The Jade Peony

Jung is older than Liang but younger than Kiam. He is the family’s adopted son. His biological father was an abusive man who killed himself after strangling his biological mother to death. Essentially, Jung is saved by the network of Canadian-Chinese people, and placed with the family, who take him in as their own. For most of his section of the book (Part 2), he is around 13 years old. His narrative reveals the ways that he struggles with masculinity, as he sees many different archetypes for it around him. For one, he sees elders such as Old Yuen and Dai Kew, who move through the world as mostly tragic creatures, emasculated by a culture (both that of Canada at-large and that of Chinatown) that does not fully love or understand them. While the Chinatown community sees to the survival of men like this, it does not reserve them a place of high honor. Jung also sees the quiet industriousness of Father, and his unwavering loyalty to China. Most crucially, though, Jung sees the brash, physically strong, robust, and often-brusque Frank Yuen, who strikes a James Dean-like presence. While, in many ways, Frank embodies an ideal masculinity, he also becomes the object of Jung’s physical and romantic attraction. This attraction thrusts Jung into conflict about his identity and masculinity, as he immediately and intuitively understands his desire as prohibited and un-masculine.

Sekky is the youngest child in the family (although Stepmother gives birth to a stillborn baby after Sekky’s birth). He narrates Part 3 of the book. Sekky struggles with severe lung issues for much of his early life, and is kept home from school all the way until Grade Three, due to doctor’s orders. During the time that he must spend homebound, he solidifies the most important relationship of his childhood: that which he shares with Poh-Poh, whom he calls Grandmama. 

Upon his birth, he immediately becomes Grandmama’s favorite, as his sickly constitution begs for her constant doting and attention. Grandmama remains his primary caregiver and profoundly shapes his consciousness and understanding of both the world and his place in it. Grandmama’s talk of Old China, of her own tragic personal history, and of the vibrant and vivid Old China mythology directly connect Sekky to the richness of his ancestry. Without Grandmama as a living link to the past, Sekky would have only the confusion and conflict of being a first-generation Chinese-Canadian child caught between his community’s desire that he maintain Chinese culture (despite not actually living in China) and assimilate in a delicately-balanced way that allows him to be respected and successful in Canadian society. Grandmama, who lovingly teaches Sekky how to fashion beautiful windchimes out of scraps and garbage, and makes sure that he is as sure of his place in the world as he can be, is his solace and guardian, even after her death. Much of his section portrays his unwavering belief that Grandmama will fulfill her promise of remaining with him in a “different way” following her death. Sekky has many encounters with her spirit, whom he helps achieve proper honor and rest.

This character goes by many names, depending on who is interacting with her. To Liang, she is Poh-Poh, a Cantonese word for “grandmother.” To Sekky, she is “Grandmama,” and to everyone, she is respectfully known as the Old One. The Old One was born with a birth defect that made her “ugly,” and her father abandoned the family upon her birth, because she was a girl. She was subsequently sold to a Canton merchant family, who used her as a servant. Eventually, however, she grew into an attractive young woman, but could not ever really escape the stigma that she was placed under when she was born. Eventually, she gives birth to Father, and her husband later dies. She then travels to Canada with her son, where they settle permanently. The Old One has intricate facility with language, as she rapidly switches between dialects in relation to whom she is speaking to and what she would like to implicitly communicate through the dialect that she selects for her communication. With Stepmother, for example, she uses the tone and dialect that one uses with someone who is not very smart, thereby communicating a persistent hostility toward her. With Wong Bak, she uses a formal and old-school dialect that marks them as comrades. Throughout her presence in all three parts of the book, she cuts a formidable figure. Her Old China wisdom and tales are subtly stigmatized by a Canadian-Chinese culture that also seeks belonging in “the new world” of white and Western Canada. This dual nature of her meaning to others forms much of her character throughout the book. The titular jade peony pendant belongs to the Old One. Periodically, it is referenced as her talisman and the means by which she passes on her wisdom, breadth of experience, and knowledge of Old China lore and culture.

Father is a writer for one of the local Chinese-language newspapers. While he is much more hands-off with his children than the Old One is, we still come to see him as a solid father who is invested and interested in the lives of his children. Sensitive to the demands they face from Canadian culture, Father wishes for his children to both assimilate and to nurture an understanding and respect of their Chinese culture. However, many times, he appears to favor the Canadian side of his children’s culture more than the Chinese side. It can be surmised that he does this out of pragmatism: he wants his children to be able to successfully make lives for themselves in the family’s adopted country. And yet, somewhat ironically, he maintains unwavering loyalty to China in regard to the war. His politics are mainstream and his loyalty to China is unwavering, which creates room for him to harbor bigoted feelings toward Japanese people, including the Canadian-Japanese population that is segregated into their own district on the outskirts of Chinatown.

Stepmother was sold into Father’s family, in order to be his wife. Plucked from poverty and groomed within Father’s family household in China, she was then sent to Canada via steamship when the time was deemed right for her to become his wife. They had Kiam together, and then later adopted Jung. Poh-Poh decrees that his son’s wife be known to everyone in the family as Stepmother following the family’s adoption of Jung, which is essentially the Poh-Poh’s sneaky way of bringing Stepmother down a peg. For the most part, Stepmother bears the indignity of her position. She is bought and sold into a family to be a wife, and then disrespected with the permanent title of Stepmother, which she tolerates with quiet reserve. However, there is one notable episode near the end of the book in which she resentfully challenges Father about her subtly disgraced position within the family. 

Also significant is her childhood friend Suling. In Part 3 of the book, we see Stepmother hurriedly and painstakingly plan for Suling’s arrival in Canada. Suling, who converted to Christianity and was disowned by her family as a result, is a Christian missionary in China. She sends a package to Stepmother containing a beautiful jacket with a dragon embroidered on its sleeve, and a bible with an inscription (written in error-laden English and immaculate Chinese calligraphy) dedicating it to Sekky. Before Suling can make it to Canada, however, she is killed by a Japanese bomb. This crushes Stepmother, although, in typical manner, we see her present a stoic front when she receives the news of her friend’s death. 

Stepmother also clearly knows about neighbor Meiying’s illicit affair with the Japanese Kazuo, and she makes moves to help Meiying cover it up, out of protectiveness and compassion. While Father follows the line of absolute loyalty to China, and therefore sees all Japanese people as enemies, Stepmother expresses a more nuanced point of view that takes in the humanity of the Japanese.