Judging a book by its other cover

While searching for the cover of the version I have right now, I came across another one. ------>

It's a little more obvious to decipher compared to the first. A large crowd of people can be seen in the bottom right corner. They all seem to be looking in the distance where a ship can be seen. This is a huge part of the novel. It is how Kiam, his father and Poh-Poh arrived in Vancouver and also how Stepmother arrived; by boat. I'm sure the docks are flooded with people all the time, either waiting for shipments of China goods to come in or family or friends from China to arrive; a big part of the citizens of Chinatown's lives was spent at the docks.

As for the flower in the top right, I am not entirely sure of what kind it is. If I had to choose one it would be a white lily; it seems to resemble it the most. According to a few sites, the white lily symbolizes purity, modesty, virginity and heaven. They are also perceived as feminine since they have been said that they were created by Juno, the queen of the gods (in Roman mythology). This could symbolize that there is a feminine side to the book and that women are more respected there.

I thought maybe it could be a flower indigenous to China, but after searching I still could not find anything.

Chapter Six - Boy Fever

I'm well ahead of chapter six right now but I still remember a lot that happened in this chapter more than the others. This is probably because I was surprised by a lot of the events in this chapter. 

I will start off with what I wasn't surprised about: Poh-Poh is not very fond of Jack. She dislikes his crude humor and mockery. She even threw a broom at him (I visioned my grandmother doing this and laughed). Even after 10 years of being neighbours, the Chens and O'Connor's never attempted to get along or develop friendships with each other. However, they did gain respect between one another in this chapter. When Kiam dropped all of the groceries, Mrs. O'Connor helped him by replacing the spoiled food with food from her own cupboards. Stepmother repaid the favour by sending her flowers and Chinese tea. This friendly exchanged occurred a few more times. Poh-Poh still did not allow Jack into their home, claiming that "Chinese air kill him" (Choy 232). I thought since 10 years has passed Poh-Poh would at least talk to the family, but she didn't.

The continuing culture struggle is apparent when Father notices that Kiam-Kim's Chinese grades are slipping, but he is doing excellent in his English classes. Poh-Poh is very persistent and is trying her hardest to make sure her grandson is not a mo yung say doi (stupid) or mo li (have no manners). Father enlisted Kiam into more Chinese classes in order to improve his grades. I think him hanging around Jack O'Connor so much helps him with his English, but narrows down his Chinese knowledge.

This chapter focuses mostly on the maturing of Kiam and his friends. He is now fifteen and doesn't see Jenny Chong as only a nuisance anymore; he starts to like her. It's still weird flipping back to the first few chapters and stumbling upon a conversation he and Jenny had. The conversations usually ended in him being extremely irritated by her as if he would never like her as a friend, never mind more than that. I see Kiam as being the one who always has to do the right thing, especially since he is the well-respected 'dai-gou' (First Brother), so I was shocked when Kiam went out to smoke and drink with his friends. I guess he is like most teenagers and is experimenting to try and discover more about himself. I think Jack is a huge influence on him too. Kiam did a few things only because he thought Jack would think he is not manly if he didn't. Some examples would be smoking, drinking, and also kissing Jenny. 

Kiam came home drunk one day; I was surprised to see that Poh-Poh and Stepmother didn't react negatively. Everything that Kiam did that would usually be frowned upon, Poh-Poh labeled it as 'boy fever'. When Kiam threw up, she even cleaned it up for him. The two didn't tell Father what had happened to Kiam. This shows that they are able to forgive or tolerate such behaviour, unlike Father. It could also be that they know how much Father can overreact, so they thought it best to hide it from him. It didn't work; he found out about it and yelled things I was surprised to see him say, "Useless boy! Drunken dead boy!....Go, I kill you later" (Choy 240). It is almost expected that he react negatively, but I would never of thought he would go as far as saying he was useless or dead; the word 'kill' is a hugely over-exaggerated word, obviously he didn't mean it, but the fact he said it means a lot. What he said to Kiam instantly drew parallels between this and what Mrs. Chong said to Jenny earlier in the book, when she called her a dead girl and a useless daughter.

I was introduced to a new character in this chapter: Chinatown's black sheep, Frank Yuen. He is known as the bad guy around town; aggressive and dangerously carefree. It is he who teaches Kiam and his friends things that their parents or teachers wouldn't teach them. He teaches them about proper fighting and safe sex.The boys were afraid of him at first, but once he started teaching them useful lessons they became less nervous around him. I think Frank definitely played an important part in the maturing of Kiam. I feel that without Frank, Kiam would have many more questions looming around in his head than he already has now.

