YA NOVELS | An Ocean Apart book review.

An Ocean Apart: The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-ling, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1922 by Gillian Chan (2004).

Dear Canada #9: An Ocean Apart: The Gold Mountain Diary of Chin Mei-Ling, Vancouver 1922, by Gillian Chan, published 2004.

An Ocean Apart is the fictional diary of Chin Mei-ling.

She is a 12-year-old girl living with her father in Vancouver’s Chinatown in 1922. Mei-ling’s primary concern is her father’s struggle to raise enough money to pay the head tax that will allow her mother to join them in Canada. Looming menacingly is the implementation of the Exclusion Act that will completely bar the Chinese from immigrating.

The book is part of the Dear Canada series (a set of historical fiction books aimed at preteen girls).

An Ocean Apart is charmingly didactic and highly engaging. Mei-ling’s emotions transcend her time. Her concerns about her mother’s absence, her father’s financial problems, and her own social life ring true even today.

A year in Mei-ling’s life includes part-time work, a birth, a death, introduction to Anne of Green Gables by a well-meaning tutor, a shoplifting incident, a strained relationship with a best friend, and a struggle with a racist bully. This bully’s reformation near the end of the novel is its only flaw, since it’s not entirely believable. But perhaps it’s intentional that his reform be somewhat suspect.

Author Gillian Chan was an English teacher for 10 years before taking up writing.

The historical details in her novel are precise and unobtrusive. The admirable Historical Note (an explanatory postscript feature containing real photos and documents common to all Dear Canada books) is nearly as interesting as the novel itself.

Vancouver readers will recognize landmarks like the Woodwards building and the Hotel Vancouver.

However, what’s most compelling about An Ocean Apart is its lack of a happy ending. Because of the passage of the Exclusion Act, things don’t work out as well as they might have for Mei-ling and her father.

The absence of a contrived conclusion is this story’s strongest feature. It shows Chan’s commitment to historical accuracy and her refreshing respect for young and old readers alike.

More by Jen Selk on the Dear Canada book series and authors.

A version of this An Ocean Apart book review was originally published in the Vancouver Sun, June, 2004 under the headline “An Ocean Apart: Growing up in 1920s Vancouver Chinatown”. See below.

Published June, 2004 in The Vancouver Sun.