As I was walking through the library, I saw Shanghai Girls on an end-cap. It had been on my "Amazon Recommends" list for a while so I decided to pick it up. I was excited to read this book, as I have not had the opportunity to read much about Chinese culture.
Shanghai Girls is the story of Pearl and May, and begins in pre-World War 2 Shanghai. May and Pearl are "beautiful girls": attractive women who appear in painted ads and calender pictures. These women are to be strong and healthy-- walking advertisements for happiness and prosperity in China. They are modern girls, shunning old fashioned Chinese traditions, attending college, and earning their own money. They have every intention of finding true love and marrying the man of their dreams.
Pearl and May's world is shattered when their father announces that he has lost all of his money, and that the girls have been sold into arranged marriages. Pearl and May are to move to America to be with their husbands. As they are preparing to escape, Japan bombs Shanghai. They are forced to flee the city and travel to Hong Kong. The road to Hong Kong is filled with war time atrocities, but somehow they make it and book passage on a ship bound for America.
The America that they find is not a land of opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Pearl and May have a long wait on Angel Island, where Chinese people are treated as lower class citizens. Customs agents are trained to seek out irregularities in immigrants' stories and send them back home. When they finally find their husbands in LosAngeles, Pearl and May find a world where Chinese are looked down upon and not allowed to own property.
Through WW2, and the anti-communist era the follows, the women try to find a balance the old and new worlds. Pearl finds strength in her mother's traditional Chinese customs as she raises her family. May embraces Hollywood, and tries to find ways to continue being a "beautiful girl."
I am not sure how I feel about the book. I didn't like how it ended, because it didn't. I purposefully saved what I thought to be the end of the book for a time when I could give it my full attention, only to find that there was no more story, only acknowledgments and blank pages. Is this for artistic purposes? Is a sequel planned? The prose itself was uneven. Parts of the book are lyrical and wonderful to read, while in other segments I found myself skimming over entire paragraphs. It was informative: the prejudices faced by early 20th century Chinese immigrants; the plights of the "paper sons" and their wives, here illegally, striving for a better life; the fear of being sent back to dangerous early communist China just because you bought the wrong newspaper or got into a feud with a neighbor who then reported you to the authorities.
In the end, I think I recommend reading Shanghai Girls. But not now, in the (hopefully) festive holiday season. Save it for a dreary January day when you are all snowed in.
Shanghai Girls is the story of Pearl and May, and begins in pre-World War 2 Shanghai. May and Pearl are "beautiful girls": attractive women who appear in painted ads and calender pictures. These women are to be strong and healthy-- walking advertisements for happiness and prosperity in China. They are modern girls, shunning old fashioned Chinese traditions, attending college, and earning their own money. They have every intention of finding true love and marrying the man of their dreams.
Pearl and May's world is shattered when their father announces that he has lost all of his money, and that the girls have been sold into arranged marriages. Pearl and May are to move to America to be with their husbands. As they are preparing to escape, Japan bombs Shanghai. They are forced to flee the city and travel to Hong Kong. The road to Hong Kong is filled with war time atrocities, but somehow they make it and book passage on a ship bound for America.
The America that they find is not a land of opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Pearl and May have a long wait on Angel Island, where Chinese people are treated as lower class citizens. Customs agents are trained to seek out irregularities in immigrants' stories and send them back home. When they finally find their husbands in LosAngeles, Pearl and May find a world where Chinese are looked down upon and not allowed to own property.
Through WW2, and the anti-communist era the follows, the women try to find a balance the old and new worlds. Pearl finds strength in her mother's traditional Chinese customs as she raises her family. May embraces Hollywood, and tries to find ways to continue being a "beautiful girl."
I am not sure how I feel about the book. I didn't like how it ended, because it didn't. I purposefully saved what I thought to be the end of the book for a time when I could give it my full attention, only to find that there was no more story, only acknowledgments and blank pages. Is this for artistic purposes? Is a sequel planned? The prose itself was uneven. Parts of the book are lyrical and wonderful to read, while in other segments I found myself skimming over entire paragraphs. It was informative: the prejudices faced by early 20th century Chinese immigrants; the plights of the "paper sons" and their wives, here illegally, striving for a better life; the fear of being sent back to dangerous early communist China just because you bought the wrong newspaper or got into a feud with a neighbor who then reported you to the authorities.
In the end, I think I recommend reading Shanghai Girls. But not now, in the (hopefully) festive holiday season. Save it for a dreary January day when you are all snowed in.
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