by Kerry Young
Michael just sit there and look at me kindly like him taking confession. And then I say, ‘I get a letter from Mui. She going come home. She done with all the excitement of them big important cases that keeping her busy this last little while and she say it time she come home and make herself useful. After all these years, eh? Anyway, I thought you would want to know if she not already tell you herself, that is.’
And right then I think to myself I glad I keep the knife and little notebook for her. Maybe when she come home she can decide what she want to do ’bout Helena Meacham.
42
Weaknesses and Strengths
Sun Tzu say, ‘ Of the five elements, none is always predominant; of the four seasons, none lasts for ever; of the days, some are long and some are short; and the moon waxes and wanes .’
Gloria decide she going have a party for the baby. It nuh make no sense to me but she say, ‘So what, we can’t have a party to celebrate our granddaughter’s birthday?’ And I just agree to go along with it even though I can’t see how a little thing like that going know the party for her, and we going have all these grown people just standing ’round the place with a piece of cake and bowl of ice cream in their hand. But that is what Gloria want. And maybe I feel like I have something to celebrate as well because since Miss Cicely go leave us the supermarkets and wholesalers and such, and since we get the vacation and cosmetics business on a right footing, we legal now. We completely legitimate. No more driving chickens and cigarettes ’round town. In fact I can’t even remember the last time I go over the Blue Lagoon.
We have the party up in the house in Ocho Rios and in truth I don’t think Gloria is celebrating the baby at all. I think she celebrating a new life. A new life for me and her. Maybe the life we should have had all along.
Everybody come up to the coast. Finley and his wife, Hampton and Ethyl, Clifton, Merleen Chin and John Morrison, George and Margaret, Milton, Marcia and the two other girls from Gloria’s East Kingston house. Even Margy Lopez show up with some woman we none of us ever see before. And then we have the guests of honour, Esther, Rajinder and baby Sunita. It was family.
I stand on the veranda and look out at the calm, blue Caribbean and I think how glad I was that I manage to sort out that wharf thing with DeFreitas and how only last week I tell Gloria ’bout the arrangements I make for her and Esther if anything should happen to me, and she just laugh and slap me on the arm and say, ‘What going happen to you?’
And then I realise that I wouldn’t complain if I happen to drop down dead right there. I start picture the whole thing, how they take me to the hospital and start go through my pockets. A pocket-knife with two blades and a bottle opener, a cigar packet with three Flor de Farach Farachitos, two wads of notes – Jamaican dollars and US dollars – some wooden toothpicks in a silver container, and a black leather photo wallet with the figure of a crane under a pine tree engrave on it, and inside a photograph of Mui in her barrister wig and gown and opposite it one of me sitting down holding baby Mui, and Xiuquan standing next to the chair.
I think about my life and how hard I tried to find something to believe in. Something that would mean something to me, like how Zhang had his stories of China and the masses throwing out the foreigners and making a life of their own. Like how Mr Manley say, Jamaicans had to make an identity, and dignity and destiny for ourselves. But it wasn’t the same for everybody. Like Gloria was always telling me, not everybody had their sights set on building a nation. Some people just wanted to put food on the table. And I suppose that was me as well because even though I talk Zhang’s high ideals I was still busy just making money and fixing any problem that anybody wanted to bring to me. I try hard to believe that out of many we could be one people, but when the shooting start I couldn’t make up my mind to go get myself killed over it. Not like my father did in China.
But like Zhang was always telling me, everything got consequences. Everything you do or don’t do is connected to everything else. So any time you do something you making another thing that will be waiting for you ’round the corner. And then I start wonder if Michael is right ’bout God and all of that, and how the Almighty is fixing to punish me for all the things I done.
Gloria come out on the veranda and stand next to me and we listen to the gentle lap of the Caribbean on the shore. She got a smile of contentment on her face. And then she reach out and take my hand and look off into the distance where she tell me, on a clear day, she can see Cuba. I think well, out of the many Sunita is the one so maybe I make a contribution after all. I can hear a commotion inside and Michael’s voice greeting everybody.
And then I think ’bout Mui coming home after this long time. And I think if I drop down dead right now that is the only thing it would grieve me to miss. And then I think no, I would miss that I never find a way to have nothing with Karl even though him and me exchange a few lines from time to time. And I would miss the possibility that me and Fay ever cross paths again.
That is when I realise that I not dead yet, so maybe it not all lost. And I remember how Zhang rest his palm flat on my chest one time and say to me, ‘Everything is in your own heart.’
