Becoming by Returning Home in The Wondrous Woo

Abstract

In Carrianne K. Y. Leung’s novel The Wondrous Woo, the 1.5 generation – those who were born elsewhere but came to Canada at an early age – represent the challenge of becoming through returning “home.” The uneasy marriage of becoming and homecoming that runs through the novel is decisively realistic. Woo blends elements of magic with realism only to reject romanticized rhetoric and advocate for the urgency of truth-telling and social empowerment. By juxtaposing different stories of becoming with various forms of homeward struggles, the novel gives expression to the transgenerational traumas and challenges that beset the 1.5 generation in the depths of their “homelessness.” In part, this challenge surrounding their becoming is a social one. Through its themes of homelessness, self-parenting, and mental illness, the novel details the struggles of Chinese immigrant families as they are handicapped by a lack of social knowledge. Unfolding around the efforts of the Woo children to transcend their immigrant backgrounds and negotiate empowerment and flourishing away from hostile social forces, the novel ends on a note of hope, suggesting that the hardships that the 1.5 generation endure can lead to a rich and fulfilling life. I will discuss the notions of home and belonging in the novel by bringing Martin Buber’s I and Thou and Kantian ethics in tandem, arguing that wherever an I-Thou bond develops, the formula of humanity is guarded, and home becomes possible.