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i llq .t Thus far, the novel has proven Ling Zhang's personal gold mountain-a financial and reputational game changer in a literary career that had been restricted to China and Taiwan. But as the old Chinese proverb goes,ifyou go up the mountain too often, you will eventually encounter the tiger. In Zhang's case,the meta- phorical beast is a wave of allegations,which started in the Chinese blogosphere and made its way across the globe,thatGold Mountein Blues plagiarizes , Sky Lee, and Paul Yee-four of this country's most establishedChinese-Canadian writers. In October, Lee, Choy and Yee launched a civil claim for almost $ro million in damagesagainst Penguin Canada,Zhang and the book's translator, Nicky Harman, which also demands that the book be pulled from the shelves and pulped. Whatever happens,it's difficult to imagine a positive outcome for Zhang. Plagiarism is the most serious professional allegation a writer can face,an accusationthat producesan instant and lin- TllESTREETS llEtR SCIRB0R0UGI|'SConfederation Park curve and gering stain on eventhe most sterling literary reputation. loop in a vertiginous web. The neighbourhood was built in the lg7os-several blocks of low-lying split-levels and bungalows ZllAl{GIIAS B0Rll lll 1957and grew up in Wenzhou, a port city on the divided by neatly trimmed hedgesand zo-foot pines. The 4or is East China Sea,5oo kilometres south ofShanghai. By Chinese just a few blocks away,but thesehouses are quiet and isolated,even standards it was a small metropolis (today the population hovers prim. Ling Zhang lives here in a large mock Tudor. She answers at just over nine million). Back then, it was a culturally isolated the door on the first ring, a diminutive woman with full moon city, accessibleonly by sea,with no trains or bus routes in or out cheeksand a bashful smile. At 54, she wears her hair in a wispy, ofthe surrounding mountainous countryside.Shanghai, the clos- youthful updo and is dressedin a peacock-bluesundress, a simple est major centre, was a 24-hour boat ride away. Zhang has an early cardigan and slippers.The houseis immaculate.We passthrough childhood memory of staring down the Oujiang River and think- a large front hall with a formal dining and living room off either ing that wherever it stopped the world must end. "The fact that side.Matching white leather sofassprawl acrosspolished cherry I couldn't go anywhere or seeanything outsidemy city helped me floors. Everywhere I look, there are vasesfilled with flowers in have a vivid imagination," she says. pastel pink and white. They're all fake,but the effectis cheerful. Zhang was nine yearsold when 'sCultural Revolu- In the kitchen, Zhang makes me a cup of tea.Her husband,Ken tion swept China. Her parents were both young revolutionaries, He, a slight man in a short-sleevedplaid shirt, popsin to sayhello- and she remembers it as a time of great optimism. Sitting at her but not much else.Zhang explains his English isn't great."Moving kitchen table, Zhang shows me a black and white photo of her to was a big sacrificefor him," shesays. The couplemet in parents,a bright-facedyoung married couplein stiffLeninist col- , at the church where Zhang, a born-again Christian, lars. "Look how full ofhope their eyes are," she says. Zhang's was baptized as an adult. They came to Toronto so Zhang could mother was an accountant, and her father became a lawyer for the take ajob at ScarboroughGeneral Hospital as an audiologist.Her regime, after being trained by the Russians.His job was to pros- husband, who was an ophthalmologist in China, now sells real ecute those apprehended by the state. estateto the GTAs Chineseimmigrant community. Soon,of course,Mao's utopian dream disintegratedinto a night- Until recently,Zhang made her living treating patientsfor hearing mare. Paranoia gripped China as suspectedtraitors were carted loss,but in zoto shequit to concentratefull-time on her writing. She off to jail without trial. Zhang's grandfather was arrested as a is the author ofnine Chineselanguage books, including the bestseller counter-revolutionary and died in prison at 25. Her family was Aftershock,about the t9Z6 earthquake in Tangshan. A government- watched extra closely.When Zhang was ro, the police arrested her sponsored film adaptation ofthebookbrought in $roo million at the father, who was detained for a year and a half. box office in China,becoming the highest-grossingChinese movie Zhang's family was poor but not starving. Rice was rationed, ever.This fall, Penguin Canadareleased an English translation of and Zhang remembers a