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Jim Wong Chu: Difference between revisions
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Jim Wong-Chu is a poet, editor, historian | Jim Wong-Chu is a poet, author, editor, and historian known as a co-founder of the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop, [http://www.asiancanadianwiki.org/w/Ricepaper_Magazine Ricepaper Magazine], anthologies of [http://www.asiancanadianwiki.org/w/Authors Asian Canadian writers] and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Festival. | ||
Born in Hong Kong in 1949, but raised in Canada as a [[Chinese Exclusion Act|paper son]], Jim Wong-Chu is well known as a pioneer of the Asian Canadian activist movement. | Born in Hong Kong in 1949, but raised in Canada as a [[Chinese Exclusion Act|paper son]], Jim Wong-Chu is well known as a pioneer of the Asian Canadian activist movement. He is among the first authors of Asian descent with the likes of [[Sky Lee|SKY Lee]] and [[Paul Yee]] who challenged the Canadian literary establishment and questioned why it was devoid of any Asian writers. Without role models or any blueprint, the trio began to experiment with different forms of fiction and decided to not only get published but also form informal writing networks to encourage other Asian Canadians to hone their craft. | ||
An idea for an Asian Canadian literary anthology thus germinated in the 1960s, when Jim Wong-Chu and a group of young Asian Canadians began to explore their identities. That exploration took them back to their roots and ignited a desire to express who they were as Canadians of Asian descent. Jim Wong-Chu is a poet whose book Chinatown Ghosts (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1986; now out of print) was the first poetry book by an Asian Canadian writer. | An idea for an Asian Canadian literary anthology thus germinated in the 1960s, when Jim Wong-Chu and a group of young Asian Canadians began to explore their identities. That exploration took them back to their roots and ignited a desire to express who they were as Canadians of Asian descent. Jim Wong-Chu is a poet whose book Chinatown Ghosts (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1986; now out of print) was the first poetry book by an Asian Canadian writer. | ||
In the mid-‘60s and mid-‘70s, a lot of Asian Canadian writers were looking to get published. In the 1970s, Canada Council was supplying a lot of money to independent publishers, and there was a lack of voice coming from the Asian Canadian communities. Inalienable Rice: A Chinese and Japanese Anthology (1979) was the most groundbreaking as the first ever Asian Canadian anthology. | In the mid-‘60s and mid-‘70s, a lot of Asian Canadian writers were looking to get published. In the 1970s, Canada Council was supplying a lot of money to independent publishers, and there was a lack of voice coming from the Asian Canadian communities. [http://www.asiancanadianwriters.ca/2013/09/view-inalienable-rice-e-book-on-scribd.html Inalienable Rice: A Chinese and Japanese Anthology] (1979) was the most groundbreaking as the first ever Asian Canadian anthology. | ||
Before Asian Canadian writing was considered a genre unto itself, one of Wong-Chu’s most critical projects took place in the library stacks of the University of British Columbia, where he went over the entire inventory of books with a fine-tooth comb, looking up literary magazines dating back 10 to 20 years. His mission in 1989 was to map all Asian Canadian writers and their material, finally compiling them into an anthology of Asian Canadian literature. Taking the twenty best works, Wong-Chu and co-editor Bennett Lee published an anthology called [[Many Mouthed Birds]]. | Before Asian Canadian writing was considered a genre unto itself, one of Wong-Chu’s most critical projects took place in the library stacks of the University of British Columbia, where he went over the entire inventory of books with a fine-tooth comb, looking up literary magazines dating back 10 to 20 years. His mission in 1989 was to map all Asian Canadian writers and their material, finally compiling them into an anthology of Asian Canadian literature. Taking the twenty best works, Wong-Chu and co-editor Bennett Lee published an anthology called [[Many Mouthed Birds]]. | ||