Author’s Note
Han Suyin once wrote that we Chinese are history-minded. And as the world knows, we Jamaicans are politics-minded. Perhaps it is no surprise, therefore, that this book, my first work of fiction, should turn out to be a political history. Not only because every story has a context, but also because context creates the possibilities of what might be, fashioning the circumstances of people’s lives so that they decide to do one thing rather than another, making their story unfold in this way rather than that.
So whilst Pao’s story is completely fictional, I have tried my best to get the context right. This has involved a huge amount of research including books, films, the internet, as well as several trips to Jamaica and endless questions and queries to my mother and other members of my family. The key documentary sources are listed on page 275.
In the end though, in true Taoist style, Pao is a book about Jamaica’s history, and it is not a book about Jamaica’s history. It is a book about Jamaican people and it is not a book about Jamaican people. What it is, is a book about the world, and the universe and the ten thousand things.
Kerry Young, June 2010
Acknowledgements
When this book was submitted to Bloomsbury, Helen Garnons-Williams remarked that it had the potential to be truly wonderful. If it has achieved that potential, it is because of her. Thanks also to Sarah-Jane Forder for her meticulous and sensitive work. I had no idea copy-editing would be so much fun. Erica Jarnes for taking charge of the things I found scary and for keeping me on track through the process. My agent, Susan Yearwood, without whom Pao would not have found his way to Helen. And to Amanda and Charlie, and all those who helped to make the impossible possible, and who cheered me on over the years, thank you.
Key Sources
Black, Stephanie, Life and Debt in Jamaica , Tuff Gong Pictures, 2001
Chen, Ray, The Shopkeepers: Commemorating 150 years of the Chinese in Jamaica 1854-2004 , Periwinkle Publishers (Jamaica) Ltd, 2005
Han, Suyin, The Crippled Tree , Panther Books Ltd, 1972
Jian Bozan, Shao Xunzheng and Hu Hua, A Concise History of China , Foreign Languages Press, 1986
Manley, Beverley, The Manley Memoirs , Ian Randle Publishers, 2008
Manley, Michael, Jamaica: Struggle in the Periphery , Third World Media Ltd in association with Writers and Readers Publishing Co-operative Society Ltd, 1982
Nhat Hanh, Thich, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching , Broadway Books, 1999
Nhat Hanh, Thich, The Art of Power , HarperOne, 2008
Pan, Lynn, Sons of the Yellow Emperor: A History of the Chinese Diaspora , Kodansha America, Inc., 1994
Powell, Patricia, The Pagoda , Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999
Rogozinski, Jan, A Brief History of the Caribbean , Meridian, 1994
Salaria, Fatima, Blood and Fire ,
screened Sunday 4 August 2002 on BBC 2
Sherlock, Philip and Bennett, Hazel, The Story of the Jamaican People , Ian Randle Publishers, 1998
Sun Tzu, The Art of War , translated by Samuel B. Griffith, Oxford University Press, 1971
The Gleaner, Geography & History of Jamaica (23rd edition), The Gleaner Company, 1995
Van De Wetering, Janwillem, The Empty Mirror , Arkana, 1987
Williams, C.A.S., Outlines of Chinese Symbolism and Art Forms (3rd revised edition), Dover Publications, Inc., 1976
Reading Group
Pao
by Kerry Young
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group’s conversation about Pao , a sweeping historical saga about a young Chinese man in Jamaica who rises to become the “godfather” of Kingston’s Chinatown.
About this book
Pao is about to marry the wrong woman. Seven years after he immigrates to Jamaica from China, he meets Gloria, a beautiful Jamaican prostitute who steals his heart. But Pao’s beloved mentor, Zhang, from whom he inherited the Chinatown “family business,” does not approve of Gloria. So Pao decides to marry Fay Wong, the elegant daughter of one of Kingston’s richest Chinese men. Suddenly Pao is running not only the Chinatown underworld, but also many legitimate businesses too, thanks to his profitable marriage.
But Fay is miserable in Chinatown; she plots an escape to England, taking her two children with her. Although Pao is devastated to lose his family, he realizes that his children are safer far away from Kingston-after Jamaica gains independence from England, all hopes of unity and brotherhood soon dissolve into violence. As chaos overtakes the streets of Kingston, Pao must face his part in Jamaica’s struggle to overcome its great divides: between Chinese and African, capitalist and communist, wealthy and poor.
