, a novel about a (white) writer trying to pass as Asian.

Shades of...Memoirs of a Geisha? I've just watched Everything, everywhere, all at once and read a somewhat complicated book on martial arts The Tao of Wing Chun: The History and Principles of China's Most Explosive Martial Art but a lot of what I read seems to be a westerners take on what Chinese think. Obvs, written in English, though it's just starting to be more Chinese immigrant writers publishing in English. Not just Amy Tan. Though Amy Tan is great.