Such a poignant and eye-opening read! The opening page is Lily, pregnant and reminiscing about her mother, rubbing her ankle just as her mother had years before. Set in Sparwood, B.C., Ah Loy, Lily’s father works in the mine and is content with his life in Canada. Swee Hua, his wife is very unhappy with Canada. Moving from China, to Brunei and finally immigrating to British Columbia, they settled in mining community of Sparwood. Their children, Lily and Bea, were born in Canada making Ah Loy very proud. He had been stateless in both China and Brunei. Swee Hua does not share his feelings, and seems to be from a different class. Their dialects are different, even within their Chinese neighbourhood: Hakka, Hokkein, Cantonese and Mandarin often indicating class. Jamie Chai Yun Liew has filled this story with issues of immigration, Chinese heritage and the many dialects, family secrets, motherhood, racism and mixed cultures, all seen through Lily’s eyes as a child, then a wife and a new mother.
Swee Hua deserted the family when Lily was 11. No note and all her things gone. When Ah Loy looked for his wife with many calls to his family in Brunei, and in the surrounding Sparwood area there was no trace.
Lily is left with the nagging question of what happened to cause her mother to leave them. She carries it with her through her life, even concerned that it was something she may have done or not done. This while her sister Bea was just angry with their mother. Lily preferred learning her husband John’s Ukrainian culture and didn’t want anything to do with anything Chinese, while her sister respected and enjoyed their Chinese cultures.
Lily especially missed her mother when her daughter was born. Her Auntie Choo Neo, Ah Loy’s sister, took on many of the responsibilities but purposely tried not to replace Swee Hua. She accompanied John and Lily, and their baby, Leonida, in an extended search for her mother, Swee Hua. The conversations that Lily and Auntie Choo Neo had on the plane both there and back struggled through the emotions of the past and whether they would find Swee Hua.
None of these details are skimmed over to include them all. The pacing of this very textured story is steady and comfortable. This story, complete with Chinese characters at the beginning of each chapter, is beautifully written.
“It was as if they were pollen that was lifted by the wind
and landed in this place when the air quieted, unplanned,
unprepared, planting themselves in soil they did not choose.”
~ Jamie Chai Yun Liew, Dandelion
Title: Dandelion
Author: Jamie Chai Yun Liew
Cover and Text Design: Jazmin Welch
Cover and Interior Art: Ophelia Liew
Edited by: Catharine Chen and Shirarose Wilensky
Copyright: 2022
Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
Type: Fiction
Format: Soft Cover
ISBN: 9781551528816
Canadiana (ebook): 20210390816
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