How Denison Avenue brought an author and a former mayor together for noodles — and Canada Reads
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi and writer Christina Wong discuss the great Canadian book debate
Set in Toronto's Chinatown and Kensington Market, Christina Wong and Daniel Innes' Denison Avenue is a moving story of an older Chinese Canadian woman and her changing neighbourhood. Told in English and Toisan with stunning illustrations, such a book is bound to bring people together, both on Canada Reads — and for lunch.
Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi enjoyed some noodles with author Wong in honour of him championing Denison Avenue on this year's great Canadian book debate.
But before they went for lunch, Nenshi and Wong met for the first time in studio on The Next Chapter, where they chatted with Ali Hassan about changing cities, grief and the immigrant experience portrayed in Denison Avenue.
Naheed, cities are a passion of yours, clearly, and particularly your city of Calgary. But why did this story of this particular slice of downtown Toronto hold so much appeal for you?
Naheed Nenshi: When I was thinking about the book that I wanted Canada to read, I thought, 'I want something that is about cities, that is about neighborhood and community and I really want something that talks about the immigrant experience, but kind of in a new way, not the story of the rebellious daughter figuring out why her mother is so conservative, which we've heard many, many times.'
But when I saw this book and it is about an elder, it is about seniors in our community. It is about someone who has been a Canadian citizen since the 70s, so she has been in Toronto longer than most people have been in Toronto, but gets everything she wants from her community, everything she needs from her community and now her neighborhood is leaving her.
It's an extraordinary work. It is a gorgeous and beautiful book. It is written with incredible skill and I think it tells a story that's going to cause people to think differently about the cities they live in.
Christina, tell me what your connection is to this part of Toronto, Chinatown and Kensington Market in particular.
Christina Wong: It's a neighborhood that I've pretty much grown up with, my parents and my grandparents, our family. We would just go there on Sundays and go for dim sum and go grocery shopping. So it's a place that's like home for me.
It's a place that's like home for me.- Christina Wong
It's also where my family association is, the Wong Association, and it's also considered like another home where I would go and talk to the elders and learn things.
So I felt like myself, in a sense, like I could learn more about my culture.
Many people will associate you exclusively with Calgary, but you were actually born in Toronto.
NN: I was born here, moved to Calgary before I was 2. But I was born in Saint Mike's Hospital, not far from Chinatown, and I spent my 20s here in Toronto. So certainly I recognize the streets that Cho Sum talks about in the book. The immigrant experience at Honest Ed's was the experience my parents had. That's where they bought their first bed sheets.
But it's also a universal story about — I wanted to say about displacement — but it's not about displacement. She's been in Canada longer than anybody else, but it is about how neighbourhoods are changing and I think people will recognize that, especially as Canada is going through these massive changes in our cities right now.
Christina, your protagonist Cho Sum is alone when her husband dies. She does not speak English. She doesn't work. Her life has always revolved around her husband, her neighborhood, her time-worn routines. Who did you draw on when you were creating that character?
CW: I would say my elders. I want to say see a little bit of my mom because after my dad had passed away, I kind of looked to her and how she dealt with the grief in a very quiet way, and I kind of also dealt with that grief in a quiet way.
I feel like we don't tap into that necessarily or we don't really see it or read it. And I want to kind of explore that avenue and I just want to see how people explore grief, in a way that's not so direct.
Christina, The book is written in English and Toisan and that's a dialect that Cho Sum speaks. Why did you choose to do that?
CW: It's one of the earlier voices of Chinatown and it's the language used by a lot of the early Chinese immigrants who came back in the 1800s to build the railroad in Canada and the United States. It's the language of my dad and my grandparents and my elders at the family association.
But it's one that I've lost a lot of and this is one way of me trying to connect with it again and not lose it and to document the language before it also disappears. But I know there's kind of a revitalization, of the language or interest, so it makes me happy that people still want to keep it alive.
Naheed, you're making the case for Denison Avenue to your fellow panellists for Canada Reads and to Canadians. During that week, as you suggest that this is the one book that all of Canada should read, what will you say?
NN: This particular book really does have its own lane and if our theme is a book to bring us forward then this book helps us look at the people we interact with in our neighbourhoods in a brand new way.
It rips your heart out and then it kind of hands it back to you, a little bandaged, a little bruised, but filled with hope.- Naheed Nenshi on Denison Avenue
It rips your heart out and then it kind of hands it back to you, a little bandaged, a little bruised, but filled with hope. To me, that hope and that empathy and that understanding that through struggle we move forward and we find a new way to live, is the reason Canada should read this book.
The other reason Canada should read this book is because you want to be the one to say, 'I read Christina Wong when.' Because this voice is a voice you got to hear.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.