China Dog: And Other Tales from a Chinese Laundry

A chorus of immigrant voices populates Judy Fong Bates’s graceful and poignant first collection. Denizens of the ubiquitous small towns around Ontario, as far from their native land as can be imagined yet united by their proximity to the local Chinese laundry, her characters have in common their driving desire to assimilate, to fit in, to belong to a ＂majority＂ culture. But they are also people trapped by a certain cultural pride in confronting a world that may feign acceptance while at the same time reminding them that they are ＂other.＂ In the words of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Judy Fong Bates’s ＂deceptively simple narratives expose the hopes and hardships that define her characters’ lives.＂ Her graceful writing is full of compassion, insight, and honesty; it opens our eyes to the commonality of what it is to be human.

Judy Fong Bates came to Canada from China as a young child and grew up in several small Ontario towns. She is a writer, storyteller and teacher. Her stories have been broadcast on CBC radio and published in literary journals and anthologies. She has written for The Globe and Mail and The Washington Post. She is the author of the critically acclaimed short-story collection, China Dog and Other Stories, and the novel, Midnight at the Dragon Café, which was the Everybody Reads selection for Portland, Oregon, and an American Library Association Notable Book for 2006. Her family memoir, The Year of Finding Memory, was published in April 2010.