Denise Chong's non-fiction portrait of her family's generational split between China and British Columbia, The Concubine's Children, received the City of Vancouver Book Award in 1994, the VanCity Book Prize, and was shortlisted for a Governor General's Award. Born in Vancouver, Chong grew up in Prince George wondering about possible family connections in China. She urged her mother to help her discover her roots, leading them both back to China. She discovered her grandfather Chan Sam had left behind a wife in 1913 and that her grandmother May-ying had been bought, sight-unseen, as a concubine. The struggle to support two families, one on each side of the Pacific, is at the heart of the story. Chong, who trained as an economist, left Vancouver to live in Ottawa soon after her book was published. She had previously worked as an economic policy advisor in the Department of Finance and in the Prime Minister's Office under Pierre Trudeau.

The Concubine's Children: Portrait of a Family Divided (Penguin, 1994).