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A review by rsm_reads
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
4.0
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.