A review by sacred_souljer
The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang

3.0

I am conflicted some by this book. In some circles this book received rave reviews. In others people found it terrible. I am somewhere in the middle. I didn’t have a hard time reading this one and there were some great moments in the book like the scene in the lecture hall or when the Mercedes narrates a chapter. I sometimes felt as though the book was campy and it teetered on the line with certain stereotypes. On the other hand, I’ve seen other families deal with some of the same issues where they are not quite PC in their personal home conversations. I feel like I learned a good deal about Chinese culture and I had fun reviewing my limited knowledge of the Mandarin language which we are learning along with our youngest son. All in all I was interested throughout the book about the characters and I can relate to this journey that Charles experienced to find that he belongs to both China and the US. I’ve seen this in my own immigrant family, especially with the person that arrives in the US first... this longing for success and growth in a new country vs. to pull of the old country. In the end I find that this story did serve to its purpose of giving the reader a look inside a different culture and the inter-generational immigrant experience.