Chinada: Memoirs of the Gang of Seven

Lydia Burton was an editor and writer living in Toronto, and was co-author of Editing Canadian English.

The seven of the title were Gary Geddes, Geoff Hancock, Robert Kroetsch, Patrick Lane, Alice Munro, Suzanne Paradis, and Adele Wiseman. They were guests, in China, of the Chinese Writers’ Association, to which the book is dedicated.

This volume is a compendium of free association about the impressions, thoughts, and feelings of these Canadian writers on this self-proclaimed “historic moment in the cultural life of both countries.” Unfortunately, the importance of this kind of event is weakly reflected in the material. Since tremulous solipsism does not necessarily make good literature or perceptive sociology, it might have been better to let these journal or diary-like entries remain a private source of future inspiration, rather than a public expression of present in-adequacy. As well, the flippant subtitle, which is a play on an event that was extremely traumatic for the Chinese, can only be considered in bad taste.

However, the poetry by Lane and Paradis is good, as are the poems (translated) by Chinese writers. Kroetsch, as always, writes compellingly; Wiseman (who had been to the edge of China 20 years ago) raises some important issues. She discusses briefly (p. 113) the problems of the writer in a collectivist vs. an individualistic society, art for the public vs. art for the elite, the coping mechanisms required to produce literary works for thousands of readers and critics (in China) vs. those of perpetually producing for small audiences (in Canada). These are valuable and legitimate issues, but the format of this volume prevents Wiseman from exploring them. Giving them an honorable mention merely elevates the reader’s frustration.

A critic evaluating a film once suggested that excessive navel-gazing can produce severe backache. Chinada is a good example of this effect. Mentioning the interest of “Pat” and “Gary” in translating more Chinese poetry and learning more about what the Chinese are writing (p. 115) is not stimulating commentary. The story of this sociocultural visit might have been more aptly and cogently organized into a newspaper or magazine article, where it might have reached — and informed — a larger number of readers. As it is now, the material suffers from too much breathless I-can’t-believe-I-am-here wonderment that tells us too little about China and its writers and more than we need to know about the Canadian writer as tourist.