Of Cowherds and Wagers: A Poetics of Chinese-Canadian Family Histories

Encompassing fascinating stories of love, loss, and identity, Wong's memoir A Cowherd in Paradise: From China to Canada, her +rst book, is an intercultural conversation between China and Canada played out in the everyday life of her family, giving accounts of the cha+ng foot-binding of her great-grandmother, the arranged marriage of her mother, and the impoverished life of her father. During his son's absence over the war years, Percival turns to gambling, and at the mah-jong table he wins Jacqueline, a Vietnamese-French prostitute. ,e o&- spring of their liaison is a son, Laing Jai, born in "'-9 at the time of the Tet o&ensive, one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War.