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A Novel
by Bo Wang
As rich in detail and emotion as Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Lisa See's Lady Tan's Circle of Women, but with an exciting structure that reinvents the genre, Bo Wang's gorgeous and immersive debut historical novel immortalizes the life of the first Chinese woman to be brought to the United States in the 1800s.
Little Sparrow, Julia, Afong Moy, Madame Moy, The Chinese Lady, were her many names ... but her true name has been lost to time.
In 1834 Afong Moy was brought to New York by two merchants as a live exhibit. Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses.
As the story moves from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum's American Museum, to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names. Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York. The captain's wife names her Julia and "graciously" treats her as her own. And when she is shunted off to P.T Barnum, her fellow human exhibitions call her China. Eventually arriving in San Francisco's Chinatown, she will at long last claim her name and her own story.
Combining archival research and brilliantly imaginative storytelling, Bo Wang masterfully fills in history's gaps to weave a powerful narrative of survival in the face of hardship, tragedy, and betrayal. Told through the eyes of those around her; mirroring her life as an object on display, until we finally see the world through her own eyes.
"The Chinese Lady is an exceptional debut—exquisitely written, emotionally fearless, and historically revelatory. Bo Wang delivers an immersive historical novel of rare emotional intelligence and narrative power. I couldn't put it down." —Jennifer Chiaverini, New York Times bestselling author of Canary Girls
"A poignant and luminous portrait of a woman's strength and endurance, and what it takes to survive and claim a place in a country that is determined to misrepresent you. Beautifully written, sharp, and threaded with excellent wit, this novel illuminates the quiet courage required to hold onto one's dignity and humanity in the face of relentless scrutiny. I absolutely adore Wang's writing and I will be recommending this phenomenal debut to everyone!" —Marjan Kamali, New York Times bestselling author of The Lion Women of Tehran
This information about The Chinese Lady was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bo Wang was born in Cincinnati to Taiwanese American parents. Her childhood was peppered with stories of the Monkey King alongside those of Frog and Toad. A graduate of Sycamore Public Schools, Bo holds an A.B. in history and literature from Harvard College. She now lives in Boston with her family. The Chinese Lady is her debut novel.
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