Denise Chong
Encyclopedia
Denise Chong is a Chinese Canadian
economist
and writer
.
, British Columbia
on 9 June 1953, and was raised in Prince George
. She studied economy at the University of British Columbia
(UBC) earning her bachelor degee in 1975. She received an MA from the University of Toronto
in 1978.
to work in the Department of Finance
, where she was employed until 1980. She then worked for one year as a special advisor in the Prime Minister's Office
, dealing with issues pertaining to British Columbia. In 1981 she became a senior economic advisor and worked closely with the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau until the end of his term in 1984. It has been noted that her presence, as a Chinese female, was remarkable in the white male dominated world of government finance and that "she was a trailblazer for the more inclusive public service that was to come." Denise Chong's career in the Canadian government is made even more significant with her realization, through her familial and historical research, that her "grandparents lived in Canada at a time when they could not participate in White society. They were excluded from it: they could not take out citizenship, they couldn't own land, they couldn't vote."
With the end of Trudeau's term in 1984, Denise Chong left her role as a public servant in order to pursue a career as a professional writer.
for the Ubyssey, a student newspaper at UBC, while she was an undergraduate student there.
Denise Chong has published three non-fiction books of literary non-fiction and edited one compilation of short stories. Because of the importance of the Canadian historical research in Chong's first book, a memoir of her family, The Concubine's Children, she has become "renowned as a writer and commentator on Canadian history and on the family." This book, one of the first non-fiction narrative accounts of the Chinese in Canada, was a Globe and Mail best seller for ninety-three weeks.
That Denise Chong's work has been important to the study of Canada is also reflected by the fact that a speech that she gave for Citizenship Week in 1995 entitled "Being Canadian" has been widely anthologized, including in the books Who Speaks for Canada: Words that Shape a Country by D. Morton and M. Weinfeld (1998) , and Great Canadian Speeches by D. Gruending (2004).
Chong's emphasis on the voices of women, as well as her particular brand of nationalism
(which is more than a little critical), are both reflected in her edited compilation The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
. That many of the authors published in this anthology are also women of transnational identities is a reflection of Denise Chong's concern for the multicultural quality of being Canadian. In Chong's own words, "Canadian citizenship recognizes differences. It praises diversity. It is what we as Canadians choose to have in common with each other [....] How we tell our stories is the work of citizenship". In her Introduction to the anthology, Chong highlights what attracted her to the stories, seeming to also articulate one of the strong characteristics of her own writing: "The plot that interested me was life lived in the chaos and uncertainty of everyday happenings and relationships." All of Chong's books evoke such "everyday happenings and relationships" amidst the extraordinary circumstances of war, communism, immigration, and racism.
Denise Chong's second book, The Girl in the Picture, about the iconic Vietnamese napalm victim, was also groundbreaking, in its portrayal of everyday life in war-torn Vietnam. Her most recent book was released on 29 September 2009 by Random House Canada. Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
is Chong’s first book in a decade.
Egg on Mao tells the story of Lu Decheng, a bus mechanic, who, with two friends, challenged his family's communist allegiance by defacing a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong
during the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square
. In an interview about this story exploring human rights in China, Chong said, "It was a very Chinese act. In the West, we would view something like this as a quixotic and think how naive these men were. But in China, it's your only gesture. Of course they were naive. But you have to balance the futility of the gesture against the weight of repression... people are willing to make a futile gesture for the nobility of having acted."
in Toronto
.
"Being Canadian" is a speech given by Denise Chong during the 1995 Citizenship Week. This speech has been widely anthologized, including in the books Who Speaks for Canada: Words that Shape a Country by Desmond Morton
and Morton Weinfeld (1998), and Great Canadian Speeches by D. Gruending.
The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
was published in 1997 by Penguin Books in Toronto.
The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story was published in 1999 by Viking Press
in Toronto.
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
was published in 2009 by Random House Canada.
Denise Chong lives in Ottawa
, Ontario
, with her husband, CTV
reporter Roger Smith
, and her two children, Jade and Kai. She received honorary doctorates from York University in October 2007, Bishop's University, and the University of Northern British Columbia.
Chinese Canadian
Chinese Canadians are Canadians of Chinese descent. They constitute the second-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian Canadians...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Early life and schooling
A third generation Chinese Canadian, Chong was born in VancouverVancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
on 9 June 1953, and was raised in Prince George
Prince George, British Columbia
Prince George, with a population of 71,030 , is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, and is known as "BC's Northern Capital"...
. She studied economy at the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
(UBC) earning her bachelor degee in 1975. She received an MA from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1978.
Career as an economist
Chong's career as an economist began when she moved to OttawaOttawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
to work in the Department of Finance
Department of Finance (Canada)
-Function:Department of Finance Canada operates under the Minister of Finance. Its purpose is to ensure a healthy Canadian economy by developing polices of sound economic management and providing expert advice to the government....
, where she was employed until 1980. She then worked for one year as a special advisor in the Prime Minister's Office
Prime Minister's Office
The Prime Minister's Office is a small department which provides advice to a Prime Minister in some countries:* Office of the Prime Minister * Office of the Prime Minister * British Prime Minister's Office...
