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Betty Warrington-Kearsley
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High school English teachers will welcome this book
of poems spanning a Chinese childhood (in Singapore) and a Canadian
present, with some Japanese images slipping in between. Betty
Warrington-Kearsley draws her childhood images of markets,
apothecary shops, tea-merchants so clearly that you can almost smell
and taste the produce. Her Chinese scenes and legends, oddly enough,
blend in quite smoothly with her Canadian landscapes. Chinese
stories, a Zen legend, Canadian obituaries all sit contentedly
side-by-side, while the rites of passage—births, marriages and
deaths, rooted in her Chinese tradition are liberated from
traditional ways of thinking about them, by her mixed upbringing.
She respects and questions her inheritance, both at the same time,
as in her witty poem, “Family Menagerie.” As her father pointed out
“You are not Eurasian. You are not half anything. You have inherited
the best of both cultures.” These accessible poems show clearly this
double inheritance. Red Lacquered Chopsticks would be useful
in classes in which the students are from many cultural backgrounds.
—
Naomi Wakan

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