The Concubine's Children: The Story of a Chinese Family Living On Two Sides Of The Globe

"Carefully balancing cool observation and compassion, Chong writes extraordinary history and gives voice to the Chinese immigrant experience."—ALA Booklist.

Biographies & Memoirs

Chong, Denise

Community & Culture

Penguin Canada

The Concubine's Children

Finalist for the 2000 Governor General’s Award By the author of the award-winning memoir The Concubine’s Children On June 8, 1972, a nine-year-old girl, severely burned by napalm, ran from a misplaced air strike over her village in South Vietnam and into the eye of history. Her photograph—one of the most unforgettable images of the war and of the twentieth century—was seen around the world. The Girl in the Picture is at once a riveting personal story about Kim Phuc, a victim of war and later, under the Communist regime, a tool of propaganda, and a groundbreaking social history that offers a rare view of everyday life in Vietnam both during and after the war.

Girl In The Picture

Penguin Canadian Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Penguin??Books

On June 8, 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her blazing village in South Vietnam and into the eye of history. Her photograph-one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century-was seen around the world and helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War. This book is the story of how that photograph came to be-and the story of what happened to that girl after the camera shutter closed. Award-winning biographer Denise Chong's portrait of Kim Phuc-who eventually defected to Canada and is now a UNESCO spokesperson-is a rare look at the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese point-of-view and one of the only books to describe everyday life in the wake of this war and to probe its lingering effects on all its participants.

The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Penguin Publishing Group

Finalist for the 1994 Governor General’s Award The Concubine’s Children is the story of a family cleaved in two for the sake of a father’s dream. There’s Chan Sam, who left an "at home" wife in China to earn a living in "Gold Mountain"—North America. There’s May-ying, the wilful, seventeen-year-old concubine he bought, sight unseen, who labored in tea houses of west coast Chinatowns to support the family he would have in Canada, and the one he had in China. It was the concubine’s third daughter, the author’s mother, who unlocked the past for her daughter, whose curiosity about some old photographs ultimately reunited a family divided for most of the last century.

Concubines Children

Girl in the Picture

The Concubine's Children is the story of a family cleaved in two for the sake of a father’s dream. In 1913, Chan Sam left an “at home” wife in China to earn a living in “Gold Mountain.” Eleven years later, May-ying, the wilful, seventeen-year-old concubine he bought, sight unseen, travels to join him where she labors in tea houses of west coast Chinatowns to support the family in Canada, and the one in China. It was the concubine’s third daughter, the author’s mother, who unlocked the past for her daughter whose curiosity about some old photographs ultimately reunited a family divided for most of the last century. Heartfelt and beautifully written, The Concubine's Children is an inspiring story of the sacrifice that tore a family apart and the love that bound them back together.

The Concubine's Children: The Story Of A Family Living On Two Sides Of The Globe

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Books by Chong, Denise