, dealing with issues pertaining to British Columbia. In 1981 she became a senior economic advisor and worked closely with the late Pierre Elliot Trudeau until the end of his term in 1984. It has been noted that her presence, as a Chinese female, was remarkable in the white male dominated world of government finance and that "she was a trailblazer for the more inclusive public service that was to come." Denise Chong's career in the Canadian government is made even more significant with her realization, through her familial and historical research, that her "grandparents lived in Canada at a time when they could not participate in White society. They were excluded from it: they could not take out citizenship, they couldn't own land, they couldn't vote."
With the end of Trudeau's term in 1984, Denise Chong left her role as a public servant in order to pursue a career as a professional writer.
Writing career
Though her professional writing career did not begin until much later, Denise Chong was a journalistJournalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for the Ubyssey, a student newspaper at UBC, while she was an undergraduate student there.
Denise Chong has published three non-fiction books of literary non-fiction and edited one compilation of short stories. Because of the importance of the Canadian historical research in Chong's first book, a memoir of her family, The Concubine's Children, she has become "renowned as a writer and commentator on Canadian history and on the family." This book, one of the first non-fiction narrative accounts of the Chinese in Canada, was a Globe and Mail best seller for ninety-three weeks.
That Denise Chong's work has been important to the study of Canada is also reflected by the fact that a speech that she gave for Citizenship Week in 1995 entitled "Being Canadian" has been widely anthologized, including in the books Who Speaks for Canada: Words that Shape a Country by D. Morton and M. Weinfeld (1998) , and Great Canadian Speeches by D. Gruending (2004).
Chong's emphasis on the voices of women, as well as her particular brand of nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
(which is more than a little critical), are both reflected in her edited compilation The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
The Peguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women is a compilation of 32 short stories by Canadian women selected and edited by the Chinese-Canadian author Denise Chong...
. That many of the authors published in this anthology are also women of transnational identities is a reflection of Denise Chong's concern for the multicultural quality of being Canadian. In Chong's own words, "Canadian citizenship recognizes differences. It praises diversity. It is what we as Canadians choose to have in common with each other [....] How we tell our stories is the work of citizenship". In her Introduction to the anthology, Chong highlights what attracted her to the stories, seeming to also articulate one of the strong characteristics of her own writing: "The plot that interested me was life lived in the chaos and uncertainty of everyday happenings and relationships." All of Chong's books evoke such "everyday happenings and relationships" amidst the extraordinary circumstances of war, communism, immigration, and racism.
Denise Chong's second book, The Girl in the Picture, about the iconic Vietnamese napalm victim, was also groundbreaking, in its portrayal of everyday life in war-torn Vietnam. Her most recent book was released on 29 September 2009 by Random House Canada. Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship is the third book by Chinese Canadian author Denise Chong...
is Chong’s first book in a decade.
Egg on Mao tells the story of Lu Decheng, a bus mechanic, who, with two friends, challenged his family's communist allegiance by defacing a portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
during the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
. In an interview about this story exploring human rights in China, Chong said, "It was a very Chinese act. In the West, we would view something like this as a quixotic and think how naive these men were. But in China, it's your only gesture. Of course they were naive. But you have to balance the futility of the gesture against the weight of repression... people are willing to make a futile gesture for the nobility of having acted."
Publications
The Concubine's Children was published in 1994 by Penguin BooksPenguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
"Being Canadian" is a speech given by Denise Chong during the 1995 Citizenship Week. This speech has been widely anthologized, including in the books Who Speaks for Canada: Words that Shape a Country by Desmond Morton
Desmond Morton
Desmond Morton may refer to:*Desmond Morton , British military officer and government official* Desmond Morton , Canadian historian...
and Morton Weinfeld (1998), and Great Canadian Speeches by D. Gruending.
The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women
The Peguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women is a compilation of 32 short stories by Canadian women selected and edited by the Chinese-Canadian author Denise Chong...
was published in 1997 by Penguin Books in Toronto.
The Girl in the Picture: The Kim Phuc Story was published in 1999 by Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
in Toronto.
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship
Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship is the third book by Chinese Canadian author Denise Chong...
was published in 2009 by Random House Canada.
Other public service and personal life
In addition to continuing her career as a writer, Chong serves on the boards, task forces, and committees of several organizations including the Task Force on the Participation of Visible Minorities in the Federal Public Service, the National Advisory Board on Culture Online, and the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.Denise Chong lives in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, with her husband, CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
reporter Roger Smith
Roger Smith (journalist)
Roger Smith is a Canadian journalist. Since 1994, he has been a reporter for CTV Ottawa primarily focusing on federal politics. Smith began his career in journalism as a print reporter with The Canadian Press, then joined CTV Ottawa in 1984 and took over the Beijing bureau in 1985. His career has...
, and her two children, Jade and Kai. She received honorary doctorates from York University in October 2007, Bishop's University, and the University of Northern British Columbia.
External links
- Interview with Author Denise Chong Published interview in which Denise Chong discusses her work
- Immigrant Stories by Canadian Authors
- The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Denise Chong
- Information about Denise Chong's newest book, published by Random House on 29 September 2009
- Penguin Book’s author page for Denise Chong
- Y-File write up about Denise Chong's honorary doctorate from York University, October 2007
- Chong's bio as a member of the Jury for the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction