The Dream of Gold Mountain

Elizabeth St. Jacques is a writer and poet living in Sault Ste. Marie,
Ontario.

Readers may wonder if authors from two very different cultures—Huffman
from England and Kwong from Hong Kong—can effectively pull off a
fiction-based-on-fact story about the life of a Chinese immigrant in
Canada. Although both authors are immigrants now living in Manitoba, and
Huffman is described as “an enthusiastic student of history and ethnic
cultures,” I wondered if enthusiasm would be enough to hold the
reader. A pleasant surprise: this story not only holds but seizes the
heartstrings and won’t let go.

The story opens in Winnipeg, where the central character, Yee Chang
Gong, a tired, old, “transplanted but not changed” Chinese
gentleman, begins to reminisce, with a group of older Chinese men and
his lifelong friend Lo Gim, about their lives since arriving in Canada
at the turn of the century. Not unlike other Chinese youngsters of that
era, Chang Gong was just a boy when called to Gold Mountain (Canada) to
work in a laundry owned by his father, whom he has never met. When the
boy, almost immediately, faces a heart-wrenching crisis that forces him
to abruptly relinquish his childhood, the reader is securely hooked.

As the story unfolds, crisis follows crisis, the hardships intensifying
as Chang Gong and Lo Gim try to eke out a meagre living in a strange,
primarily British environment where poverty, cultural isolation,
loneliness, bad luck, and discrimination (including by the government)
are their daily companions.

The authors move us smoothly through this highly emotional story via
flashbacks, realistic dialogue, colorful and vivid descriptions, and
extremely believable characters. Despite the despair that flows through
these pages, bits of humor with small dreams along the way temporarily
ease the heavy load these characters carry, and provide some relief from
the overall darkness of this only-too-real story.

The customs and beliefs of the Chinese, their quiet endurance and
bravery, are given an authentic voice through Kwong, while the struggles
and spirit of these strong, gracious people, who are not given to
discussing their burdens with the outside world, are brought to light
through Huffman’s sensitive input. Beautifully written, this is a book
you won’t want to put down.