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A Cowherd in Paradise - 2nd Edition by  May Q Wong (Paperback) - 1 of 1

A Cowherd in Paradise - 2nd Edition by May Q Wong (Paperback)

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Highlights

  • "Wong's description of the enforced polarization of one nuclear family, set asunder by a Canadian law excluding ethnic Chinese immigrants--no matter if they are wife, daughter, or son--should be required reading for anyone who cares about citizenship and human rights.
  • Author(s): May Q Wong
  • 272 Pages
  • Biography & Autobiography, Memoirs

Description



Book Synopsis



"Wong's description of the enforced polarization of one nuclear family, set asunder by a Canadian law excluding ethnic Chinese immigrants--no matter if they are wife, daughter, or son--should be required reading for anyone who cares about citizenship and human rights." --Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues


In 1979, Wong Guey Dang and Jiang Tew Thloo celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in Montreal surrounded by family--a milestone all the more impressive because for the first twenty-five years of their marriage, Canada's exclusionary Chinese Immigration Act forced them to live an ocean apart. In this powerful, intimately written family history, May Q. Wong recounts her parents' epic quest spanning two continents, five generations, and nearly a century to reunite their family.


In China at the turn of the century, Thloo was a young cowherd responsible for tending her family's fortune--their water buffalo. She grew up to marry a stranger, and when her new husband, Wong Guey Dang, left for Canada to maintain his immigration status, she learned to shoot and defended her village from bandits, survived a brutal famine during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and became a valued community leader during the first blooms of communism--all while raising the children she and Dang had during his brief visits home.


In Canada in the 1920s, Dang faced arbitrary imprisonment for four months at the border and paid the exorbitant Chinese Head Tax to be let in. Once inside, he learned to survive in the wilderness while doing hard labour, protected himself from racists and ruffians with a knuckle-duster and a leather sap, and picked up Canadian culture as a domestic servant to a white family. Dang eventually prospered as an entrepreneurial restauranteur, but by then his wife and children were forced to remain in China, sometimes unreachable even by mail during violent and turbulent years.


A testament to the resilience and devotion of the human spirit, A Cowherd in Paradise is an important memorial to the challenges faced by tenacious immigrants across the country and a loving tribute to one family's indomitable efforts to be together.



Review Quotes




"A Cowherd in Paradise manages the writerly task of evoking the perilous, impoverished life of peasants in pre-revolutionary China while delving deep into the psyche of an immigrant to Canada during the period of discriminatory head taxes. May Q. Wong has written one of the best descriptions of foot-binding (her grandmother's) that I have ever read. With honesty, Wong also sympathetically recounts the disastrous conjugal encounter between two strangers--her parents--meeting for the first time on their wedding night. Wong's description of the enforced polarization of one nuclear family, set asunder by a Canadian law excluding ethnic Chinese immigrants--no matter if they are wife, daughter, or son--should be required reading for anyone who cares about citizenship and human rights. --Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues


This is not the work simply of a family archivist but of an author, for it is rooted in empathetic imagination that immerses the reader in emotional experiences . . . Wong's book reminds us of the struggles of others and the need to remain vigilant about government decisions that impact us all--even here in paradise. --Focus


". . . a Canadian ethnic and multicultural history, in which the changing social image of Chineseness is embodied in the existential shifting of individual and family identity." --Canadian Literature


Dimensions (Overall): 8.4 Inches (H) x 5.4 Inches (W) x .6 Inches (D)
Weight: .7 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 272
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
Sub-Genre: Memoirs
Publisher: Touchwood Editions
Format: Paperback
Author: May Q Wong
Language: English
Street Date: October 13, 2026
TCIN: 1008963055
UPC: 9781990071195
Item Number (DPCI): 247-51-5767
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details

Estimated ship dimensions: 0.6 inches length x 5.4 inches width x 8.4 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 0.7 pounds
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