Future Of Jane In Evelyn Lau's The Apartments

The Love and Future of Jane in Evelyn Lau’s “The Apartments”

Evelyn Lau’s “The Apartments”, written in 1993, resembles her personal experiences as a Chinese runaway in the 1980s era of Vancouver, British Columbia. Although written as fictional, Jane’s imagery and situation may very well be inspired by Lau’s personal experiences working as a prostitute and includes historical and cultural context. Through Jane’s narration, references, and mentality, the short story puts emphasis on a generalized perception of traditional roles and the feeling of isolation. Ultimately, “The Apartments” insists that people who obsessively fantasize about the future will eventually have their goals fall short as they rush their current decisions in the present moment. Canada has historically been a deeply multicultural country built off of immigrants. Early Chinese settlers in Canada has been typically labourers, however, from 1947 on, Chinese immigration has broaden to include entire “nuclear families” (Ujimoto 97). Although the multiculturalism of Canada has been commonly described as a “mosaic”, contact

1) of her inspirations of becoming a writer. In the epilogue of her memoir, “Runaway, Diary of a Street Kid”, Lau has explained that she was a shy and introspective child” (5), that was “painfully sensitive to everything around [her]” (5). The author’s runaway story suggests that perhaps Jane also has inspirations about the future, as her means of survival mimics Lau’s. Lau being “introspective” parallels Jane’s narration throughout the story. Every event and object is described with great detail and care—as if the writer has first hand experienced it. The setting is so elaborately constructed that the reader can sense everything around Jane, and occasionally, even feel her pain; thus tracing back to Lau’s description of her