constant feeling of low-level hunger. They her sprawling historical epic GoldMountain Blues.Thebook is her lived in a two-room company apartment. Every day Ling and her first novel to be translated. It spans from rBTzto the present and brother, Zuowei, carried buckets of drinking water home from the tells the story of five generations of a Chinese family who came to city tap. There was no bathroom, only a chamber pot and a basin work, live and eventually settlein Canada.At over 5oo pages,it's forwashingbehind a curtain in the corner."Everyone in the house an ambitious book, both in subjectmatter and in heft. could hear and smell everything," shesays. "It was embamassing The novel becamea bestsellerand critical hit in China and won when we had guests." a number of awards. The TV and film rights were optioned, and A sickly child, Zhang was not allowed to play sports or run foreign rights sold in tz countries. Its Canadian publishers are around with her classmatesafter school.She describes herselfas hoping it will becomethe first East-Westcrossover bestseller.Last a lonely kid who preferred the company of adults to children. Most year, a panel discussiondevoted to Zhang's books was held at an literature was banned by the regime,but secretnovels sometimes international symposium on Chinese-Canadian literature at York circulated. Zhang recalls devouring a rudimentary Chinesetransla- University. Xueqing Xu, one ofthe organizing professors,described tion of Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami. Another time she copied out GoldMountain Bluesto me as "a milestone in Chinese-Canadian a romance noveltitled,LadJ)in the Touerwordfor word before pass- literature in its scope,depth and characterization." ing it on. "That way, I could read and re-read it as often as I wanted,"

6z ronoNro LIFI' Januar! 2012 she says. In order to avoid being relocated to the countryside and University of Calgary, and she completed a thesis on Katherine "re-educated" (mandatory by the state practice for all high school Mansfield. She then decided it was time to find a new profession graduates at the time), Zhang quit school at age 16and found ajob and enrolled in the speechpathology department at the University working as a lathe operator in a factory. of Cincinnati. While she was a keen student, her academic advisor Whenever she could, she would get into bed, wrap herself in a gently suggestedshe switch programs becauseofher pronounced wool blanket and surreptitiously listen to an English language Chinese accent. This is how Zhang became an audiologist. After lesson on the shortwave radio service broadcast Voice of America. graduation, she moved to Vancouver, where she worked in private Shewould learn ("What's a new sentence the temperature today?,' practice. She soon fell in love with her future husband, and they "Do you have my hat?") and meditate on it during long hours of married in the spring of r99q in a small church wedding with no hard manual labour. Looking back, Zhang marvels that she even family present. She shows me a photo of herself in an off-the- bothered to learn English at all. At the time, higher education was shoulder white bridal gown and a diaphanous veil. Afterward, inconceivable and speaking other languagesa crime punishable zo friends, mostly from their church group, ate dumplings and by death. "How was I to know that the abusewould eventually ease pink cake at Vancouver's Fortune House Restaurant. The couple off and the universities ,,I ,.I would reopen?"she says. was driven by had agreed in advance that they would not have children. had a the pure pursuit of knowledge." great dream, and I knew being a mother would interfere with that," ln 1979,at the age of zz, Zhang was accepted as a student into Zhang says. the department of English literature at Fudan.University in In 1996,after the couple moved to Toronto, Zhang began writing Shanghai. "Suddenly, foreign language was the in thing," she says. her first novel, SistersFrom Shanghai.She worked in the evenings Sheimmersed herself in the essaysof Francis Baconand British and on weekends. In the middle of her first draft. she found an Victorian classics by Hardy, Eliot and itchy mole on her left leg that was later Dickens. She was also especially fond diagnosed as second-stagemelanoma. ofJane Austen, Emily Dickinson and Instead of falling into despair, Zhang Charlotte Bront€. "We used to put on bore down on her writing. Two years plays at school 'Mr. and say, Rochester, later, the cancer was in remission and wherever you are is my home!"' her first novel was published. "I felt like After graduation, Zhang took