For discussion
1. The novel begins in 1945, when Pao first meets Gloria, then flashes back to his immigration to Jamaica seven years earlier. Why does the novel open with the love triangle of Pao, Gloria, and Fay, instead of at the beginning of Pao’s life in Kingston?
2. Pao is written in dialect, with words spelled as Pao pronounces them. What is the effect of reading the novel in Pao’s voice? What would the novel be like without Pao’s distinctive voice as narrator?
3. Consider Pao’s first impressions of Jamaica as he arrives from China by boat. How does the city of Kingston look to Pao? How does he quickly make Kingston his home?
4. When Pao falls in love with Gloria, Judge Finley tells him, “Marriage is not for celebrating. It is something you do to give your children a name” (6). Why does Pao choose to marry Fay Wong, and what price does he pay for his choice? How does he eventually reconnect with Gloria’s daughter, Esther, even though he has not given her his name?
5. Compare the two Yang brothers, Pao and Xiuquan. How are the brothers similar and how are they different? Xiuquan declares, “I want something better. Something better than being a Chinaman in Chinatown” (45). Does Pao, too, want something better? Explain.
6. Consider Pao’s inheritance from Zhang. What does Pao learn from the older man? Pao hopes that “maybe one day I become like him, a man that believe in something. A man that is loyal to a cause. A man that people can count on” (51). How does Pao grow up to become like Zhang, and how does he remain different from his mentor?
7. Discuss the impact of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War on Pao’s decision making. How does he put Sun Tzu’s strategies to action? At the end of the novel, Pao realizes, “And then I think to myself sure enough Sun Tzu right ’bout all these things, but maybe life not just a matter of strategy… Something that got more to do with what Zhang say ’bout benevolence and sincerity, humanity and courage” (262). How does Pao strike a balance between Sun Tzu’s teachings and Zhang’s principles?
8. According to Zhang, “the Jamaicans same as the Chinese, poor and exploited and oppressed” (30). If the Jamaicans and Chinese are “brothers in arms,” as Zhang believes, why are there tensions between these two groups? How does Pao strive to overcome the ethnic tensions of Kingston, and when does he fail?
9. Discuss the ongoing conflict between Fay and her mother, Miss Cicely. How does Miss Cicely treat her daughter? Why does Fay rebel against her mother, even as an adult? What are the origins of their dispute, and why are they unable to resolve it?
10. Pao narrates, “When Michael Manley win the general election in 1972 I celebrate more than I done for Independence ten years earlier, because this time it really seem to mean something” (200). Why is Pao skeptical of the 1962 celebrations of independence from England? Why is he more interested in politics in the 1970s? Does Pao do his part to improve the living conditions of all Jamaicans? Why or why not?
11. Discuss Father Michael’s involvement in Pao’s life. What is the basis of the friendship between these very different men? What attracts Father Michael to Fay, and what price does Father Michael pay for his temptation?
12. Consider Fay’s escape to England. How does Pao react to his family’s disappearance? What steps does he take to get his children back, and how does he realize that they are better off in England than in Jamaica?
13. When Pao arrives from China as a boy, he becomes Philip Young; when his son Xiuquan settles in England, Pao agrees to call him Karl. What is the significance of these name changes?
14. Consider the long rivalry between Pao and Louis DeFreitas, the gangster who controls West Kingston. How do these two powerful men conduct business differently? How do Samuels and Kenneth Wong fall victim to the gang war? How do Pao and DeFreitas finally resolve their rivalry?
15. Kerry Young, the author of Pao , moved from Jamaica to England in 1965, much like Pao’s daughter Mui. How does Young portray Mui in the novel? Why does Mui remain attached to her father and to Jamaica, even as a barrister in England? The novel ends just before Mui’s homecoming to Jamaica. How does this ending feel?
Suggested reading
Cristina García, Monkey Hunting ; Ha Jin, Waiting ; Anchee Min, Pearl of China ; Jean Kwok, Girl in Translation ; Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker ; Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ; Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John ; Julia Alvarez, In the Time of Butterflies ; Lisa See, Shanghai Girls ; Henry Chang, Chinatown Beat ; Beverley Manley, The Manley Memoirs ; Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Kerry Young
Kerry Young was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Chinese-African mother and a Chinese father, a businessman in Kingston’s shadow economy who provided inspiration for Pao. Young moved to England in 1965 at the age of ten. She earned her MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University. This is her first novel.
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