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Forward
Coming from a storytelling family, Ms. Chong. has combined her naturally acquired gift to tell a good story with her vast store of world experience,
raising pertinent social and cultural issues in a subtle, poignant manner.
Stories for My Mother is written with distinct Asian sensibility. Through her own experience, Ms. Chong discusses the pressures surrounding the
preoccupation about children being achievers no matter what the cost, or more humorously, how Mother Nature helped her pronounce her "r's".
Nevertheless, she can just as easily relate lessons learned from an American woman suffering from terminal breast cancer. It is this ability to convey
both an Eastern and Western sensibility that makes Ms. Chong's stories unique.
Ms. Chong does not hesitate to talk about difficult and controversial subjects—female circumcision, infanticide, prostitution, child abuse—topics we
would rather not contemplate. much less discuss. Her intention in broaching sensitive matters is not to criticize or judge but to create awareness.
Ms. Chong's ardent readers arc not surprised that women's issues arc close to her heart. Not surprising indeed when we consider that much of her
professional career involves development programs for women where she has seen first hand the most appalling practices that arc silently condoned.
There are never any easy answers, like when a young Filipino argues why she chooses to remain a sex worker instead of entering a cottage industry.
Her argument provides a perspective that takes us deeper into the complexities surrounding the issue of prostitution that transcends borders and
cultures. Gender and social issues quite simply are universal issues.
Then there are all the other issues that cover a multitude of experiences and touch on everything from the evolving cycle of life, cross-cultural
differences, to the intimacy of community. Ms. Chong shares with us the trauma and anguish of motherhood, and finally and appropriately, she
dedicates her last stories to our children, our future.
With one foot in the West , one foot in the Middle East, and her heart in Asia, Ms. Chong recounts the humorous and the misunderstood aspects of
her cultural experiences. In relating her experiences, Ms. Chong writes with informed grace across ethnic, cultural and language lines. The story entitled
"For the Joy of Dancing" is delightful reading. She acknowledges that we are not one big world family, but that the differences among our races,
nationalities, cultures, creeds and histories are at least as profound and as durable as the similarities.
CYNTHIA YOUNG
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Malaysian
Voices 