a gov- I'd lived my whole life for other people ernment job in Beijing working as an and was just getting a late start." Since English translator for the Ministry then, Zhang has published eight more of Coal Industry. "In those days your books in China. "I've never had writer's job was assigned," she explains. "You block," she says. "My problem is that couldn't say no." Her new occupation my inspiration flows like an ocean and brought with great it opportunity. As I have so little time. I have ro,ooo ideas China began to look outward for the first right nowlined up like a queueofpeople time in decades,Zhang was on the front clamouring to get out." line, working on projects with multina- By international standards,China has tionals and travelling whenever she a vibrant literary market. The Chinese could. 'Bos, In the shewas ableto spend Writers' Association is a government-run six months in Western Canada,working arts bodythat paysmany ofthe country's on a project with CP Rail, which had writers to produce books. According to been contracted to update a rail link in Gray Tan, Zhang's Taipei-basedliterary China. She shows me a photo of her agent, books are usually published younger self, beaming in a hard hat in within a few months of delivery. The front of the construction site for Van- editing processis light, and book prices, couver Expo. due to cheap manufacturing costs, are In Canada, Zhangwas amazedby the low. Fiction writers generally fall into abundance ofeverything. "I was like, 'Wow, two categories:older literary writers hot water, comingfrom a tap into who chronicle rural life during the Cul- the showerz4 hours a day, no way!'Back tural Revolution, and a younger gen- home we go could only to the company eration ofupstarts who are interested bathhouse once a week." Returning to in contemporary urban China. Zhang, China was a difficult adjustment. Zhang in Tan's view, bridges the gap between grew restless in her translatorjob and them with her ability to move across yearned for the arts and humanities. time, place and culture. which had inspired her at school. Zhang isn't a member of the Chinese Her mother warned her that onceshe Writers' Association, and non-members married and had children in China. her tend to be overlooked.The movie version life would be over, and she urged her to of lftershock,directed by Xiaogang Feng emigrate to the West. lnr9&6,atage29, (China's answer to Steven Spielberg), Zhang accepted a scholarship to pursue changedall that. The film, which begins a master's in English literature at the with a spectacular and devastating CGI

January zotz roRoNTo LrFE 63 earthquake sequencethat cost nearly half the movie's budget, was that was, in her view, "rooted in other people'sjealousyand grudges." both a critical and acommercial success.The Chinesemedia warned Zhang has never publicly accusedanyone ofbeing the "Canadian viewers to "bring a box of tissues" when they went to the theatre. Scholar." However, Yan Li, a Chinese-born comparative literature For Zhang, the success of Aftershock led to an international professor and director of the University of Waterloo's Confucius publishing deal and literary fame in her home country. When she Institute, claims that shortly after the Canadian Scholar post isn't writing, she's often flying around the world to conferences appeared, a vicious smear campaign was initiated against her by and eventsto discuss and promote her work. Sheruns a well-known Zhang's readers. Li says Zhang's fans suspect that even ifshe isn't Chineselanguage salon, Wings of Knowledge, which includes such the Canadian Scholar, she must be helping the blogger compose prominent Chinese language scholars asJohn Edward Stowe of the posts. Ryerson and Xueqing Xu of York University. (They meet monthly She believes she's being blamed because she is one of the few to drink tea and discuss ideas and cultural issues-Zhang recently Chinese-Canadian literary scholars in the country and is devoted gave a talk on the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature.) And to raising the profile of Chinese-Canadianwriters in China-some- she's even branching out into screenwriting, having recently been thing she says Zhang's readers want to discourage, since it poten- asked to adapt an early novella into a TV script. tially introduces competition to the market. Li admits she did participate in private discussionswith other scholars about the A0ID tffillffllll ttutS FIRSTGAilE to the attention ofthe international alleged similarities between Gold Mountain Blues and the other market at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Octoberofzoog. The