Lien Chao Featured in Toronto Star

Lien Chao, author of the short story collection The Chinese Knot (TSAR Publications), was recently featured the Beijing 2008 section of The Toronto Star. The article focuses on Chao's arrival in Canada in 1984 with "$35 in her pocket and a desperate hope for some kind of equality," on her development as a writer and on her daughter, Avianna. Avianna Chao is competing in the 2008 Games in Beijing as an Olympic pistol shooter.

From the The Toronto Star:

The voice was deep and lyrical, the words spellbinding to Lien Chao's English class.

As the visiting Canadian professor read aloud from such writers as Margaret Laurence and Pauline Johnson, Chao and her classmates at Wuhan Teachers College in China didn't dare breathe, lest they miss a word.

"I became interested in this country so far away, near the North Pole," recalled Chao. "I couldn't imagine what life was like there."

Lien Chao arrived in Canada in 1984 with $35 in her pocket and a desperate hope for some kind of equality.

She'd risked everything for a passport out of China, leaving her 9-year-old daughter Avianna behind at first, as she became one of the first self-sponsored students from her country to arrive here. With help from the visiting professor whose readings mesmerized her, she got a scholarship to study Canadian literature at York University.

Read the full article in the Beijing 2008 section of The Toronto Star.