“Lao Kwei”: A Very Chinese-Canadian Turtle. (An analysis tribute essay to The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy)

“Lao Kwei”: A Very Chinese-Canadian Turtle.

In The Jade Peony by Chinese-Canadian writer Wayson Choy, his character turtle “Lao Kwei” represents the unification of the Chinese-Canadian hybrid identity. Choy’s turtle, like the Chinese living in Canada, struggles to embody two very different oppositional elements. The elements of duality for “Lao Kwei” are his shell and flesh; these are symbolic for representing the opposing ideology of “Old China” (east) and the westernized “Canada” for the Chinese. The alienation and exclusion which the Chinese lived with is reflected in Lao Kwei’s living conditions.

The duality of being Chinese and being Canadian, and the unity of these two cultures can be recognized by the physical turtle traits of “Lao Kwei”. Translated from Chinese to English, “Lao Kwei” stands for “Old Turtle”. The identity of “Old China” is represented by his bony shell as the author tells: “Most Chinatown people were from the dense villages of southern Kwangtung province, a territory racked by cycles of famine and drought.” This representation is further enforced through the shape of Lao Kwei’s “bent-backed” shell that reflects the children of “Old China”: “At seven, children in Old China laboured in fields, rode bone-crushing oxen, crawled with oiled bodies into narrow coal seams and emerged bent-backed forever.” The Canadian westernized identity is represented by Lao Kwei’s “plush” moist turtle flesh. This is where the cultural traits are mirrored in Lao Kwei’s physical traits. The Canadian culture is evident in Lao Kwei’s description by Jung, “The plush, snakelike folds of its neck told me how well fed it was.” As expressed in essayist Michelle Hartley’s “Does Shirley Temple Eat Chicken? Consuming Ambivalence in Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony.” Hartley states being “well fed” is “In fact, Canadian consumer culture, with its economy of excess…” The cultural dichotomies are clearly dualities to one another as “famine” is a fact of life in “war-torn China” where people live “a very tough life.” Although in opposition, the two dualities eventually unite as an integrated-cultural-hybrid-identity, the Chinese-Canadian. “Lao Kwei” is Choy’s symbolic unity of two very different worlds and their traits. Without the combination of shell and flesh there is no turtle; without “Old China” and the western Canadian modernity there can be no evolution for the Chinese to become Chinese-Canadians. However, it must be known that the development of this cultural hybrid is the negotiating identity between two worlds as Contemporary Chinese Studies scholar, Wing Chung Ng writes of the hardships in his book “The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80.” Like Choy’s Chinese characters, “Lao Kwei” shares the same social-discourse of alienation and exclusion from opportunities and resources available to the non-minority population.

“Lao Kwei” shares the same alienation as the Chinese in Canada. Both, “Lao Kwei” and the Chinese have been alienated from the native origins. However, the alienation that is reflected by Choy’s turtle character mirrors the same alienation the Chinese faced in social-discourse. Both parties are alienated from their eastern worlds and are subjected to social prejudice which subsequently alienates them further. The Chinese originate from China; “Lao Kwei”, “A snapper”, originates from eastern Canada. For the Chinese, “even if you were born in Canada”, they were still considered an alien because of their alien ancestry from China. “Lao Kwei” faced the same prejudice; “snapping turtles are often maligned because people think they’re mean and scary looking (TurtleFeed, 2010.). The Chinese “aliens” were viewed as a nuisance (Mar, 2010) by the government and restricted to live in segregation. This alienated the Chinese demographically and furthered the discourse by stripping their rights as human beings when starving Chinamen are “denied the right to government-funded soup kitchens (Hartley, 2003)”. The discourse experienced is actualized in Jook-Liang’s narrative: “In the city dump on False Creek Flats, living in makeshift huts, thirty-two Old China bachelor-men tried to shelter themselves; dozens more were dying of neglect in the overcrowded rooms of Pender Street.” Jook-Liang shows how “China men were shoved aside, threatened, forgotten.” Loa Kwei’s living quarter mirrors those of the Chinese as he too lives segregated in a wooden “crate that smelled like a stale swamp.” Choy offers an additional connection by writing how “Lao Kwei” is denied nutritious foods and is left to eat “table scraps… or it dies.” Although “Lao Kwei” and the Chinese look very different, their alienation is the same through their origins and the social prejudices shared by both. Because of their alien origins they become targets for exclusion.

“Lao Kwei” and the “Chinese”, both having alien status, are excluded yet kept within “arm’s reach” of their new world population. “Lao Kwei” lives outside of his caretaker’s family home but is confined to a wooden shed in the backyard. He is kept at a distance. With winter approaching, a life threatening condition for turtles, “Loa Kwei” is excluded from entering and sharing the family home space. Jung brokers the turtle’s belonging and welfare by seeking out advocacy from his uncle. Jung tells his uncle: “The family won’t let me take him inside the house to live. Poh-Poh says he’s too stinky.” The turtle is excluded from the house’s comfort but kept close enough for “good fortune.” Choy’s “Lao Kwei” mirrors the Chinese’s exclusion as articled by Michelle Hartley: ‘”The stigma of being “resident alien” corroborates the evidence of Vancouver’s urban geography, which marks a contained area: several blocks of buildings, from Canton and Shanghai Alleys west of Carrall Street, stretching eastward along both sides of Pender Street to Main Street (Ng, 1999).”’ This exclusion is best described by University of Maryland’s associate professor Lisa Rose Mar. In her book, Brokering Belonging: the Chinese in Canada’s Exclusion Era she writes “The Chinese as more than excluded victims and resisting outsiders.” However, the Chinese were kept close enough to be called upon when cheap labour was needed (Mar, 2010). “Lao Kwei” and the Chinese exclusions are common as they both are out casted by society as aliens, sharing conditions which mirror one another.

The Jade Peony’s element of cultural dualities is readily available to be extracted out of the struggles of Choy’s characters. Choy’s turtle, “Lao Kwei”, is the symbolic representation of the Chinese in Canada merging with the western world. This is found through Lao Kwei’s physical attributes, reflected by his displaced and stagnant living conditions, alienation from his eastern homeland, and exclusion from his new western world. Because of social prejudice towards his alien origins, “Lao Kwei” like the Chinese is subjected to further alienation and exclusion. The Chinese in Canada struggles to find balance towards becoming Chinese-Canadian. If “Lao Kwei” ever lost his shell he would lose his identity; if a Chinese-Canadian ever expelled their cultural heritage, they too would also lose their identity. “Lao Kwei”, without a doubt, unites the both worlds by representing the Chinese-Canadian hybrid identity.

Works Cited

Choy, Wayson. The Jade Peony. Vancouver. Douglas & McIntyre Ltd. 1995.

Hartley, Michelle. Does Shirley Temple Eat Chicken Feet? Consuming Ambivalence in Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony. Essays on Canadian Writing. Winter 2003 (78). P61. Toronto. ECW Press. 2003.

Mar, Lisa Rose. Brokering Belonging: The Chinese in Canada’s Exclusion Ear, 1885-1945. Toronto. Oxford University Press Inc. 2010.

Ng, Wing Chung. The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80. Vancouver. UBC Press. 1999.

Turtlefeed. “10 Awesome Snapping Turtle Facts.” Buzzfeed.com. 2010.