It is this chapter that I find out the war as come to Canada's door. The young men are told to prepare for war. Being Kiam, he constantly thinks and thinks about situations and this is definitely one he ponders on a lot. He is filled with frustration of where he belongs, "but where would I go, with barely any memory of the old country? What world did any of us belong to? What world would we fight for?" (Choy 281). He does not know what country he should fight for (Canada or China), but he knows he will eventually have to fight.

Choy tends to cover a lot of events or topics all in the length of just one chapter. By the time I am done finishing the chapter I usually have to quickly skim what I read before. It's easy to get lost if you skipped a page or two by accident. If I could interview the author one question I would want to ask if why he made the book consist of only 9 chapters, when he could have easily separated them into more. It's nice to not have 25+ chapters, but at the same time so much happens in one chapter that it seems that all the chapters kind of blend together in my mind. I'm not able to say "Oh this happened in chapter 3 and this specifically happened in chapter 6" It's different, but I'm slowly getting used to it. 

Words looked up from this chapter:

rote 
edict
futility
cadged 
filched

Found some visuals...

I found a few visuals to help me understand the area that the Chen family lives in. Wayson Choy did a lot of research and successfully made the plot seem much more realistic. He mentions a lot of street names and businesses, buildings, or parks. I thought it would be good for me to search for some real life images so I can properly visualize and understand what is happening better.

This is a map (screenshot off of Google Maps) that shows where the main part of Chinatown that Choy deals with in All That Matters is located. In chapter 5, Kiam-Kim mentions that he would sometimes go to MacLean Park with Jung-Sum. Also, in chapter 6 (currently reading) he says he goes there to smoke or drink with Jack and his other friend Jeff. The Chen's family house is located on E Pender Street.

 I looked up houses on E Pender Street and photos such as the one shown below appeared on the screen. This was somewhat how I visualized the houses, but with a larger space between them. In one chapter, Jack swings from a rope tied to Kiam's porch and flies into his own house window across the street. This made me think that the streets were pretty narrow and the houses must be close together.

  

This is another map, with the main areas circled and labeled. Kiam and his family live in northern Chinatown and the children go to school in Strathcona. This helped me understand the actual distance Kiam and Jung have to walk when he says they are walking to school in Strathcona. The Vancouver Wharfs are also labelled. That is where Father, Poh-Poh, and Kiam-Kim were when their ship from China arrived. It is also where they picked up Stepmother when she arrived, too. The railyards are close to Chinatown too, which means it is definitely easy to hear when a train goes by; this was heavily talked about in the first couple chapters. 

Chapter Five - All Too Real

Out of all of the chapters I have read so far this was the chapter that bored me the most. I really enjoyed the first 4 chapters, but this one seemed to drag on a bit. For about the first ten pages Kiam-Kim and his father walked around Chinatown to politely ask residents to donate some change in order to purchase food and blankets for the Chinese soldiers and starving children in China. The next 16 pages consisted of Kiam and his confusion of Hell vs. Heaven.

I've realized that Kiam thinks too much. If he doesn't fully understand something he usually dwells on it until he finds the answers he needs to satisfy him. For example, Jenny told him that her last teacher told her she was going to end up in Hell. He was confused on the topic and began to talk to others about it and looked it up in books. It made him feel that Hell seemed all too real. That only made him become more wary and concerned.

After Kiam-Kim kept thinking about Hell, Father thought it was best for him to learn about Heaven, too. He hought it would be a good idea to visit the church nearby. I was confused that Kiam was allowed to attend Sunday school classes in the church because Poh-Poh is strongly attached and committed to the Old China religion, so when she didn't make too much of an issue out of this, I was surprised. Choy tends to use street names while referring to places. I try to note them and search them up later. This time I searched what was exactly in the text, "Good Mission Church on Keefer Street".  I found this photo and did some quite research to assure it was in Chinatown and on Keefer Street. I even found out it was built in the early 1900's. 

It was neat to connect a real life image to what I read in the book. Choy does this a lot and I'll definitely try to look some places up and find a realistic match in the future.

