Assignment Paper

Wayson Choy’s Paper Shadows (excerpt in Fetherling)
Evelyn Lau’s Runaway (novel)
Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family (excerpt in Fetherling)
Highlight 3-4 quotations from each of the readings. Look for examples that relate to the questions — and possibly quotations that you found memorable. And
write them down .
(1) Compare Choy’s image of Vancouver in war-time 1940’s to Lau’s suburban/urban perspectives in the late 1980’s.
Use specific examples (cited quotations) from the memoirs.
Identify 1-3 differences/similarities in how each author describes the landscape (streets, buildings, etc)
(2) Choy often speaks of different kinds of ghosts in his memoir and the ways in which the ghosts haunted his childhood: “I took for granted that the Keefer
house had a kwei, a ghost, that had provoked father to turn into a demon” (Choy; as cited in Fetherling, 2001, p. 474).
Discuss Choy’s use of “hauntings” and ghost stories in his memoir and why ghost stories were so important to him.
Include 1-2 quotations from Choy
In what way is Lau also “haunted” in her memoir? Give examples.