Denise Chong is best known for The Concubine's Children, one of the first non-fiction narratives of a Chinese family in Canada, which tells of
her grandmother's life as a tea house waitress in the old Chinatowns. 
It is an incredible book about how challenging life was like for the
Chinese pioneers, many of whom paid the head tax to succeed in Canada
despite rampant racism.  This book won the Vancouver Book Award, and
was turned into a play 2 years ago, premiering in Nanaimo. I have met Denise a few times at readings at the library and also in Nanaimo.