Tong Ge
Born and raised in China, Tong Ge came to Canada in the late 80s as an international student. She has obtained a Master of Science degree from University of Saskatchewan in 1992. Since 2012, she has written under both her real name and the pen name Tong Ge, publishing poems, prose, and short stories in both English and Chinese across North America, England, and Taiwan. With four literary prizes already received, she is also a finalist for five others. Her debut novel, “The House Filler” was published in Canada in 2023 and is a finalist worldwide for the 2023 Eyelands Book Awards and is the winner of the 2024 Independent Press Award for new fiction. It is also a finalist for 2024 Canadian Book Club Awards for fiction.
Marina Raydun: You came to Canada in the late 1980s. Did you know English when you arrived?
Tong Ge: Yes, I was an international student. To be accepted into graduate schools in North America, we had to pass an English test called TOEFL, short for the Test of English as a Foreign Language. However, this test only prepared us for basic English skills. Even for academic studies, it was far from sufficient—let alone for creative writing.
In the early days of my graduate studies, I struggled to keep up with the professors during lectures and couldn’t take notes quickly enough. I often had to borrow notes from my classmates afterward. When working on assignments, I relied heavily on an English-Chinese dictionary, looking up countless unfamiliar words and writing down their Chinese meanings before starting the task. Another challenge was that the English we learned in China was entirely textbook-based. Another challenge was that the English we learned in China was entirely textbook-based.
As a result, we were taught formal terms like “man” and “woman,” or “male” and “female” but not informal ones like “guy” and “gal. ” We knew “dollar” but not “buck,” “bad” but not “sucks,” and “why” but not “how come.” Once, during a class, after a professor finished proving a mathematical formula, he exclaimed, “Bingo!” I raised my hand and asked what “bingo” meant.
MR: Can you think of a moment when you first realized that language has power?
TG: I first realized the power of language when I began reading Lu Xun in senior high school and college. A prominent Chinese writer of the early 20th century, his essays and short stories offered unparalleled insights into the social, political, and cultural issues of his time. He fearlessly criticized outdated traditions and government policies. His writings are sharp, profound and biting—like a sword cutting through social injustice, ignorance, indifference among the uneducated masses, and the darker aspects of human nature. His work left an indelible mark on society and history, influencing generations of Chinese writers and intellectuals. One of his most remarkable works, The True Story of Ah Q, in my opinion, far surpasses Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Mo Yan, the 2012 Nobel Prize-winning Chinese writer, once said he would gladly trade all his works for a single story as powerful as The True Story of Ah Q.
MR: You are bilingual. How do you think this affects your writing?
TG: I have to say that my mother tongue is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to writing in English. It is a blessing because I can draw inspiration from the Chinese language, especially its poetry, sayings and proverbs, which make my Chinese stories feel more authentic. However, Chinese grammar is very different from English grammar. For instance, we only have one tense—the present tense. We don’t have plurals, and our verbs don’t change according to the subject. The way we use prepositions is also very different from English. If I try to think about it logically, I always get it wrong. As a result, it’s much harder for me to consistently write grammatically correct sentences, especially when writing fiction in the past tense. That’s why I’ve had to hire freelance editors to edit my entire manuscript, twice.
MR: You write and publish both in English and Chinese. How does your writing process differ between writing in both languages?
TG: The process isn’t much different, but the effect is. For example, when writing in Chinese, I can incorporate local dialects from specific regions in China, which adds authenticity to the setting. It’s also easier for me to differentiate characters’ speech. For instance, an illiterate person would speak one way, while a highly educated person would speak another. While I can achieve this to some extent in English, it’s not as effective as in Chinese. Additionally, I don’t make grammatical mistakes when writing in Chinese. For Chinese readers, all the footnotes and the list of major historical events in the English edition could be removed, as there’s no need to explain historical figures, events, or cultural references—they’re already familiar with them.
MR: The House Filler is a very impactful title. Can you walk us through your thought process when coming up with it?
TG: In traditional Chinese culture, a woman who married a widower was called a “house filler”—a direct translation of the Chinese term 填房 (tian fang). The protagonist, Golden Phoenix, was born in a time when a woman’s beauty was not measured by her looks but by the size of her feet. The smaller her feet, the more desirable she was considered. As a result, Chinese parents typically began binding their daughters’ feet at the age of four or five. Golden Phoenix, having lost her mother at an early age, didn’t start the foot-binding process until she was six. Consequently, her feet never reached the ideal size of “golden waterlily” feet. Additionally, she was trained as a seamstress and became her family’s breadwinner, further delaying her opportunity to marry well. Having missed the ideal marriage age, she eventually married a widower and became a “house filler.”
MR: The novel is full of major historical events in China’s history. It’s almost like a multigenerational family saga. What inspired it?
TG: It is a multigenerational family saga and the first book in the “China China” series, focusing on my grandmother’s story. The second book centers on my mother’s story, while the third is based on my own. My mother has been telling me our family’s story ever since I was a child. Growing up, I witnessed firsthand what my parents went through and later experienced the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the subsequent economic reforms in China myself. The trilogy is inspired by my family’s history.
MR: Writing historical fiction is not easy. What was your research process like?
TG: In addition to my mother’s narrative, I interviewed other family members and relatives. I even returned to Phoenix’s hometown in 2015 to meet with relatives and conduct further research. I walked around the block where Golden Phoenix’s family complex once stood and took a boat tour of Lake Yang and Lake Pan, both of which are described in the book. I also immersed myself in fiction from the 1930s and 1940s, conducted extensive online research, and thanks to the Internet, I was able to purchase photocopies of local newspapers from that era online.
MR: If you could cast a movie inspired by The House Filler, what actors would you hand pick?
TG: First and foremost, it must have an entirely Chinese cast. Unfortunately, since moving to Canada, I haven’t had the chance to watch many Chinese movies and have become unfamiliar with the current movie stars. I’m only familiar with those from the 80s. Therefore, I would choose Gong Li to play Golden Phoenix.
MR: What is your favorite genre to read?
TG: Literary fiction, historical fiction, also good fantasies, science fiction and mystery/thrillers.
MR: Are you working on anything right now?
TG: I am currently translating “The House Filler” into Chinese. I also have other projects on the go, but they are in developmental stages currently, and I will be prepared to discuss them another time.
