A review by serendipitysbooks
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.25

 
Beautiful Country is an eye opening and heartbreaking memoir about the toll being an undocumented immigrant can have on a young child - the way secrecy is so critical and the mental and physical stresses that can impose, poverty and its associated conditions like hunger and poor living conditions, parents so busy surviving that they have little time or energy left to parent and so much more. It also shows this toll can continue to impact them even when they are seemingly successful adults.

Several things really jumped out at me from this memoir. One was the routine sexual harassment and predatory behaviour that Qian experienced as she moved around New York City as a young child. Another was the cruelty or cluelessness she experienced from so many educators who ignored her, laughed at her ambitions, and seemingly had no idea of financial barriers she faced. A third was the way she took on adult worries and responsibilities, trying to protect her parents from themselves and each other. The stresses their immigration status, their lowered social status (professors in China, sweatshop workers in the US) and their differing views on what their future should look like, clearly took a toll on her parent’s marriage. It would be easy to judge her parents, particularly her father who resorted to violence and cruelty, for their parenting failures . But that seems too easy; actions, even seemingly unforgivable ones, need to be viewed in context.

Yet the thing that struck me the most was the way Qian battled on in spite of these obstacles, determinedly teaching herself to read and understand English while the school ignored her, gaining entry to a gifted programme of her choice, and finding genuine joy and pleasure in the small things like shopping on trash day.

This memoir certainly highlights the curiosity, grit, resourcefulness and determination that allowed the author to survive and eventually thrive. But it also forces the reader to question whether or not the US actually merits it’s Chinese name Mei Guo (Beautiful Country). 
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