I admire Kiam's diligence; most kids his age usually get frustrated and give up if they don't understand something. I have a feeling that is why the chapter focused so much on Hell and religion; it took him 16 pages, but he finally felt like he understood what he didn't know before. He told his father he didn't need to go to Sunday school anymore: when he looked at things he saw Heaven instead of Hell. I am silently hoping that there isn't this many references to religion in future chapters.  The topic doesn't interest me as much as other things Choy has written about so far. I'll soon find out...

Critical Article Summary #3

The third and final critical article I found was written in the Globe & Mail by Mary Millar.

After nine years since his first novel, The Jade Peony, Wayson Choy comes back with his latest written work, All That Matters. He found out after he wrote The Jade Peony that his life isn't too much different from his main character's; he found out he was adopted just like the main character, Jung-Sum, was. This led him to write a memoir called Paper Shadows 5 years after the his first novel was published. Despite the cloud of lies and secrets, he still tried to find a clear answer to all of his new questions. This revelation caused him to think deeper and analyze things more often; these qualities influenced him when he began to write All That Matters. Since he is close to and can relate to the topic which he writes about, it makes his writing that more realistic. It almost feels like the reader is reading a non-fiction.

Even though both novels are set during the same time period (1926-1947) they both stand alone as two different novels: one is not a continuation of the other and it is not absolutely necessary to read one before the other either.

With the eldest child, Kiam-Kim, narrating the book the author is able to provide more knowledge on events that happen. A reader of The Jade Peony will learn more about an event that occurs in both books if they read All That Matters. The younger narrators from the first book were not able to describe and explain each event as clearly as Kiam-Kim can. All That Matters takes the reader all the way to the beginning of the Chen's arrival in Vancouver. The author is able to do so because Kiam-Kim was old enough to remember when he, his father, and grandmother moved to Gold Mountain. Choy perfectly conveys the counterpoint of influences between old China and new Canada. Old China is portrayed through the grandmother, Poh-Poh, while new Canada is shown through Kiam's father. The immense difference in culture- as Choy describes them as - allows the reader to wonder just how much stress and pressure Kiam is enduring. They are able to visualize Kiam being tied by two ropes, being pulled constantly back and forth to each of the cultures' sides.

The beauty of Wayson Choy's work is that the plot is moving forward, developing characters along the way; the plot can temporarily move back a few generations during Poh-Poh's storytelling, which creates a nice sense of history and depth for the reader.

Choy's combination of language, imagery, and brilliant themes leave the reader remembering the Chen family's story years after they have put the book down.


Millar, Mary. "Choy completes the square." Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada) 9 October 2004. Web: 27 October 2010. http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T004&prodId=IPS&docId=A123044243&source=gale&userGroupName=ko_k12hs_d21&version=1.0

Judging the book by its cover

I look at this book every day and it didn't occur to me until now to actually analyze and think deeper into not what was inside the book, but what was on the outside: the cover.

The cover consists of two butterflies, both slightly different in appearance. Looking even further, which also means I could also be further off, the butterfly that is made up of two different colours could potentially represent bilingualism or one being having more than one culture implemented in their life. While the solid coloured one could represent or a more monotonous cultured person, Poh-Poh and the Chinese elders for example. They believe in one culture: Old China.


The butterlies also look somewhat immobile; not in flight. They almost looked like they are pinned down, but not physically since there are no pins present, but mentally. This could symbolize Kiam and his younger siblings. As they are growing up in a completely different society than the one the older generation grew up in, there will be inevitable change. Butterflies change inevitably as well. But if they are pinned down, they cannot do anything with this new change. I think Kiam and his younger siblings may feel pinned down by the older generation's want to keep them close to their origin culture (Old China), even though they are a part of a new generation in a new place. They need to accept this change in order to be successful in Gold Mountain. What Poh-Poh and the other elders need to understand is that Gold Mountain isn't China, new places come with new experiences and change.


After quick research, I discovered that in Chinese culture two butterflies being together symbolize love; so does the colour red. It also represents a happy social life for the young. This might mean that all that matters is that you love and are loved in your life.
In the western world, the symbol of the butterfly stands for freedom, fun and joyous times. In other cultures it is known to symoblize luck. Connecting this knowledge to the title of the book, I can see that all that matters is freedom, love, and luck.

But generally, butterflies are a symbol of transformation. Kiam, the narrator, goes through a lot of change and transformation; it's an important theme in the novel. It symbolizes new life from the old one: Kiam is not the same person as he was at the beginning of the novel, and I am sure he will continue to evolve and transform through the rest of the book.