fair had works in question.But she insists she has never posted anything a focus on Chinese fiction that year, and Zhang's new novel was about it online. attracting advance buzz. Adrienne Kerr ofPenguin Canada was The Chinese blogosphereis a surreal world ofparanoia, slander the second international editor to snap up GoldMountain Blues,in and bizarre animal metaphors.In dozensofposts, Li is accusedof a pre-emptive five-figure bid (a Dutch publishing house was the being a "bisexual whore" and "a dirty dog" and "a headlessturtle" first). The move was a leap of faith since there was no translation who refuses to disclose her true identity as Zhang's attacker. Read- sample available. "The reviews were excellent, and it had won ing these posts, Li told me, has been "mental torture." Ligrew more awards in China, so we decided to go for it," Kerr told me. worried when she received an anonymous phone call at home from At the fair, a rumour circulated that Zhang's novel was strikingly a man who threatened the life of her only son, who was away at similar to books by some Chinese-Canadianwriters. While the university at the time. Li reported the call to police and said she original source of the rumour is impossible to trace, it gathered was "extremely scared." The following day, she noticed a long momentum and became public a year later on November 3, zoto, anonymous comment posted in responseto the Canadian Scholar's in a blog post on a popular Chinese forum. The anonymous post, latest blog entry. "The bad habit ofChinese fighting Chinese is written by someoneidentified only as'A Canadian Scholar,"alleged amplified by Yan Li," the post stated. "She wants to demonize the that "native Chinese Writers in Canada over the past few decades image of Chinese people at bloody costs." The poster ended with havewritten books about the Chineselabourers in English.Zhang's anotherthreat: "Warn you, Yan Li: donot spread anymore rumours novelGold Mountain Blueshascopiedthe themes of numerous liter- on the web. If you insist on doing this, and continue to be the enemy ary works; many ideas were taken, and most of the plot." The post of the Chinesepeople, what is waitingfor you will onlybe a shame- included a detailed list of similarities betweenGold Mountain Blues. ful ending. Watch out!" Denise Chong's TheConcubine's Cbildren, Wayson Choy's TheJade Then four anonymous letters were sent to University of Water- Peony,SkyLee's DisappearingMoon Caf? and Paul Yee'schildren's loo department heads,calling for Li's resignation on account ofher books, TalesFrom Gold Mountain and The Cursesof Third Uncle. alleged actions in the plagiarism debacle.The letters were written A heated discussion ensued, both on the Asian blogosphere and in Chinese,but onewas signedwith the fake name "Chris Smith." in the Chinese-Canadian scholarly community. Yi's insistence that she isn't responsible br the controversial Chong, an Ottawa-based writer and a former special economic blog was given credencewhen a man named Robert Luo revealed advisor to , wasn't alarmed when she first heard himself on the popular Chineseweb forum Sina asthe "Canadian the rumours. "My initial reaction was, it's fabulous news if my Scholar" who had posted the original blog. Sincethen he has posted book is inspiring other authors," she said. She published TheCon- dozens of articles on the issue of Zhang's alleged plagiarism, cubine'sChildren, a non-fiction account of her grandmother's spearheading a brazen public campaign to bring her down. (Zhang immigration from Canton to Vancouvet int994. Deftly written says she has stopped reading the "rubbish" Luo posts about her as and historically precise, it's widely regarded as the first work of it depletesher creative faculties.)Other bloggers allegethat Zhang's popular narrative non-fiction to explore the early Chinese immi wrongdoing extends beyond GoldMountain Bluestoher zott novel grant experience.It was also an enormous hit, spending almost Sleep,Flo, Sleep,which they claim was partially cribbed from a two years onthe Globeand Mailbestseller list. Both Chong's and work by the Chinese-American author Ruthanne Lum McCunn. Zhang's books are published in Canada by Penguin. Chong, like In early zoro, Penguin commissionedNicky Harman, arespected many second- and third-generation Chinese-, speaks a British translator ofChinese literature, to produce an English ver- bit ofCantonese,but doesn't read Chinese and therefore hasn't read sion of Gold Mountain Blues. Harman was midway through her Zhang's novel in its original language. translation last Decemberwhen Adrienne Kerr asked