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A review by crlk
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
2.0
Finished reading Shanghai Girls last night. I have mixed feelings. I loved reading the beginning of the book when the girls were in Shanghai because it took me to a place I did not know and had never seen and the imagery and "sights & smells" were truly fiction for me. It forced my imagination to work and this is one of the reasons why I read fiction. Even after they landed in America, I still enjoyed reading about the challenges and struggles they faced because I could only imagine what it was like. To me, Joy was the calendar, the timeline, so that I knew how many years had passed on the pages. She was 2 then 5 then 10 then 16 then she was off to college. But from around the time she was 10 through the end of the book was extraordinarily hard for me to read because it was no longer fiction for me. It hit a little too close to home and it made me uncomfortable because I wasn't really in the mood to read historical fiction about the plight of my own family. Lisa See did a wonderful job as always in writing - don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy her books and I plan on reading more of her work. But the words, the stories themselves were too hard for me to read - because these things - the racism, the exclusion from certain neighborhoods, the ridicule, the hurtful words that kids and teachers say in schools where "Chinese don't belong, the "go back to where you came from" - all Chinese immigrants like me and my family know all too well. They are words and actions that we try to push so far into the backs of our minds that we hope the pain never gets stirred up again.
So I raced through the last 50 pages or so, unfortunately, only because it was too painful for me personally to read.
The story could even be called "too far from home"- but then again, were the girls really too far from home? They brought with them to America pieces of Shanghai and their culture. They brought things that reminded them of their history and their past and they continued to practice customs from their culture to remind them of Shanghai and China. But I think what they only started to realize after many years of being in America was that they didn't need all those "things" they brought because they brought themselves. And they were their own best reminder of a culture and customs that were not to be forgotten.
Joy was like the catalyst, a first-generation Chinese American - almost a foreigner to May and Pearl - a reminder that they built a bridge to connect them from one culture to another, but that it was a one-way bridge. May and Pearl realized they could never really traverse back across the bridge again back to their home country. "Home" had changed - it was no longer the China they remembered now that it was Communist. Just like all immigrants, we redefine what it means to be "home."
I would recommend it - but if you are like me, a Chinese immigrant who lived through this experience - I would caution you to be in the right frame of mind so you can enjoy reading it.
So I raced through the last 50 pages or so, unfortunately, only because it was too painful for me personally to read.
The story could even be called "too far from home"- but then again, were the girls really too far from home? They brought with them to America pieces of Shanghai and their culture. They brought things that reminded them of their history and their past and they continued to practice customs from their culture to remind them of Shanghai and China. But I think what they only started to realize after many years of being in America was that they didn't need all those "things" they brought because they brought themselves. And they were their own best reminder of a culture and customs that were not to be forgotten.
Joy was like the catalyst, a first-generation Chinese American - almost a foreigner to May and Pearl - a reminder that they built a bridge to connect them from one culture to another, but that it was a one-way bridge. May and Pearl realized they could never really traverse back across the bridge again back to their home country. "Home" had changed - it was no longer the China they remembered now that it was Communist. Just like all immigrants, we redefine what it means to be "home."
I would recommend it - but if you are like me, a Chinese immigrant who lived through this experience - I would caution you to be in the right frame of mind so you can enjoy reading it.