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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
Qian Julie Wang arrived in America in 1994 at the age of seven and has gone from being a privileged and relatively wealthy family in China to a family below the poverty line. They moved because of persecution by the state and t life that she knew there, she would never know again.
She couldn’t speak a word of English when she arrived and her parents were forced to work in the sweatshops of the city just to be able to survive. They lived hand to mouth, avoiding all people in authority with the hope of beginning a new life there. She is a bright girl and she is quick to learn the language, but most of the children in her class shun her, so she loses herself in between the pages of books.
Staying out of the gaze of the authorities isn’t easy though, and the family have some close calls, none more so when her mother is taken really ill. The family reached a point where not doing anything will cost her life and if they do seek help, it could fracture the family completely.
This is an interesting account of a girl growing up in America as an illegal immigrant. She somehow manages to find a path through childhood and has to grow up really quickly to be able to help her parents. It is quite a sad read in lots of ways, they were taken advantage of by all sorts of people and made to work for a pittance. Somehow they found a path through and this book is the result of her tenacity and desire to work for a top law firm in New York.
She couldn’t speak a word of English when she arrived and her parents were forced to work in the sweatshops of the city just to be able to survive. They lived hand to mouth, avoiding all people in authority with the hope of beginning a new life there. She is a bright girl and she is quick to learn the language, but most of the children in her class shun her, so she loses herself in between the pages of books.
Staying out of the gaze of the authorities isn’t easy though, and the family have some close calls, none more so when her mother is taken really ill. The family reached a point where not doing anything will cost her life and if they do seek help, it could fracture the family completely.
This is an interesting account of a girl growing up in America as an illegal immigrant. She somehow manages to find a path through childhood and has to grow up really quickly to be able to help her parents. It is quite a sad read in lots of ways, they were taken advantage of by all sorts of people and made to work for a pittance. Somehow they found a path through and this book is the result of her tenacity and desire to work for a top law firm in New York.
As an immigrant who came to NYC in the early 90s, so much of Qian's story resonated with me. Though we arrived from different countries, our struggles were often the same. Her words brought forward my own tattered memories of my parent's pained labor, subsidized government food, and a longing for American normalcy that often escaped me. Much like Qian, I took refuge in books - my local branch of the Queens Public Library was my second home.
This memoir was so raw and descriptive. I absolutely devoured every word - through our likenesses and our differences. Absolutely stellar read that completely moved me.
This memoir was so raw and descriptive. I absolutely devoured every word - through our likenesses and our differences. Absolutely stellar read that completely moved me.
dnf at 38%. there's nothing inherently wrong with this book. it's just not hitting the way i need it to and it really isn't as introspective as i was hoping. mostly it was my failure to understand how key the "childhood" part of "beautiful country: a memoir of an undocumented childhood" was going to be as apparently this book never escapes her youth. even if it was told entirely through tableaus of her childhood, i would have liked more retrospection of the reality that child wang qian did not recognize in the moment and context on how these events culminate in who qian julie wang is now.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
The Marilyn chapter broke me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, Xenophobia
What an amazing story of survival, which may not have been possible if the author had not been an insightful and self-possessed young girl who had good instincts. These stories about people who feel compelled to flee their country of birth are always fascinating.
Captivating, gripping, beautiful, but also stressful. I felt like I was right there throughout the book, holding my breath when she held hers, feeling all the fear, shame, and guilt she felt.
I listened to the audiobook version, which is read by the author.
I listened to the audiobook version, which is read by the author.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Amazing account of immigration from China to the US (and eventually Canada) told from the perspective of a toddler/preschool aged child’s experience. The fear and hardships are heartbreaking- they worked so hard to just survive. Ultimately their many years of hard work pays off, but why must it be so hard? This was a family of highly intelligent and gifted people that were forced to work at menial labor jobs and dreadful environments to survive until they could, after a decade of amazingly hard work and sacrifice, get documented and find their way to Canada.
Wow, this book was so brutiful. The story of Qian and her family’s escape from the brutal tyranny of China and into a tyranny of a different kind: life as undocumented immigrants in America.
Full of hope and brimming with possibility and curiously, the Wang family is soon overcome by crushing fear and scarcity. Qian’s parents, who were professors in China, work in terrifying conditions in sweatshops in Brooklyn sewing tags into T-shirts and prepping seafood for sushi (which I now have lots of sourcing questions about), as they scrape together enough to never quite make ends meet. Qian is a brave little girl who stubbornly and resiliently continues on in her education all while facing hunger, trauma, and humiliation.
There are moments of delight to be found too: Qian’s satisfaction as she sinks her teeth into her first bite of greasy American pizza, weekly “shopping” with Ma Ma and Ba Ba where the family searches for treasures along the black bags on curbs, and trip to the Rockefeller Christmas tree with Mama. Qian has two teachers at different points in her young life who gave her two books that saved her life as a child: Charlotte’s Web and The Giver. As her family descends deeper into poverty and the Wang parents begin to turn their shame into clawing at one another, Ma Ma becomes so ill that they must risk taking her to hospital and Ba Ba in his shame becomes more and more numb.
A shade of immigration that I did not understand previously, this memoir about the Chinese-American experience brings to light those who came to Mei Guo, “Beautiful Country,” and found instead a dark and lonely existence. But somehow Qian continues looking for beauty.
Full of hope and brimming with possibility and curiously, the Wang family is soon overcome by crushing fear and scarcity. Qian’s parents, who were professors in China, work in terrifying conditions in sweatshops in Brooklyn sewing tags into T-shirts and prepping seafood for sushi (which I now have lots of sourcing questions about), as they scrape together enough to never quite make ends meet. Qian is a brave little girl who stubbornly and resiliently continues on in her education all while facing hunger, trauma, and humiliation.
There are moments of delight to be found too: Qian’s satisfaction as she sinks her teeth into her first bite of greasy American pizza, weekly “shopping” with Ma Ma and Ba Ba where the family searches for treasures along the black bags on curbs, and trip to the Rockefeller Christmas tree with Mama. Qian has two teachers at different points in her young life who gave her two books that saved her life as a child: Charlotte’s Web and The Giver. As her family descends deeper into poverty and the Wang parents begin to turn their shame into clawing at one another, Ma Ma becomes so ill that they must risk taking her to hospital and Ba Ba in his shame becomes more and more numb.
A shade of immigration that I did not understand previously, this memoir about the Chinese-American experience brings to light those who came to Mei Guo, “Beautiful Country,” and found instead a dark and lonely existence. But somehow Qian continues looking for beauty.
Absolutely stunning. I haven't cried while reading in years, but I definitely cried during this one.