'It's the hardest thing I've ever done on TV': Ziya Tong remembers her Canada Reads experience
The 2023 edition of the great Canadian book debate takes place March 27-30
Back in 2002, a radio program dedicated to uplifting and highlighting Canadian literature launched. Coined a "literary Survivor," Canada Reads has artists, celebrities and prominent Canadians debate books in order to determine which title will be crowned the one book the whole country should read.
The 2023 edition of Canada Reads will take place March 27-30.
The year 2023 marks the 22nd edition of Canada Reads.
Canada Reads premiered in 2002. The first winning book was In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, which was defended by musician Steven Page. In 2021, CBC Books put together a retrospective to look back at the show's biggest moments and its impact on Canadian literature.
LISTEN | Canada Reads celebrates 20 years:
Ziya Tong brought home the Canada Reads win in 2019, when she defended Max Eisen's memoir By Chance Alone. Eisen's book recounts his harrowing experiences in the Holocaust, working as a slave labourer in Auschwitz as a teenager. After the war, Eisen moved to Toronto, started a family and dedicated his life to educating people about the Holocaust.
Tong is an award-winning author and science journalist. She published her first book, The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World, in 2019. It was on the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize shortlist and won the 2019-2020 Lane Anderson Award for science writing in Canada. Her many credits include co-host of Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel, host of ZeD on CBC and producer and host of The Leading Edge on The Knowledge Network.
Tong spoke with CBC Books about her experience on the great Canadian book debate.
People are always curious about the book selection process. What do you remember about that?
I remember that I went through a lot of books. I kept on asking for different choices and selections because you get a book, you read through it and it feels good, but it didn't pull me. There was no heart tug. I didn't feel like I could passionately defend that book. I waited until I read Max's book, By Chance Alone. The minute I read Max's book, I knew it was going to be the book that I would defend.
What made it the book that you wanted to defend?
I cried the most. It's a heartfelt story and it's a story that places you back in a moment in time. He's so descriptive in his writing that you do feel like you're in the middle of a mind movie in a sense. You can see, feel, hear, breathe a lot of what his experiences are, and they're so visceral. It's still somewhat hard to fathom that human behaviour could have degenerated to such a level, but at another scale, not that hard to fathom. I also picked the book because it was so timely politically, as we were starting to see these radical right movements and white supremacist movements rising again. So it just felt like an important time to tackle this work.
How did you prepare for the debates?
I read like a maniac. I think I read the other books twice. If you go back and watch the series, I was the only person who nerded out. I had pieces of paper everywhere. I basically looked like I worked at a law firm or something like that. I had thought through what their arguments might be and thought through various strategies of what my own arguments would be. I had so many different versions of that.
At the very end, I finally relied on something that was heartfelt and something that meant a lot to me. But I think what won Canada Reads for me in the end was focusing not so much on the facts, not so much on the history. What changed everything was focusing on the fact that these Holocaust survivors were dying out, that they were not going to have a voice left. It was championing voices for old people that made the difference because it pulled the heartstrings of one of my fellow contestants who loved his grandparents a lot.
You never know how you're going to pluck the heart strings of your friends or your listeners or the audience. But I just tried to give it everything I had. Every aspect that touched me emotionally, I tried to put out on the table.
WATCH | Ziya Tong champions By Chance Alone on Canada Reads:
Other than the moment you won, what was a memorable moment for you from that week?
I think what's memorable is the panic of the morning, because you don't know what's going to happen. Right before you go on stage, they give you a sense of what some of the questions might be. You have to rack your brain in those moments. That's when I would do a lot of my chicken scratches and scrawling and faux legal work to argue my case.
But aside from that, I had some great fellow contestants, so I did enjoy meeting with them and hanging out with them as well.
Let's talk about the moment you were crowned the winner. What was going through your mind?
Well, I was in complete shock, which I think was very, very evident. Yanic Truesdale had voted against me from the very beginning, and it was clear that he wasn't going to change his mind. I felt pretty defeated going in there that day. There's so much pressure because, especially in the case of Max, it was his father's dream and his dream that [the world knows their story]. I'm holding somebody's dream. It's not about book sales at this point, or just another author. This is a senior citizen who's gone through a lot. It was his father's dream as he was dying in the concentration camp.
