The writer Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho discusses her debut memoir The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street (Douglas & McIntyre, 2026), with Joseph Planta.
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The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street by Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho (Douglas & McIntyre, 2026).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street [1] |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
One of the best reads of the season, of the year frankly, is the debut memoir of Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho, The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street. In the book, she recounts coming to Canada with her parents and her four siblings. She’s the youngest of the children and it’s through her eyes we see what it was like for this young family from Taiwan to settle in Vancouver in the early 1980s. It’s a different sort of city then as now, but it’s still familiar to a lot of us. The political situation in Taiwan is what brings Wiley’s family here, and once here, it’s economic pressures, as well as social ones that precipitate Wiley’s parents returning to Taiwan, while the children stayed here. The book reflects the isolation that the family faces in Canada, racism of course, as well as the economic reality as Wiley’s father, a doctor, couldn’t practice here, while her mother, who ran the family hospital in Taiwan, was at home most of the time, unable to converse with the neighbours. And what might have been a few years, turns into a prolonged absence. Sure, her parents come back to visit, but by the time she’s out of university herself, the parents never really come back. In fact, three of Wiley’s sisters, get their education and then go back to Taiwan to get married. Not Wiley, and this opens another part of the memoir where there’s friction between Wiley’s independence, her parenting choices, and her mother’s insistence that she find a husband preferably one she’s suggested. It’s such an engaging book, that features many family dramas, but also a lot of laughs. I enjoyed the book a lot. Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho has published short stories and personal essays in PRISM International, Ricepaper Magazine, River Teeth, Room, and several anthologies. She was a finalist for the 2021 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award. The book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. She joined me from North Vancouver last week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho; Ms. Ho, good morning.
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