Paper Sons and Daughters
Paper Sons and Daughters
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Summary
Ufrieda Ho's compelling memoir describes with intimate detail what it was like to come of age in the marginalized Chinese community of Johannesburg during the apartheid era of the 1970s and 1980s.
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Paper Sons and Daughters by Ufrieda Ho
Ufrieda Ho's compelling memoir describes with intimate detail what it was like to come of age in the marginalized Chinese community of Johannesburg during the apartheid era of the 1970s and 1980s.
“Paper Sons echoes the domestic realism in Amy Tan’s best-selling The Joy Luck Club; we taste the food and we are educated in all things Chinese such as the observance of ritualsFor the Ho family, the strong adherence to ancient traditions gives meaning and comfort when the silence of stigma proves too oppressive.” * Words Etc *
“In the years since apartheid ended, many of South Africa’s formerly hidden histories are being uncovered. These are the stories of communities who were forced to evade the public gaze; living lives, in Ufrieda Ho’s words, of ‘shadows and scars’. In Paper Sons and Daughters, Ho unfolds the story of her family and, more broadly, of the Chinese community in South Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century. It’s a deeply moving narrative, filled with love, pain and a delicate wistfulness.”
“The best writing is personal and this story does just that, telling the tale of growing up of Chinese, not welcomed but tolerated in officially white areas. But for all the political headlines, this book is also humorously personal.” * Business Day *
“The prose that leaps off the pages of Paper Sons and Daughters is vivid. It turns on sad generational stories lived through tradition and superstition. It plays on the hardship of the family who came to South Africa as stowaways in the 1950s, in order to forge new identities with the false papers that bought them new names…. Its immense rewards include the surprises, and the colour with which she paints the life of a family choosing to fly beneath the radar of apartheid’s madness, without complaint. Such insularity was typical of the Chinese community, the target of Orientalism in a racist state.” * Sunday Independent Review *
“Ufrieda Ho is a Chinese woman first and a journalist second. Combining her heritage and a love of words, she has written a powerful and lyrical memoir of her family’s experience in South Africa, which makes her first book a fascinating read.” * The [Natal] Witness *
“In the years since apartheid ended, many of South Africa’s formerly hidden histories are being uncovered. These are the stories of communities who were forced to evade the public gaze; living lives, in Ufrieda Ho’s words, of ‘shadows and scars’. In Paper Sons and Daughters, Ho unfolds the story of her family and, more broadly, of the Chinese community in South Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century. It’s a deeply moving narrative, filled with love, pain and a delicate wistfulness.”
“The best writing is personal and this story does just that, telling the tale of growing up of Chinese, not welcomed but tolerated in officially white areas. But for all the political headlines, this book is also humorously personal.” * Business Day *
“The prose that leaps off the pages of Paper Sons and Daughters is vivid. It turns on sad generational stories lived through tradition and superstition. It plays on the hardship of the family who came to South Africa as stowaways in the 1950s, in order to forge new identities with the false papers that bought them new names…. Its immense rewards include the surprises, and the colour with which she paints the life of a family choosing to fly beneath the radar of apartheid’s madness, without complaint. Such insularity was typical of the Chinese community, the target of Orientalism in a racist state.” * Sunday Independent Review *
“Ufrieda Ho is a Chinese woman first and a journalist second. Combining her heritage and a love of words, she has written a powerful and lyrical memoir of her family’s experience in South Africa, which makes her first book a fascinating read.” * The [Natal] Witness *
Ufrieda Ho is an award-winning journalist and one of the daughters of Ho Sing Kee. In this wonderfully textured memoir she explores her family's history and arrival in South Africa. Ufrieda describes growing up with her siblings in a world in which she is too white for some and too black for others, and the question of "who belongs" haunts this evocative account.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780821420201 |
| ISBN 10 | 0821420208 |
| Title | Paper Sons and Daughters |
| Author | Ufrieda Ho |
| Series | Modern African Writing |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Ohio University Press |
| Year published | 2012-07-04 |
| Number of pages | 248 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |