Employers who wish to support employees experiencing mental health challenges need to consider not just what happens at work, but also cultural influences at home. Family influences in the workplaceįear of family beliefs about mental illness is not uncommon among young Asians who face stigmatization and pressure at home to adopt traditional attitudes. What seems to matter most? She had escaped the Woo-Woo. In Wong’s case, her relief at not being Woo-Woo can be measured by the fact that while still a student, she had just diagnosed with a serious and very real, neurological disease. The words cited above are from the opening chapter of The Woo-Woo, Lindsay Wong’s acclaimed book that, with much humour, romps through the lives of Lindsay and members of her Chinese Canadian family as they attempt to cope within a culture whose fears of mental illness are translated into wild ideas of demonic possession or visits from supernatural aliens like the Woo-Woo. … I wasn’t Woo-Woo.” How would you react if an employee or co-worker reported for work, saying he or she was not Woo-Woo and was fit for duty? Would you understand? “I have really always wanted to explore the dimensionality of Asian-Canadian literature because so often, especially so often, women in the literature were always seen as meek, fragile and submissive, and we don’t really get to have a presence or if we are seen as strong we are usually then the dragon lady or the very two-dimensional evil villain, so for me it was important to portray these characters as three-dimensional.“A certified neurologist had declared me sane … I wasn’t nutso. Wong’s writing is also challenging the long held literary stereotypes of Asian women. I was also told I had a great uncle that worked on the continental railway. I was told of family members who married picture brides, they had no choice.

“They had people come into San Francisco and Vancouver, they used to call it Gold Mountain,” said Wong.

The truly haunting The Ugliest Girls draws inspiration from immigration to California and B.C. It almost felt like the end of the world,” said Wong. “I remember it snowing, being cold, not Winnipeg cold, and walking on the highway by myself and thinking this is so scary. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

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Lindsay wong the woo woo