A Song for the Paper Children

Written by Christopher Tse

Plumleaf Press

978-1-7388-9828-2

52 pp.

Ages 9+

May 2024

 

 

A Song for the Paper Children
is a tribute to early Chinese immigrants, some of whom came to Canada after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to severely restrict their entry. These “paper children,” courageous men and women, endured legislated racism, financial hardship, and frequent acts of violence and discrimination, but they followed in the footsteps of their predecessors to lay the foundation for a Chinese Canadian community today that is vibrant, resilient, and here to stay.

 

 

With this preface, slam poetry artist Christopher Tse introduces the background for his poem and book about the stories of Chinese Canadians who endured and thrived under challenging circumstances of racism, economic hardship, exclusionary government policies and more. Christopher Tse tells their stories with admiration and respect, and makes it a true song, a composition of historical relevance.

From A Song for the Paper Children, by Christopher Tse

Christopher Tse's poem is a tribute to his own family. He remembers his Gung Gung (maternal grandfather) and relatives toiling in his Quebec restaurant, "his smile tired bright" (p. 12). How did they manage knowing that they were not wanted, that they were not meant to succeed or put down roots?

We were never meant to make home from ashes, 

to find kin from the masses. (p. 17)

From A Song for the Paper Children, by Christopher Tse

Peppering his poem with photographs of people and documents as well as drawings, Christopher Tse instills a gravitas to his works which are already deeply evocative of time and place. Surprisingly, much of it comes from asking questions. How did they feel? What did they think? What was the cost? Are they heard now? Christopher Tse makes the reader think and feel. It is the feeling of heartbreak for mistreatment and abuses, of awe for resilience and endurance, and of astonishment that these stories happened.

From A Song for the Paper Children, by Christopher Tse

There is hurting in much of A Song for the Paper Children but that hurting is always bonded to courage and tenacity. From generations who witnessed anti-Asian signage to families destroyed by exclusionary practices like the Chinese Head Tax and the Chinese Immigration Act, there has been discrimination against and negation of their contributions  by virtue of their heritage alone. With A Song for the Paper Children, Christopher Tse gives voice of empowerment through his recognition of Chinese Canadians past and present and applauds them.

From A Song for the Paper Children, by Christopher Tse

I hope that there will be an opportunity for Christopher Tse to record a performance of A Song for the Paper Children. There is an obvious emphasis or tone to his poem that is evident in the choice of font and colour as well as placement of text, but I suspect that the cadence of a performance would be compelling. For his words and their stories to come together in one dynamic presentation would be another step forward towards reconciliation.

To This Day: For the Bullied and the Beautiful

Written by Shane Koyczan

Annick Press

9781554516391

72 pp.

Ages 9+

For release September 2014

When Canadian spoken word artist Shane Koyczan wrote and performed his poem To This Day, about his experiences and those of others being bullied when younger, he probably could not have foreseen the truly amazing global impact that it would have. But global it did become when his performance of the poem was animated in a video posted to his YouTube channel as part of the To This Day Project in February 2013.  Over 14 million views later, To This Day continues to send an important message of anti-bullying.

This month, Annick Press releases a static version of Shane Koyczan's poem with double-page spread illustrations by thirty international artists, over half Canadian. In a variety of media and styles, artists interpreted the words from the poem To This Day, providing graphic substance to a poem as real and tangible as it could get.

For anyone who has experienced bullying, as a victim, an instigator, or an observer (and sadly, that probably means everyone), To This Day will resonate loudly with the tales of Shane Koyczan's experiences with bullying, as well as those of other children. From French artist Barroux's powerful image of hands flinging blackened speech bubbles at a boy attempting to protect his face, ears, and eyes from them, to Canadian Kim Stewart's waves of sleeping forms over which the bullying victim cautiously treads upon a tightrope, all the illustrations pound out the viciousness of bullying and juxtapose it against the frosting that could be love and kindness.  A full listing of the artists' bios is available at www.annickpress.com/To-This-Day for more details.

In addition to the graphic representation of the poem, To This Day includes the story behind the development of the video, resources for help against bullying, links to sites related to the poem and personal anecdotes of bullying experiences of the artists.

If you are left with only one message, take this one from Shane Koyczan from his introduction, i.e., Greetings, in which he encourages everyone to find the perfect medium to express yourself.

"Remember that the world will never hear you if you choose to say nothing." (pg. 1)