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serendipitysbooks's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Chinese Fish is a family saga which tells the story of one Chinese family in New Zealand from the 1960s through to the 1980s via prose poetry. It focuses on the women in the family, especially Ping, who migrated from Hong Kong only to discover the life was not as wonderful as she’d been led to believe it would be, and her daughter Cherry, who has to deal with her mother’s unhappiness and take responsibility for her younger siblings. Several things stood out about this collection - the way multiple voices were woven in to a single poem, the way fragments from primary sources like newspapers and song lyrics plus extracts from secondary extracts were incorporated into the poems, the inclusion of pidgin English, as well as some Cantonese-Taishanese phrases via Chinese characters. Translations are helpfully included at the back of the book. I loved its unique style and structure and the way it shone a light on the intersection of race and gender, highlighting the particular discrimination Chinese women faced as well as the long hard hours they worked to ensure their families’ survival.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
jadaadira's review
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
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