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Jun 18, 2023

Author Cecily Wong on her novel, ‘Kaleidoscope,’ and youth in Eugene: ‘a lovely place’

Portland author Cecily Wong's novel, "Kaleidoscope," tells the story of a biracial Chinese American family who move from Eugene to New York to operate a successful retail empire. (Heather Hawksford)

Portland author Cecily Wong's novel, "Kaleidoscope," tells the story of a biracial Chinese American family who move from Eugene to New York to operate a successful retail empire. (Heather Hawksford)

Cecily Wong might have been born in Hawaii, but she says it was while growing up in Eugene that she first developed a love of writing. Coming of age in the Willamette Valley city that’s home to the University of Oregon was “an interesting experience,” recalls Wong, who now lives in Portland. Eugene was “a lovely place. Everyone was friendly, and open-minded, and smart. It was a creative place, an intellectual place.”

Wong is a 2023 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient, one of 13 writers and two publishers who, out of a field of more than 500 applicants, were selected by a panel of out-of-state judges to receive grants of $3,500 each.

In “Kaleidoscope,” Wong’s second novel, which came out in paperback this summer, the author draws upon elements of her years in Eugene to weave a story about a family, and a protagonist whose path takes her far from Oregon.

In the novel, Wong takes readers into the world of the Brightons, a biracial family that move from Hawaii to Eugene, where the parents operate a grocery store called Om Organics. Their daughters are Morgan, talented, stylish and confident, and younger sister Riley, who is introspective, independent, yet deeply influenced by her dynamic older sister.

"Kaleidoscope," the second novel by 2023 Oregon Literary Fellow Cecily Wong, was published in paperback this summer. (Courtesy Penguin Publishing Group)

The Brightons start a retail business called Kaleidoscope, which sells clothing and other items imported from India. The business becomes so successful, the Brightons expand to locations in Seattle and Portland, and the family moves to New York City, to open a gleaming new outpost in Columbus Circle. Everything seems perfect, until tragedy strikes, and the characters are forced to deal with hidden truths and painful realizations.

While Wong says some aspects of “Kaleidoscope” story have parallels with her own experience – like Riley in the novel, for example, Wong moved to New York City, went to college, and lived for several years – other details are different.

“In terms of ‘Kaleidoscope,’ the trajectory of Riley is exactly mine,” Wong, 35, says. “She’s got roots in Hawaii, she grows up in Eugene in the early ‘90s, and then she goes to New York, where she goes to college, finds independence, falls in love for the first time, and gets her first taste of travel. All those things ring true to me.”

However, while Riley is half-Chinese and half-white, Wong is Chinese American, as she says. Her parents did run a business in Eugene, but it was, she says, “a Hawaiian plate lunch restaurant,” not a health food grocery store.

“I was 7 when we moved in 1994 to Eugene,” Wong says. “I think my parents just needed a change of pace. We’re related to half the island of Oahu. They wanted something slower, and they took this long road trip from Los Angeles up to Seattle, and they stopped in Eugene.”

Her parents weren’t considering moving to Eugene at that time, “but they went into a grocery store there to ask for directions, and the cashier locked her drawer and took them outside, and pointed out directions. She told my parents where to go for lunch. It was warm and friendly.”

Wong recalls going through “this serious period of culture shock when we arrived,” she says. Eugene didn’t have a very large Asian community. “In elementary school, there was just me, and one other Chinese girl. It was very surprising to me, and it made me look at myself in a different way. My Asian-ness became a larger part of myself.”

Her time in Eugene made Wong want to know more about her culture, which led to her writing her first novel, 2015′s “Diamond Head,” about a Chinese family in Hawaii, and a legacy of secrets.

In addition to sparking curiosity about her culture, Eugene also helped foster Wong’s interest in writing. “I went to South Eugene High School, and I loved it,” Wong recalls. “I think my love of literature started there,” thanks to “amazing” teachers.

“I’ve always been a reader, and I had a love of novels all through high school, and I was always writing little journal entries,” Wong says. But it wasn’t until she got to college in New York, where she graduated from Barnard College, that Wong realized writing could be a job.

Wong married a New Yorker, and spent more than a decade back East. “We had always kicked around the idea of coming back to Oregon. He would come out and see my family, and he made me see Oregon with new eyes. We were living in a small, one-bedroom Brooklyn apartment, and then I got pregnant, and we looked at each other,” Wong recalls. They made the decision to move to Portland about three years ago.

With her family’s background in the restaurant business, and many scenes featuring characters dining on delectable-sounding meals in “Kaleidoscope,” it’s not surprising that Wong was also the co-author of “Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide,” an exploration of food and culture around the world.

Asked what Portland restaurants she’d recommend, Wong laughingly says, “I blank with recommendations of any kind.” But she mentions recently going to Han Oak for the first time, “and that was probably one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had. It feels like a backyard party. And I love the happy hour at Jake’s Crawfish. It’s so Portland. I feel like it’s so old school.”

Wong, who is working on a new novel and other projects while being a parent to her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, praises the Oregon literary community.

“It’s been such a gift,” she says. Though she felt nervous about coming back to Portland, “it’s been so wonderful. I really am floored by how nice it is here, with people organically introducing you to other people, and people showing up for each other. The literary scene in Portland really punches above its weight for how big a city it is.”

— Kristi Turnquist

503-221-8227; [email protected]; @Kristiturnquist

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