Baby Got Books

Shanghai Girls

I’ll admit up front that I listened to this book on CD. I usually have two books around that I’m reading and one in the car for listening during my horrendous Atlanta commute. My car books are usually books I would never admit to reading but this time I waited over 150 days to get Shanghai Girls by Lisa See from the library.

I’ve been interested in reading Lisa See for awhile but her books are popular and there is usually a long wait at the library. However, after learning more about Ms. See herself I was encouraged to wait it out. Ms. See is part Chinese and has traveled extensively throughout China for her research. For one book she was only the second Caucasian person to have visited a particular remote village. Currently, I am very interested in Chinese culture and history since my daughter is enrolled in a Chinese-centric school and learning Mandarin. So in addition to educating myself with bi-racial topics for my daughter, I’m doing my best to learn all I can about China too.

Again, I was hesitant about this author who is read by the masses, but I truly enjoyed listening to this book and would have enjoyed reading it as well! It is read by Janet Song who has a soft Asian-influenced accent which lends even more credibility to the story. If China doesn’t interest you at all, this book would not be a good choice.

It is about two sisters May and Pearl in Shanghai, China, 1937. Narrated by Pearl, everything is wonderful in China during this time. Pearl and May are “Beautiful Girls” who pose for artists who paint them for advertisements. The International District is full of Americans, English and Japanese and everyone is happy. The girls’ father owns a lucrative rickshaw business and they are doing quite well. The girls, who even have American names, don’t pay much attention to Chinese traditions but it’s all ok, life is great!

Oh but happiness never lasts. Father loses company. Father loses daughters in bad gambling debt. Father disappears. The Japanese invade China. Girls must get to Los Angeles, California to join arranged-marriage husbands.

It is quite an adventure. I loved this book because in addition to a tear-wrenching tale about their voyage from Shanghai to Hong Kong and then to Los Angeles, it is also a story about sisters and the love sisters have for each other that can never be torn apart. During their journey their love for each other and their Chinese traditions are tested many times. Pearl is a dragon sign and May is the sheep. Throughout the story Ms. See frequently shows the reader how each girl demonstrates the characteristics of her birth sign, a very important aspect of Chinese culture. Ms. See beautifully weaves many more Chinese traditions into this story. Historical fiction at its best.

The journey from Shanghai to Los Angeles is one that probably none of us will ever experience. Once they arrive at Angel Island in San Francisco the reader is reminded how much the United States discriminated against the Chinese. Like many immigrants throughout the years, Pearl, May and their new family receive unbelievable open hatred directed toward them. But what is their alternative really? They can’t go back. After the Japanese, the Communists take over. Pearl and May sit for months in Angel Island and their sisterly bond is strengthened due to the experience on the island before being released to their husbands. Like most immigrants learn, America isn’t exactly how it was described. Instead of a big house with a big garden, the entire extended family lives in a little apartment in Chinatown. The Louie family works hard, sends their children to school and tries to be the best American citizens they can be. American government officials are continually hanging out in Chinatown to catch Communist sympathizers and illegal immigrants. Life is hard. They work a lot, there are family secrets, and tragedies fall on the family all the while they are trying to raise a little girl to be American. Or Chinese in America? Another challenge for the family they did not expect.

I don’t want to give any more of the story away. It satisfied everything I want in a book: great story with a lot of emotion and for me, a wonderful historical picture of China and Los Angeles from 1937 until the 1950’s. I think the wait for another one of Ms. See’s books is 200 days and I will wait it out.

Books, Fiction, Review | Anne | February 9, 2010 8:29 am

3 Comments

By Murray, February 9, 2010 @ 11:36 am

FYI, Lisa See is at Atlanta’s Margaret Mitchell House on Thursday, March 4th.
By Anne, February 9, 2010 @ 3:54 pm

Thanks Murray!
By Aimee, February 9, 2010 @ 6:22 pm

I love Lisa See, and I am so looking forward to this one!

x
Aimee