Born and raised in China, Tong Ge moved to Canada in the late 1980s as an international student, earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1992. Since 2012, she has written under both her real name and the pen name Tong Ge, publishing poetry, prose, and short stories in English and Chinese across North America, England, and Taiwan. A recipient of six literary awards and a finalist for five others. Her debut novel, The House Filler, was published in Canada in 2023. Tong Ge is also the recipient of 2025 Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Awards mainly for her achievement in literature.
Fiction
The House Filler
Vancouver: Ronsdale Press, 2023.
e-book (Access restricted to members of the university community)
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
The House Filler is told through the experiences of Golden Phoenix, a woman who faces war, poverty, and political oppression as she fights for survival, freedom and happiness. After the untimely death of her husband, Golden Phoenix is determined to keep her family together. However, poverty forces her to make the heart-wrenching decision to give her teenage twins to the Red Army. During the upheaval of the Japanese invasion of her hometown, she is separated from her two young girls, and her remaining son leaves to fight with the Nationalist army. Golden Phoenix, along with her adopted son, remains to endure the horror and hardship of war. When the civil war ends with the Communists in power in 1949, one of her twins, who had joined the Communist Party, is wrongly accused of being a traitor and is sentenced to death. Golden Phoenix and her family must find a way to save her son’s life.
Awards and Honours
2023 Eyelands Book Awards (for historical fiction and memoir) (Finalist)
2024 Canadian Book Club Awards for fiction (Finalist)
2024 Independent Press Award for new fiction (Winner)
2025 National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE) Award for Literary Fiction (Winner)
2025 Maxy Book Award (for historical & adventure fiction(Winner)
2025 Bookfest Award (Second place in two categories: Literary fiction, and, Historical fiction)
2025 International Book Awards (Finalist in two categories: Historical fiction, and, Multicultural fiction)
2025 Storytrade Book Awards (Winner in two categories: Historical fiction, and, Literary fiction)