By Larissa Page
A few of the books I’ve read recently highlighted the lack of Asian voices in the literature I’ve been reading. When I saw the Canada Reads 2022 longlist released with We Two Alone on it—a series of short stories highlighting Chinese diaspora over a few different generations, set in different countries—I knew I wanted to read it.
All the stories include an aspect of the Chinese Immigrant experience; though, spanning time and also geographical space, their experiences are different. Themes, as expected, are similar throughout and speak to experiences like discrimination, war, determination to achieve dreams, grit, loss, loneliness, and many others. Not all stories had happy endings, but I felt the joy and happiness of even a memory in most of them.
There wasn’t a story in this collection that I didn’t enjoy, but I think I enjoyed the first one the most. Titled “The Valkyries,” it follows a young man in the early 20th century Vancouver who just wants to play hockey. He tries out for a local team but is unsuccessful due to discrimination against Chinese people. After seeing the intramural women’s team play, he decides he can disguise himself as a woman and play hockey that way—if he can keep his secret hidden.
As mentioned, all these stories had something to offer me as a reader. I learned much about the Chinese Immigrant experience, as well as anti-Asian discrimination that I hadn’t previously been educated on or read in other pieces of literature. The quality of the writing was obvious within the stories, giving them feeling despite their shorter length. I listened to We Two Alone as an audiobook production, and I’d also like to note that I enjoyed the narrator.
I am unsurprised this collection made it to the Canada Reads longlist this year. It fit the theme of a story to connect us and it was a potent look at a community of people often overlooked. I am very glad I picked it up.