Paul Yee

Paul Yee (born 1 October 1956) is a Chinese-Canadian historian and writer. He is the author of many books for children, including Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter, The Curses of Third Uncle, Dead Man's Gold, and Ghost Train—winner of the 1996 Governor General's Award for English language children's literature. In 2012, the Writers' Trust of Canada awarded Paul Yee the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People in recognition of having "contributed uniquely and powerfully to our literary landscape over a writing career that spans almost 30 years".

Early life and education

Paul Yee was born in Spalding, Saskatchewan in 1956 but was raised in Chinatown, Vancouver by his aunt Lilian. He describes himself as feeling "caught between two worlds" growing up, and many of his works about Chinese-Canadians reflect this tension. He attended Lord Strathcona Elementary School and Britannia Secondary School in Vancouver. Paul Yee obtained a Bachelor's and master's degree in Canadian History from the University of British Columbia.

Career Yee has volunteered at the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Center (1974–1987) and worked as an archivist at the City of Vancouver Archives (1979–1987) and at the Archives of Ontario (1988–1991). He also worked at the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship (1991–1997).

Paul Yee's first book, titled Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter! And Other Stories and illustrated by Sky Lee, was published in 1983 by James Lorimer & Company. He has stated that his career as a writer is "a fluke" as it was Lorimer that approached Yee, wanting a knowledgeable person to create a book set in Vancouver's Chinatown neighborhood. Since then, he has published over twenty-five distinct works - including children's books, young adult books, short stories, and non-fiction books for adults. One of his books for children, Ghost Train, was adapted as a play by Betty Quan and performed by the Young Peoples Theatre in Toronto in 2001. Yee's first original play, Jade in the Coal, premiered at the Frederic Wood Theatre in Vancouver on November 25, 2010. In 2011, he created a poem to accompany the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra's performance of an original composition by Jin Zhang. The piece was translated from English to Chinese and performed in both languages by Tommy Tao. Yee now resides in Toronto and writes full-time.

Three recently published monographs have featured chapters on Yee's publications; these include: Dr. John Z. Ming Chen's The Influence of Daoism on Asian-Canadian Writers (Mellen, 2008), prefaced by Dr. Yuhua Ji; Dr. John Z. Ming Chen's and Dr. Wei Li's A Study of Canadian Social Realist Literature: Neo-Marxist, Confucian, and Daoist Approaches (Inner Mongolia University Press, 2011); and Dr. John Z. Ming Chen's and Dr. Yuhua Ji's Canadian-Daoist Poetics, Ethics, and Aesthetics (Springer, 2015).

Works

Picture books:

Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter and Other Stories (1983) Roses Sing on New Snow (1991) Ghost Train (1996) The Boy in the Attic (1998) Jade Necklace (2002) A Song for Ba (2004) "The Lost Spike" (short story) (2004) Bamboo (2005) Shu-Li and Tamara (2008) Shu-Li and Diego (2009) Friends of Kwan ming

Middle grade & young adult:

The Curses of Third Uncle (1986) Tales from Gold Mountain (1989) Breakaway (1994) Struggle and Hope: the Chinese in Canada (1996) Fly Away (short story) (2001) Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories (2002) Bone Collector's Son (2003) What Happened This Summer (2006) Learning to Fly (2008) Blood and Iron (2010) The Secret Keepers (2011) Money Boy (2011)

Adult:

Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver (1988) If Walls Could Talk (2003) Chinatown (2005) Arrivals (a poem) (2011) Jade in the Coal (a play) (2011) A Superior Man (2015)

Awards and honours

1983: Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Selection for Teach Me to Fly, Skyfighter and Other Stories 1989: City of Vancouver Book Award for Saltwater City 1990: Sheila Egoff Children's Prize (Winner) for Tales from Gold Mountain 1990: Notable Children's Book–Social Studies for Tales from Gold Mountain 1992: Ruth Schwartz Children's Literature Award for Roses Sing on New Snow 1994: YALSA Best Book for Young Adults: Breakaway 2006: Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada–Prose Non-fiction Illustrated category for Saltwater City 2012: Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature