Beautiful country : a memoir / Qian Julie Wang.
Material type: TextPublisher: New York : Doubleday, [2021]Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First editionDescription: x, 305 pages : illustration ; 25 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780385547215
- 0385547218 :
- 9780385547215 : HRD
- 0385547218 : HRD
- Wang, Qian Julie, 1987- -- Childhood and youth
- Wang, Qian Julie, 1987- -- Family
- Chinese Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
- Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
- Illegal aliens -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography
- AutoBiography
- Chinese Americans
- Families
- Illegal aliens
- Immigrants
- Shijiazhuang Shi (China) -- Biography
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Biography
- 974.7/10049510092 B 23
Item type | Current library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Phillipsburg Free Public Library | Adult Non-Fiction | New Books | 974.7 WAN | Available | 36748002502856 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world--an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent * A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK
In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian's parents were professors; in America, her family is "illegal" and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.
In Chinatown, Qian's parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly "shopping days," when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn's streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center--confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all.
But then Qian's headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor's visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you've always lived here.
Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.
How it began -- Home -- Ascent -- Dances and shadows -- Type B -- The beautiful country -- Silk -- Native speaker -- Dumplings -- Sushi -- Lights -- Chatham Square -- Hair -- Shopping day -- McDonald's -- Sleepover -- Trapdoors -- Solid ground -- Auntie love -- Normalcy -- Marilyn -- Graffiti -- Julie -- Hospital -- Mothers -- Surgery -- Gifted -- Graduation -- Tamagotchi -- Community -- Gone -- Home -- How it begins.
"Beautiful Country is the real deal. Heartrending, unvarnished, and powerfully courageous, this account of growing up undocumented in America will never leave you."--Gish Jen, author of The Resisters Ba Ba told me this and I in turn carried it in my heart: so long as we didn't stake claim to what wasn't ours--the things, our rooms, America, this beautiful country--we would be okay. An incandescent and heartrending memoir about Qian Julie Wang's five years living undocumented after immigrating with her parents from China to New York City in 1994. In Chinese the word for the United States, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country," but when seven-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. Unable to speak English at first, Qian is isolated and disregarded, put into special education classes because she doesn't speak the language and humiliated by teachers and classmates when she struggles to pay attention because of hunger or exhaustion. She encounters racism, and people of other races, for the first time, shocked at where her family fits in comparison to their status as educated elites in China. After school she works shifts alongside her mother in Chinatown sweatshops. There is so much about Qian's new home that doesn't make sense, but the rules of survival are drilled into her head: If you see a policeman, you must run in the other direction. If anyone asks--or even if they don't--you tell them you were born here. Do as you're told or we could be separated forever. Understanding impliclity the toll this has taken on her parents, Qian tries desperately to cheer them up and mediate their increasingly heated arguments, certain that if she is good enough, she can hold the family together. In remarkable, unsentimental prose Wang channels her childhood perspective, illuminating the cruelty and indignity of America's immigration system, while also crafting a narrative of resilience from her family's small moments of joy: their first slice of pizza, "shopping days" when the family would unearth unlikely treasures in Brooklyn's trash, and the necessary escape she found in books at the local library. Searing and unforgettable, Beautiful Country is an essential book about the cost of making a home in a hostile land from an astonishing new talent"--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- How it Began (p. 1)
- Chapter 0 Home (p. 5)
- Chapter 1 Ascent (p. 6)
- Chapter 2 Dances and Shadows (p. 12)
- Chapter 3 Type B (p. 24)
- Chapter 4 The Beautiful Country (p. 33)
- Chapter 5 Silk (p. 43)
- Chapter 6 Native Speaker (p. 57)
- Chapter 7 Dumplings (p. 74)
- Chapter 8 Sushi (p. 86)
- Chapter 9 Lights (p. 97)
- Chapter 10 Chatham Square (p. 108)
- Chapter 11 Hair (p. 112)
- Chapter 12 Shopping Day (p. 122)
- Chapter 13 McDonald's (p. 128)
- Chapter 14 Sleepover (p. 139)
- Chapter 15 Trapdoors (p. 147)
- Chapter 16 Solid Ground (p. 154)
- Chapter 17 Auntie Love (p. 160)
- Chapter 18 Normalcy (p. 171)
- Chapter 19 Marilyn (p. 180)
- Chapter 20 Graffiti (p. 190)
- Chapter 21 Julie (p. 196)
- Chapter 22 Hospital (p. 209)
- Chapter 23 Mothers (p. 218)
- Chapter 24 Surgery (p. 231)
- Chapter 25 Gifted (p. 240)
- Chapter 26 Graduation (p. 251)
- Chapter 27 Tamagotchi (p. 257)
- Chapter 28 Community (p. 269)
- Chapter 29 Gone (p. 280)
- Chapter 30 Home (p. 288)
- How It Begins (p. 292)