Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes & Christina Wong
CBC Books | Posted: February 10, 2023 6:08 PM | Last Updated: July 8
An illustrated book about an elderly woman living in Toronto's Chinatown-Kensington Market
A moving story told in visual art and fiction about gentrification, aging in place, grief, and vulnerable Chinese Canadian elders.
Bringing together ink artwork and fiction, Denison Avenue by Daniel Innes (illustrations) and Christina Wong (text) follows the elderly Wong Cho Sum, who, living in Toronto's gentrifying Chinatown–Kensington Market, begins to collect bottles and cans after the sudden loss of her husband as a way to fill her days and keep grief and loneliness at bay. In her long walks around the city, Cho Sum meets new friends, confronts classism and racism, and learns how to build a life as a widow in a neighborhood that is being destroyed and rebuilt, leaving elders like her behind.
A poignant meditation on loss, aging, gentrification, and the barriers that Chinese Canadian seniors experience in big cities, Denison Avenue beautifully combines visual art, fiction, and the endangered Toisan dialect to create a book that is truly unforgettable. (From ECW Press)
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Born and raised in Toronto, Daniel Innes is a multidisciplinary artist.
Christina Wong is a Toronto writer, playwright and multidisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation, audio documentaries and photography.
Christina Wong on her connection to Chinatown
"[Chinatown/Kensington Market is] a neighborhood that I've pretty much grown up with," said Wong in an interview that will soon air on The Next Chapter. "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."