Then when Yanic mentioned his own grandparents and his love for his own grandparents and how that shifted his mind, I mean, the waterworks came out. I was bawling my face off. I could barely hear Max. Max didn't even know he had won when I told him. He was getting the feedback on a delay. So he was just hearing me blubbering away and he was like, "Are we on air?" But subsequently being able to celebrate with Max, being able to stay friends with Max, knowing the impact that this has had on his life and his legacy has been a massive win.
What kind of impact has Canada Reads had on the book and on Max? Has he talked to you about that?
It's had an extraordinary effect on his life. Not only is he booked solidly as a speaker I'm sure for the rest of his life, but he also worked with Steven Spielberg, who turned him into a hologram. His legacy now will exist well beyond his own lifespan. People will be able to hear and learn from him. His platform and his reach significantly changed. He was a national bestseller. His book was brought into the U.S. audience. It was just a tremendous event for him. It transforms lives. I think that's the thing that's shocking about it.
In the beginning, when I was asked to participate, I didn't understand why people got so dramatic on the show or why they got so wrapped up. Why are people crying? It's a book, people, what are you thinking? Then I get on this show and I'm not expecting at all for it to be the tear-jerker situation that it ends up being.
WATCH | Max Eisen becomes a hologram:
What did you take away from this experience that maybe you didn't expect?
It's the hardest thing I've ever done on TV. As somebody who's been on TV for close to two decades, that's saying a lot. I've never done reality TV before. Everything I've done has been educational, so it counts as still being educational media. But you're being pitted against people. I'm used to sharing and learning; being an open experience, not having it be something that's competitive. So that was tricky. That was a tricky part to process for me personally.
How do you feel about the debate format?
I think what's hard is, how do you debate topics that are of such importance to different groups of people that are all socially relevant? So in the case of my year, my book was about the Holocaust. There was another book that was about mental illness. There was another book about urban youth being discriminated against with racism. There was another book about the Syrian war. Every single book on the table was powerful. You didn't want to diminish any other voices because all those other voices are really important. But at the same time, you have to say, "No, this voice is the most important. My author's voice is the most important." The only thing you have going for you is the fact that you better believe that. I knew that I was going to fight to the death for this. Not really, but you know what I mean? I took it, perhaps, too personally.
That's what makes it very different from reading a book. When you're reading a book, you might disagree with what somebody else thinks of the book, and you have a laugh, you have a coffee, you go your separate ways. You don't insist that the other person likes your book on their own. In this series, that's ultimately what you're asking everybody to do.
What advice would you have for future panellists?
I think you should absolutely pick your book wisely. That's the most important part. If the book doesn't speak to you, keep going through a roster. I think people don't realize how much work goes on behind the scenes because there are so many books that you have to read before you reach that final perfect book. You've already read a mini-library before you get there. Then you have to think both strategically and you have to think emotionally. You have to lay out your arguments from an emotional level because that's ultimately what changes people. We know from climate change that facts only have limited resonance, right? When you tell personal stories, that's when people tend to care.
I think that storytelling is an important part of it. Then, making sure that you have your facts straight and, unfortunately, getting a sense of where your book might be stronger than other books and trying to emphasize those points.
We know from climate change that facts only have limited resonance, right? When you tell personal stories, that's when people tend to care.
It's been 20 years of Canada Reads. What do you hope to see happen in the next 20 years?
As a nonfiction author myself, I really hope to see more nonfiction. I love nonfiction. I think a lot of people love nonfiction, too. I would love to see more coverage of the climate and biodiversity crises that we face, along with economic and racial justice for the peoples who are often least represented. I would love to ensure that Canada Reads is a place where voices can be heard. But what gives me a lot of hope, and having worked with the producers at Canada Reads, is that I know that it's part of their mandate. It's a show with a lot of diversity and inclusion, which I think is important.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
