The Jade Peony

The overriding theme of the novel is the difficulties related to an immigrant culture assimilating into another. The grandmother represents the desire to hold onto the ancient traditions of China while the children who narrate the novel represent the willingness to embrace western cultures even at the expense of losing those traditions most cherished by their grandmother. The parents, of course, are the where the meeting of the past and the future coincide.

The wind chimes are instruments not of music, but of navigation. The sound of the chimes helps those ghostly spirits find their way back home. For a story set in Canada about Chinese immigrants dealing with assimilation into western culture, the symbolism is manifest.