This is where the cultural traits are mirrored in Lao Kwei’s physical traits. The identity of “Old China” is represented by his bony shell as the author tells: “Most Chinatown people were from the dense villages of southern Kwangtung province, a territory racked by cycles of famine and drought.” This representation is further enforced through the shape of Lao Kwei’s “bent-backed” shell that reflects the children of “Old China”: “At seven, children in Old China laboured in fields, rode bone-crushing oxen, crawled with oiled bodies into narrow coal seams and emerged bent-backed forever.” The Canadian westernized identity is represented by Lao Kwei’s “plush” moist turtle flesh.
Translated from Chinese to English, “Lao Kwei” stands for “Old Turtle”. The duality of being Chinese and being Canadian, and the unity of these two cultures can be recognized by the physical turtle traits of “Lao Kwei”. The alienation and exclusion which the Chinese lived with is reflected in Lao Kwei’s living conditions. The elements of duality for “Lao Kwei” are his shell and flesh these are symbolic for representing the opposing ideology of “Old China” (east) and the westernized “Canada” for the Chinese. Choy’s turtle, like the Chinese living in Canada, struggles to embody two very different oppositional elements.
In The Jade Peony by Chinese-Canadian writer Wayson Choy, his character turtle “Lao Kwei” represents the unification of the Chinese-Canadian hybrid identity. “Lao Kwei”: A Very Chinese-Canadian Turtle.
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