Denise Chong

Denise Chong
Born	(1953-06-09) 9 June 1953 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Residence	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Education	University of British Columbia University of Toronto
Occupation	economist, writer
Home town	Prince George, British Columbia

Denise Chong (Chinese: 鄭霭玲; born 9 June 1953) is a Canadian economist and writer.

Early life and schooling

A third-generation Chinese Canadian, Chong was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on 9 June 1953,^[1] and was raised in Prince George.^[2] She studied economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) earning her bachelor's degee in 1975. She received an MA from the University of Toronto in 1978.^[1]

Career as an economist

Chong's career as an economist began when she moved to Ottawa to work in the Department of Finance, where she was employed until 1980.^[1] She then worked for one year as a special advisor in the Prime Minister's Office, dealing with issues pertaining to British Columbia.^[1] 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.^[1] 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."^[1] 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." ^[3]

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.^[1]

Writing career

Though her professional writing career did not begin until much later, Denise Chong was a journalist for the Ubyssey, a student newspaper at UBC, while she was an undergraduate student there.^[1]

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."^[1] 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^[4] 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).^[1]^[5]

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".^[6] 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." ^[7] 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 iconic Vietnamese napalm victim Kim Phuc, 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.^[8] 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.^[8] 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.^[8] 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."^[9]

Publications

Denise Chong talks about Egg on Mao on Bookbits radio.

The Concubine's Children was published in 1994 by Penguin Books 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.

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.^[1]

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,^[10] Bishop's University,^[11] and the University of Northern British Columbia.^[1]

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Diana Lary, "Denise Chong", The Canadian Encyclopedia.
↑ Nelson, Emmanuel Sampath (2000). Asian American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 64–67. ISBN 0-313-30911-6.
↑ http://www.asian.ca/media/chinacity/jsoo.htm
↑ Morton, D. and M. Weinfeld, ed. Who Speaks for Canada? : Words that Shape a Country. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Inc, 1998, p. 327-332
↑ http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/2005/jury.php
↑ Chong, Denise. "Being Canadian". In Morton, D. and M. Weinfeld, ed. Who Speaks for Canada? : Words that Shape a Country. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Inc., 1998, p. 330
↑ Chong, Denise, ed. The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1997, p. xiii.
1 2 3 http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307355799
↑ U of T Magazine, Autumn 2009 Act of Defiance p.378
↑ http://www.yorku.ca/ylife/2007/10-Oct/10-29/hondoc-chong-102907.htm
↑ http://www.ubishops.ca/alumni/news/newssep2.pdf

External links

Recipients of the Edna Staebler Award and shortlist honours

Edna Staebler

1990s Winners	Winning writer, Winning title, (award year), ISBN Susan Mayse, Ginger, (1991), ISBN 9781550170184 – Marie Wadden, Nitassinan, (1992), ISBN 9781550540017 – Liza Potvin, White Lies (for my mother), (1993 co-winner), ISBN 9780920897133 – Elizabeth Hay, The Only Snow in Havana, (1993 co-winner), ISBN 9780920953808 – Linda Johns, Sharing a Robin's Life, (1994), ISBN 9781551090559 – Denise Chong, The Concubine's Children, (1995), ISBN 9780140254273 – George G. Blackburn, The Guns of Normandy, (1996), ISBN 9780771015038 – Anne Mullens, Timely Death, (1997), ISBN 9780394280844 – Charlotte Gray, Mrs. King, (1998), ISBN 9780670866748 – Michael Poole, Romancing Mary Jane, (1999), ISBN 9781550547498

1990s Shortlist nominees	Nominated writer, Nominated title, (nomination year), ISBN Phil Jenkins, Fields of Vision, (1992), ISBN 9780771044014 – Anne Kershaw and Mary Lasovich, Rock-a-bye Baby (1992), ISBN 9780195412680 – Sherrill MacLaren, Invisible Power, (1992), ISBN 9780770425265 – Marlene Webber, Street Kids, (1992), ISBN 9780802067050 – Rosalind MacPhee, Picasso's Woman, (1995), ISBN 9781568361383 – Jack Kuper, After the Smoke Cleared, (1995), ISBN 9780773728325 – Rita Moir, Survival Gear, (1995), ISBN 9780919591813 – Patricia Pitcher, Artists, Craftsmen and Technocrats, (1996), ISBN 9780773728585 – Tom Connors, Stompin' Tom, (1996), ISBN 9780670864874 – Frances Backhouse, Women of the Klondike, (1996), ISBN 9781770500174 – William Aide, Starting from Porcupine, (1997), ISBN 9780778010470 – Phil Jenkins, An Acre of Time (1997), ISBN 9781551990026 – Douglas Chambers, Stony Ground, (1997), ISBN 9780394281544 – Elisabeth Raab, And Peace Never Came, (1998), ISBN 9780889202924 – Lois Sweet, God In The Classroom, (1998), ISBN 9780771083198 – A.C. Lewis, Nahanni Remembered, (1998), ISBN 9781896300184 – Will Ferguson, I Was a Teenage Katima Victim, (1999), ISBN 9781550546521 – James Mahar and Rowena Mahar, Too Many to Mourn (1999), ISBN 9781551092409 – Joni Smith, Charlevoix County, (1999), ISBN 9780494516690

