The Boundaries Between Identity

The literature "The Jade Peony" by Wayson Choy illustrates a Chinese immigrant family in Vancouver Chinatown during the mid 1930's and 40's. The story is told through three children's perspective, who are Jook-Liang, Jung-Sum, and Sek-Lung. During their childhood, they have a much more complex and memorable experience than the other native children as a result to their incoherent identity.

The children attend to both English and Chinese schools where encourages them to be modern, and are affected by their Grandmother's ancient wisdom and tradition. They worship Shirley Temple, John Wayne, and Joe Louis, but also are attracted by the old fantasies like Monkey Man and the Fox Lady. The exclusion from the Chinese heritage and the hardship to assimilate into the western community can be seen the most through the third brother, Sek-Lung. He is constantly struggled between the borders that:

     "even if I was born in Vancouver, even if I should salute
     the Union Jack a hundred million times, even if I had the
     cleanest hands in all of the Dominion of Canada and prayed
     forever, I would still be Chinese".

The boundaries are set between identity, with lines that the children are told should not be crossed. Although Sek-Lung wishes to be completely a true "Canadian", he seems like the one who stops his family from anchoring to China. He understands that:

     "Stepmother knew this and worried in her heart and feared
     for me. All of the Chinatown adults were worried over those
     of us recently born into Canada, born “neither this nor that,”
     neither Chinese nor Canadian, born without understanding
     the boundaries”.

Whenever Sek-Lung ais trying to identify where he belongs, whether Chinese or western, there are always resistance on either side. The child also witnesses the danger of self-definition when he is drawn unwittingly into the local tensions between Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadians during World War II.

On the other hand, the Grandmother is a typical Chinese women with ancient cultural traditions. "But making her special ones caused dissension in [their] family, and some shame" is what she believes. In the family, she affects the children's emotions the most. However, she continues to do as she pleased, ignoring people and their reactions. She increases the hardship for the children to identify themselves, especially for Jook-Liang and Jung-Sum. The Grandmother repeatedly tells the girl how worthless she is, so it is important for a girl to be able to assess the value of what she has. Contrarily, she does not value her second grandson worthless, but rather different, that he is the moon and not the sun. Therefore he should not maintain a strong self-confidence and self-esteem in his mind. Through the quotes offered in the novel, the author illustrates a picture of three children who are attempt to sketch a detailed geography of identity, an identity that must be constantly surveyed, defined, and defended.