Arts & Culture

I was reading  Midnight at the Dragon Cafe, Toronto's 2011 One Book community read, on the subway yesterday.  As I got off at Bloor Station I saw, and then heard, an older Chinese man busking and playing an erhu 二胡. I stayed and listened for a few minutes – you could hear the music better when the trains were not entering or leaving the station and so I lasted through several waves of commuters too busy or too unfamiliar with the erhu to stop and listen.  He played an older, simple instrument and the song was haunting, especially as it echoed through the halls of the subway station.  I dropped some money in his case and continued on my homeward commute.  Later that evening, I was pleased at the synchronicity of reading a reference to the erhu in Midnight at the Dragon Cafe:

"Then, the slow, melancholy notes of the erhu filled the air and the White Snake Goddess began to sing. The inside of my throat felt swollen: the music made my heart ache and long for a home I no longer knew." p 170

Midnight at the Dragon Cafe is the debut novel by Judy Fong Bates and is the 4th annual One Book community read city-wide book club title. It is part of the Keep Toronto Reading KTR celebration happening throughout Toronto Public Library during the month of April 2011.  There are over 1100 copies of the book available at your local library branches.  You'll find many of your neighbors, friends, family and coworkers all avidly reading it. 

It is written from a young girl's point of view and looks at the life of a Chinese immigrant family running a restaurant in a small Ontario town.  It explores them coping with a difficult emotional dynamic of love, loss, bitterness, betrayal and isolation within both the community and their family . There are programs throughout the city that are linking to various themes of the novel including Chinese opera and music, food, author readings and personal storytelling.

The One Book kickoff event is happening on Friday April 1st, 7 pm, at the Toronto Reference Library Atrium. Author Judy Fong Bates will be there as will the Starlight Cantonese Opera Company who will perform an aria from The White Snake Goddess – 白蛇傳 / 白蛇传 – the Chinese opera that is referred to frequently in the novel.  It's free and promises to be an entertaining evening event.  Please join us and enjoy the book!