Wayne describes how downtown Toronto features in his latest book JOHNNY DELIVERS in All Lit Up’s HOMEGROWN feature, where locally produced reads are made with care.
Wayne is pictured holding a copy of JOHNNY DELIVERS in front of the Lillian H. Smith Branch of the Toronto Public Library on College St, Toronto – his old hood.
The feature is reproduced below from the All Lit Up website.
All Lit Up
Homegrown 2.0: Even More Locally Produced Reads (October 3)
All Lit Up: Does your community feature in your book in some way? How?
Wayne Ng: JOHNNY DELIVERS is a work of fiction, though it integrates personal and historical elements from 1977. As the son of Chinese immigrants, born and raised in downtown Toronto, my life was deeply rooted in the city. I bled Toronto Maple Leafs blue, grew up on Henry Street, and wandered the vibrant neighbourhoods of Chinatown, Kensington, and Yonge Street.
I worshipped Bruce Lee, watching his films at the Pagoda Theatre, and his legacy is honoured throughout the novel. I learned to skate at Nathan Phillips Square and attended Central Technical School, where I often skipped classes to play pinball and smoke at Manny’s and Nick’s.
These places form the backdrop of my youth in the 1970s and are vividly depicted in JOHNNY DELIVERS, where my protagonist, Johnny Wong, navigates family debt and gang pressures by delivering weed and egg rolls all within the fabric of a community that supports and shapes him.
The clan-based Associations (or tongs) are a significant part of our shared history, serving as both a refuge and a reminder of the legislated racism that our community faced, including the head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act. My grandfather, Ng Men Chem, who paid the head tax in 1911, is fictionalized as a member of the Association, where the novel’s climactic mahjong battle takes place.
JOHNNY DELIVERS is dedicated to the untold and unspoken stories of thousands of “paper families”—improperly documented Canadians like my mother, Pui Ching Ng.