if she'd mind Zhang has denied the allegations, insisting GoldMountain Blues temporarily ceasingwork to prepare a report on similarities between is the result ofhands-on research conducted during several trips the Chineselanguage edition ofZhang's novel and the allegedly to China and Western Canada, and that, apart from Chong's mem- plagiarized books. Overthe next fewweeks, Harman read the five oir, she has not read any ofthe books in question. In 2o1o,she told books and compared them to Zhang's original work. In her view, the Global ChinesePress, a Vancouver-based Chinese language the allegationssnowballing in the Chineseblogosphere were "utterly newspaper, that she was the victim of "a carefully planned attack" irrelevant, poisonous and horrible. I didn't understand what they

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I z : were on about." Harman doesnot deny there were incidental plot As Penguin waited for the final translation to be delivered,the similarities,but shemaintains they weretoo subtleto bereasonably story ofthe allegations,which had alreadybeen widely coveredin I U construed as theft. She said she found doing the assessment"an the Chinese media, made its way into the Canadian press. Last : unwanted distraction." She ended our conversationby advising February, Bill Schiller, Ihe TorontoS/ar's Asia bureau chief, pub- o me to read the report she wrote for Penguin. (Penguin refused to lisheda story under the headline"Literary feud in China puts book show me-or the other Chinese-Canadianauthors-a copy of the in limbo in Canada."Schiller managedto track down the mysteri- report, despiterepeated requests.) ous Robert Luo-or someonepurporting to be him-in Shanghai. E With Harman's assessmentcomplete, Penguin believedit had Luo described himself as "a businessman with a degree from all the assurances it needed to complete the English language China'sFudan University who cameto Canadaas a landed immi- translation. According to Yvonne Hunter, the vice-president of grant in 2oo1."Luo claimed to be an avid reader who maintains publicity at Penguin,"it was a very difficult situation,and we were residencesin both Shanghai and Toronto. His stated goal: to defend mindful of the fact that some of the authors allegedto have been the intellectual property rights of Canadian writers. He also told plagiarizedwere alsoour authors."(In addition to Chong,Wayson the S/arhe had "the backing and guidanceofa number ofChinese Choy has been published by Penguin.) academics."When the S/ar pressed Luo for an in-person interview,

Januaryzotz roRoNTo LIFE 65 he grew alarmed and hung up. My own repeated efforts to contact Choy has a reputation in publishing circles as the kindly god- him were similarly rebuffed. He agreed to an interview request father of Chinese-Canadianliterature. When the allegationsfirst through a translator by email, then failed to answer my questions surfaced, Zhang contacted him to express her concern and invited despite weeks of pestering. him to read her book. They exchangedfriendly emails and even Last March, theLiterature PressofShanghai published a report made a lunch date for after the publication of GoldMountain Blues. on the controversy by Ning Wang, a professor of literature and But after reading Zhang's novel, Choy cancelled."I'm not an expert," director of the academic committee of the department of'foreign he says. "I'd like someoneto compare all this with the original languages at Tsinghua University in northern China. Wang's Chineseversion to expertly verify matters, As things now stand, 'We findings were damning for Zhangzin all the books he examined, what can I say? Well, how about, won't be having lunch."' Wang claimed to find "striking similarities" and "infringements." May Chengfinds Penguin'shandling of the affair highly objec- In his report on Paul Yee's books, he concluded by stating, "The tionable. "For them to say publicly that the accusations have been 'proven infringed areas are artistic creations which are protected intel- false'is absolutelyoutrageous. The reality is, only a court 'common lectual properties of the author and are not materials' can do that. I'd loveto havean opportunity to cross-examinethem freely available to everyone." Wang's assessment was picked up on the research." in the mainstream Chinese news media and prompted more debate So why doesn't Penguin simply put the matter to rest by com- in the Chineseblogosphere. missioning a new report, as Cheng and her clients have asked? In the spring, Zhang's fans created a new blog under the name According to Penguin executives,they already have Harman's "Heavenly