Lindsay Wong reads from The Woo-Woo
The Cinematheque
1131 Howe St. Vancouver.
Doors open at 5:30pm. Presentation by Lindsay Wong starts at 5:45pm, followed by an audience Q&A.
The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and my Crazy Chinese Family
Written by Lindsay Wong
In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family who blame their woes on ghosts and demons when they should really be on anti-psychotic meds.
Lindsay Wong grew up with a grandmother who has paranoid schizophrenia and a mother who was deeply afraid of the “woo-woo” — Chinese ghosts who come to visit in times of personal turmoil. From a young age, she witnessed the woo-woo’s sinister effects; when she was six, Lindsay and her mother avoided the dead people haunting their house by hiding out in a mall food court, and on a camping trip, in an effort to rid her daughter of demons, her mother tried to light Lindsay’s foot on fire.
The eccentricities take a dark turn, however, and when Lindsay starts to experience symptoms of the woo-woo herself, she wonders whether she will suffer the same fate as her family.
At once a witty and touching memoir about the Asian immigrant experience and a harrowing and honest depiction of the vagaries of mental illness, The Woo-Woo is a gut-wrenching and beguiling manual for surviving family, and oneself.
About the author:
Lindsay Wong holds a BFA in Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia and a MFA in Literary Nonfiction from Columbia University in New York City.
Her debut memoir, The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug-Raids, Demons, And My Crazy Chinese Family won the Hubert-Evans Nonfiction Prize in 2019. It was also shortlisted for the 2018 Hilary Weston Prize, 2019 Canada Reads, and long-listed for the 2019 Stephen Leacock Medal in Humour.
Her YA novel, The Summer I Learned Chinese is forthcoming from Simon Pulse in 2020.
Wong resides in East Vancouver.
Additional details about tonight’s event:
A reminder: Attendance is free but please RSVP below by September 16, 2019.
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