Hui Gui, A Chinese Sory
by Elsie Sze
BTS, $129
Fact and fiction are closely interwoven in Hui Gui - A Chinese Story. The lives of Hong Kong policeman Lee Tak-sing and his family are driven by the well-known incidents of modern Chinese social and political history in Canadian Chinese author Elsie Sze's first novel.
Although fictional, the style is documentary in the manner of Wild Swans, the epic true-life saga of Jung Chang and her family.
Tak-sing starts the story in the form of a book written for his daughter, Serena, on the occasion of her birth in 1960. As a refugee whose past lies shattered by war and revolution, he wants to leave a record so his child can know her roots.
His is a touching story. He was born into privilege, the son of a Guangdong landowner. Serena's grandfather was the best of his kind, a loving husband and father, considerate to his tenants and so good to his servants that their children grew up with his as brothers.