Horse," which they used to defend her reputation and report, which they view asan objectivethird-party assessment,so malign her attackers-including Ning Wang. Wang refused my they don't seethe point. But presumably it's also becausethe stakes interview request, replying by email that he felt the situation was are so high. Ifa new assessmentdoesn't find in Zhang's favour, the now "too complicated." results could be disastrous.According to Cheng:"They'd have no Another document that has been used in the attacks against choicebut to bury the book-and that's going to cost them big time." Zhang is an interview published in Chengbelieves Zhang's allegeddisre- August 2o1o on the Shanghai Writers' gard for her clients' intellectual property Association'sofficial website.In it, Zhang is symptomatic of a widespread accep- speaks ofhow small details from other tance ofpirated products in China. A books will often inspire her "fragmented market ofknock-offs has been rampant style" of writing. In particular, she cites there for decadesand is becoming increas- Emily Dickinson, but shesays of the other ingly sophisticated. Many an enterpris- novelists she reads, "What point they ing emerging capitalist has grown rich gaveme on what effect, I cannot tell you, by selling imitation Canadian icewine, but overall they are my nutrition." Her designer shoes, Duracell batteries and critics have used this interview as an Tylenol. The practice also extends to admissionof guilt. But picking and choos- books-counterfeit versions of bestsell- ing snippets ofinspiration from other ers are available on a Chinese version works is, as any writer of fiction knows, of eBay.Some Chinese writers are said a common part of the writing process. to create"mash-ups" ofEnglish language The question of when inspiration books and dump them on the Chinese becomestheft is one that obsessesintel- market. But as China's counterfeit cul- lectual property lawyers.And in October, ture grows, so does the opportunity to May Cheng,an attorney who specializes prosecutethe perpetrators.The Internet, in copyright law at the blue chip firm combined with the increasingly global- Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, filed a ized world of international book publish- claim against both Penguin and Nicky ing, has made literary piracy easier Harman after Penguin ignored repeated to detect. requeststo commissiona new assessment Prior to the publication of Gold Moun- by a mutually agreed upon third party. tain Blues,Penguin sent advance copies Chengwasacting on behalfoflee, Choy ofthe book to Chong, Lee,Choy and Yee. and Yee (Chong decided to sit out the Chong says she found the experience of lawsuit, but told me she is watching the reading the novel unsettling. "Yes, there case"with interest"). At press time, are common immigrant experiences," statements of defencehadn't been filed. she told me. "but writers like me and Wayson Choy,the best-known author Wayson and Sky and Paul are connected involved in the case,told me he's frus- to our grandparents'generationof immi trated with Penguin's handling of the grants. It's our grandfathers who paid allegations."Why not show us the objec- the head tax. It's my grandmother who tive evaluation they claim proves there was a concubine.So when we build these was no plagiarism and get it over with?" characters,it's moored in real life. These he said."If this were a murder mystery, are our ancestral roots." I'd say some bird-like creature with Zhang, it must be noted, comes from flippers is hiding the body." a different province of China than the

66 ToRoNTo L]FEJanuarJ) 2012 fictional characters in Gold Mountain B/aes.She speaks Mandarin, while Chong,Lee, Choy and Yee's ancestors spokeCantonese. The stories in Go I d M ou n tai n B I ues rccall the particular immigration experiences of the allegedly plagiarized writers' ances- tors, not Zhang'sown expe- riences coming to Canada. Of course, this in no way precludes Zhang's right to fictionalize this experience. A week beforeCheng filed her suit, Chong sent a letter to Penguin (her second) explaining that while she'd chosen not to retain legal counsel, she still felt an independent half-First Nations. ln both books, the girl wears an animal hide assessmentwas necessary.She also requestedthat the rights to and the Chineseboy is at one point feverish and tended to by the TbeConcubine's Children revert to her. When I last spoke to Chong, girl. Zhang's claim that she has never read Sky Lee'snovel stretches Penguin had offered only to meet her and discuss her letter. credibility. Just before the claim was filed, Zhang emailed me