The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy Book Analysis

The desire to adapt and flourish in a western country is something that many crave. But truth be told, with great change comes a great amount of struggles. To fit in with society means to strip yourself of your identity and to put on a facade. The melancholic pain of old memories remains within your heart. Almost as if your home and culture have grabbed onto you, not wanting to let you go. There is an eternal conflict against yourself at all times, whether your reason to leave your country was substantial or not. New faces, new culture, and a new way of living. Your culture is the base of your identity as a human being, and to have to strip yourself of it to fit in means you are removing a key part of it. As if removing the bottom of a skyscraper, eventually it will all come crashing down. But unfortunately, in the short story, Jade Peony by Wayson Choy this plague has spread throughout most of Sek-Lung’s family. He and his grandmother were among the few family members who stayed connected with their culture and long passed memories. As his family drifted away to western culture, and Sek-Lung’s grandmother grew sicker each day and eventually passed away, he remained to be the only one who was left unexposed to the outside western world, and the only one deeply connected to his heritage and culture. After understanding the deeper meaning of this incredibly emotional and relatable story, I did take quite a bit of time to decide how I would best express the deep symbolic meanings found within it. I enjoy drawing. I always have, and for me, it’s easier to express my true emotions and thoughts through colors, lines, and shapes. Although this story’s feelings were difficult to capture in a piece of art, I was able to execute the piece exactly how I had envisioned it. This sketch’s basis is the Temple in the center. I decided to draw a traditional Chinese temple. More specifically a Buddhist temple since Buddhism is one of China’s most common religions. Ordinarily, these Chinese temples are covered in vivid shades of red. The color red in China represents good fortune and joy, thus why it plays such an important role in their culture. Though in my drawing, the temple is colored in many shades of warm and cool greys. This was done to represent how the family’s traditional values and culture are slowly fading away from them. The grey temple looks familiar but somehow different in an unsettling way. As if returning to a childhood neighborhood but seeing it fully abandoned. It gives the viewer a sense of nostalgia with subtle hints of grief and guilt. Around the sketch of the temple are sparkling jade peonies. The jade peony that was given to Sek-Lung by his grandmother represents her trust and love for him, and it is a piece of their culture he may cherish and hold onto. Although the temple represents a faded sense of culture and heritage, the jade peonies being around the temple represent how Sek-Lung and his grandmother are the ones protecting this delicate, and faded connection to the family’s homeland. Furthermore, underneath the sketch, I have written a phrase in Mandarin with the translation beneath. “Her memory still remains” would refer to their late grandmother who was one of the family’s only connections to their heritage. Underneath the text, there is a pink cat’s eye. This is the eye of the pale circus man with who their grandmother had fallen in love. It represents his watch over her family. I feel that this piece of artwork truly speaks to me. I am able to notice other smaller details in the drawing every time I carefully study it which could further add symbolic meaning to the piece.