2000s Winners	Winning writer, Winning title, (award year), ISBN Wayson Choy, Paper Shadows, (2000), ISBN 9780312284152 – Taras Grescoe, Sacré Blues, (2001), ISBN 9781551990811 – Tom Allen, Rolling Home, (2002), ISBN 9780670884735 – Alison Watt, The Last Island, (2003), ISBN 9781550172966 – Andrea Curtis, Into the Blue, (2004), ISBN 9780679311355 – Anne Coleman, I'll Tell You a Secret, (2005), ISBN 9780771022784 – Francis Chalifour, After, (2006), ISBN 9780887767050 – Linden MacIntyre, Causeway, (2007), ISBN 9780002007245 – Bruce Serafin, Stardust, (2008), ISBN 9781554200337 – Russell Wangersky, Burning Down the House, (2009), ISBN 9780887623295

2000s Shortlist nominees	Nominated writer, Nominated title, (nomination year), ISBN Beth Powning, Shadow Child, (2000), ISBN 9780786707201 – Ellen Stafford, Always and After, (2000), ISBN 9780670886203 – Kevin Patterson, The Water In Between, (2000), ISBN 9780385498845 – Andrew Steinmetz, Wardlife, ISBN 9781550651218 – Howard Hewer, In For A Penny, In For A Pound, (2001), ISBN 9780385660778 – Mary Pratt, Mary Pratt, (2001), ISBN 9780864923165 – Trevor Herriot, River In A Dry Land, (2001), ISBN 9780773732711 – Nicholas Pashley, Notes on a Beermat, (2002), ISBN 9781554682560 – Gabriel Bauer, Waltzing the Tango, (2002), ISBN 9780199744480 – Ron Corbett, The Last Guide, (2002), ISBN 9781894673051 – Cornelia Johanna Baines, Under Syndenham Skies, (2002), ISBN 9781550416152 – Peter McSherry, Mean Streets, (2003), ISBN 9781550024029 – Adam Killick, Racing the White Silence, (2003), ISBN 9780141003733 – Dawn Rae Downton, Seldom, (2003), ISBN 9781559706650 – Ellen Bielawski, Rogue Diamonds, (2004), ISBN 9780295984193 – Kevin Bazzana, Wondrous Strange, (2004), ISBN 9780195182460 – Ralph Osborne, From Somewhere Else, (2004), ISBN 9781550225501 – Alex M. Hall, Discovering Eden, (2004), ISBN 9781552632215 – Tilda Shalof, A Nurse’s Story, (2005), ISBN 9780771080876 – Geoff Heinricks, A Fool and Forty Acres, (2005), ISBN 9780771040566 – Elizabeth Hudson, Snow Bodies, (2005), ISBN 9781896300740 – Michael Mitchell, The Molly Fire, (2005), ISBN 9781550226768 – Lisa Rochon, Up North, (2006), ISBN 9781552636909 – Rosalind B. Penfield, Dragonslippers, (2006), ISBN 9780802170200 – John Vaillant, The Golden Spruce, (2006), ISBN 9780393328646 – Kim Bolan, Loss of Faith, (2006), ISBN 9780771011306 – Marcello De Cintio, Poets & Pahlevans, (2007), ISBN 9780676977325 – Rachel Lebowitz, Hannus, (2007), ISBN 9781897141113 – Patrick Friesen, Interim Essays & Mediations, (2007), ISBN 9780973972702 – Nathan M. Greenfield, Baptism of Fire, (2008), ISBN 9780002007276 – Chantal Hébert, French Kiss, (2008), ISBN 9780676979077 – Jane Hall, The Red Wall, (2008), ISBN 9781897113684 – Martin Mitchinson, The Darien Gap, (2009), ISBN 9781550174212 – Cathy Ostlere, Lost, (2009), ISBN 9781554700431 – Andrew Westoll, The Riverbones, (2009), ISBN 9780771088759

2010s Winners	Winning writer, Winning title, (award year), ISBN John Leigh Walters, A Very Capable Life, (2010), ISBN 9781897425411 – Helen Waldstein Wilkes, Letters from the Lost, (2011), ISBN 9781897425534 – Joshua Knelman, Hot Art, (2012), ISBN 9781553658917 – Carol Shaben, Into the Abyss, (2013), ISBN 9780307360229

2010s Shortlist nominees	Nominated writer, Nominated title, (nomination year), ISBN Allan Casey, Lakeland, (2010), ISBN 9781553653080 – Else Poulsen, Smiling Bears, (2010), ISBN 9781553653875 – Benjamin Errett, Jew and Improved, (2011), ISBN 9781554684274 – Grant Lawrence, Adventures in Solitude, (2011), ISBN 9781550175141 – Robyn Michele Levy, Most of Me, (2012), ISBN 9781553656326 – Andrew Westoll, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, (2012), ISBN 9781554686490

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 22323195 ISNI: 0000 0000 7364 6145 SUDOC: 06893551X BNF: cb137548000 (data)

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