an official And yet, even if she has borrowed from the works in question, statement of her own. She expressed her respect for her fellow is there anything wrong with a writer finding inspiration in other authors, She insisted her novel was "an absolutely unique piece of writers'books? T. S. Eliot believed no author worked in a vacuum literature, though basedon common eventsin Chinese-Canadian and every modern verse reacted to classical referencesand myths. history," a history she points out is "a very rich source for literary The American literary critic Harold Bloom wrote of the "anxiety inspiration" and of which "nobody can claim ownership, other of influence" handed down from one generation of poets to the than God." next. Even Jung's notion of the collectiveunconscious-the idea that we are all connected through common stories and archetypes S0 Ull0'S RlGllI llE[Ep I wish I could tell you. After reading the flowing subconsciously from one generation to the next-would English language translation of GoldMountain Blues,I found it seem to support Zhang's right to play the role of literary magpie, impossible to decide for myself whether plagiarism had occurred. cleverly recycling whatever shiny treasures she may have stumbled While there are some uncanny echoesin plot between Zhang's upon in the Chinese-Canadianliterary canon.As long as sheisn't work and the other books in question, whatever may have been lifting them verbatim, what's the problem? taken from other works has been reincorporated into a storyline that feels wholly its own in tone and style. The other writers' books GnOUllfGUP llullllc the Cultural Revolution, LingZhang learned are classictales of the Canadian immigrant experience,serenely that even the most romantic theories can be devastatingly destruc- pacedin minimalist prose;Zhang's novel is a much more densely tive in practice.She watched her parents-and an entire civiliza- plotted, mass-appealventure, which at times tests the reader's tion-become seduced, swept away and ultimately disillusioned memory with its litany of names,places and events. by the power ofa single big idea. "Everyone was a part ofit; every- Like Chong'sbook,Gold Mountain Bluescontains a plucky, pretty one was dragged in and brainwashed and made to believe what concubine who is sent from China to Canada.works in a tea house was happeningwas good,"she says of the time. Shealso points out and supports her family, though she is not the novel's central that, againstall odds,reason ultimately prevailed.Today China is character. Like Wayson Choy'sTheJadePeong,Zhang's book con- a driving force in an increasingly unstable world economy,a culture tains a character who is disfigured while working on the railway. on the cusp of world domination. With her continent-spanning In both works, that characterlater rescuesa foreman and inherits career and prolific output, Zhang would seem poised to be the money from his family. future ofpopular fiction. Either that, or she'sa plagiarist bound While Zhang lists Paul Yee'sbook GhostTrain as a reference for literary obscurity. source for Gold Mountain Blues, the alleged plagiarism extends to Standing at her.antiseptic kitchen counter in Scarborough, two more of his books, Dead Man's Gold and TheBone Collector's Zhang tells me that despitethe difficulties of her childhood, the Son.Yee'sDead Man's Goldand Zhang's book both describe a hard- past two years have been the hardest ofher life. First her father working farmer whose gambler relative resents him because he died suddenly in China, and then she endured serious complica- refuses to give him money. (In Yee's book the gambler kills the tions from routine laser eye surgery. Soon afterward, the tidal farmer; in Zhang's he disappears .) ln The Bone Collector'sSon, a wave of plagiarism accusationsrolled in. "It was terribly painful, Chinese teen finds employment as a houseboy to a white Vancou- but it made me stronger," she says. ver couple. The wife of the couple intervenes when he's persecuted Her eyesdrift acrossthe room, then alight on the old photo of by bullies. A similar character goesthrough the same ordeal in her parents in their Leninist collars on the cusp ofthe Cultural Gold Mountain B/zes.Like Sky L ee'sDisappearing Moon Cafb, Zhang's Revolution. Four and a halfdecades later, the Zhangs still look novel contains a subplot about a Chinese worker who, while in full ofhope. They don't know it yet, butjust like their daughter, grave danger, encounters a Canadian woman who is half-Chinese, they're embarking on the fight of their life. =

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