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Zach Weir
Chong, Denise (1952– )
Nonfiction writer Denise Chong is best known
for her award-winning The CONCUBINE’S CHILDREN
(1994), a story that transcends continental and cul-
tural borders. It is an account of her mother’s and
grandmother’s lives in a Chinatown in Canada, and
of the additional family members in China, as well
as one that helps to define the extent of the evo-
lution of the Chinese-Canadian community. She
also wrote The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim
Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War (2001),
the story of nine-year-old Kim Phuc, whose pic-
ture, taken as she was running down a road, her
body burning from napalm, made history during
the Vietnam War, and was used as a propagandistic
tool by her own country. It chronicles the circum-
stances of the little girl, the direction her life took,
and the lingering effects of the event on her after
the end of the war.
Chong was born in Vancouver, Canada, and
raised in Prince George, British Columbia. Trained
as an economist, she worked as an economic policy
adviser in the Department of Finance and in the
prime minister’s office under Pierre Trudeau from
1980 to 1984. She left Vancouver after the publica-
tion of The Concubine’s Children and moved with
her husband and children to Ottawa.
In 2001 Chong was appointed Canada’s repre-
sentative to the International Board of Governors
of the Vancouver-based Commonwealth of Learn-
ing, which assists in expanding access to education
and training through open and distance learning.
She has also served on the Perinbam task force
on participation of visible minorities in public
service, and sits on an advisory committee to the
clerk of the Privy Council of Canada on modern-
izing human resource management in the public
service. She was also an adviser on the federal in-
formation highway advisory council.
Chong is the recipient of several awards: the
Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
(1995); the City of Vancouver Book Prize (1994);
and the Van City Book Prize (1995). Her Concu-
bine’s Children was short-listed for the Governor
General’s Award and the Hubert Evans Non-Fic-
tion Prize. The paperback edition was on The Globe
and Mail’s best seller list for more than 87 weeks.
A contributor to Many Mouthed Birds (1991),
an anthology of contemporary Chinese Canadian
writers, and Who Speaks for Canada? Words that
shape a country (1998), Chong edited The Penguin
Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women (1998).
Anne Marie FowlerChong, Ping (1946– )
Born in Toronto and raised in New York’s China-
town, Chong is one of the most recognized Asian-
American theater directors. He studied filmmaking
and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and
at the Pratt Institute. His career began in 1972 as
a member of Meredith Monk’s House Founda-
tion, where he collaborated with her on several
major works including The Travelogue Series and
The Games, for which they shared the Outstand-
ing Achievement in Music Theatre Award in 1986.
In 1975 he established Ping Chong and Company,
formerly The Fiji Theater Company, to create the-
atrical works for multicultural audiences nation-
ally and internationally. Chong has created more
than 50 major works for the stage. His earlier works
include Humboldt’s Current (1977), AM/AM—The
Articulated Man (1982), Nosferatu (1985), Angels of
Swedenborg (1985), Kind Ness (1988), and Bright-
ness (1990 Bessie Award). Chong is the recipient of
an Obie Award, six NEA Fellowships, a PlaywrightsChong, Ping 49