Books like Beyond the narrow gate by Leslie Chang
In 1937, the year Leslie Chang's mother was born, the city of Nanking was destroyed by Japanese invaders with instructions from the Emperor to "kill all: destroy all; burn all." Eleven years later, when the Red Army marched into China, Han Man-li's family fled to Taiwan. It was there, at an elite girl's school in Taipei, that Han Man-li met Xiao Mei, Ling, and Ma-hua. They became close friends, sharing secrets, confidences, and the uncertainty of a country in turmoil.
A few years later, they would leave their homeland, passing through the "narrow gate" of the First Girl's School on their way to America. Student visas and scholarships brought them to the United States, but for Han Man-li, Xiao Mei, Ling, and Ma-hua - now Mary, Dolores, Suzanne, and Margaret - their journey was just beginning.
In cities as far apart as New York and Los Angeles, from the biology lab of a women's college to Wall Street to the gilded Chinese ghetto in California's Palos Verdes, Mary, Dolores, Suzanne, and Margaret made their choices and their compromises. That is part of the legacy they have passed on to their children. And the memories.
Beyond the Narrow Gate is the story of four women whose lives took divergent paths, yet who will always be bound by their shared heritage. It is a moving, insightful portrait of what it means to be a foreigner in America, to move from world to world without ever belonging to either - a truth that is at the heart of the immigrant experience.
First publish date: 1999
Subjects: Biography, New York Times reviewed, Chinese Americans, Biografía, Women immigrants
Authors: Leslie Chang
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Books similar to Beyond the narrow gate (7 similar books)
Amy Chua's daughters, Sophia and Louisa (Lulu) were polite, interesting and helpful; they had perfect school marks and exceptional abilities. The Chinese parenting model certainly seemed to produce results. But what happens when a screaming child, who would sooner freeze outside in the cold than be forced to play the piano, confronts you? BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER is a story about a mother, two daughters, and two dogs. It was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones. But instead, it's about a clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old.
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The author explores the landscapes and people of her native country; recounts the 1973 assassination of her uncle, which caused her to go into exile; and shares her experiences as an immigrant in post-September 11 America.
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Red Azalea is the story of a young woman's emotional and political education in the last years of Mao's China. Born in Shanghai in 1957 Anchee Min, as a member of the Little Red Guards, was asked to betray and publicly humiliate a beloved teacher. At seventeen she was sent to work at a labor collective, the Red Fire Farm, where her education in fear, deprivation, and hardship continued.
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Red Azalea is a revelatory and disturbing impression of China. It gives an intimate and compelling portrait of China's Cultural Revolution and its toll on the lives of the young men and women caught up in its fatal coils. The story Anchee Min recounts here is exceptional for its candor, its poignancy, its courage, and for "the most stunningly beautiful prose you could hope to read" (London Times).
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In the three decades that Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk has devoted himself to writing fiction, he has also produced scores of witty, moving, and provocative essays and articles. He engages the work of Nabokov, Kundera, Rushdie, and Vargas Llosa, among others, and he discusses his own books and writing process. We also learn how he lives, as he recounts his successful struggle to quit smoking, describes his relationship with his daughter, and reflects on the controversy he has attracted in recent years. Here is a thoughtful compilation of a brilliant novelist's best nonfiction, offering different perspectives on his lifelong obsessions with loneliness, contentment, and the books and cities that have shaped his experience.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Adeline Yen Mah was born in 1937 in Tianjin, a port city one thousand miles north of Shanghai. She was the fifth and youngest child of an affluent family. Her grand aunt - in an unprecedented achievement - had founded the Shanghai Women's Bank in 1924, and her father was a revered businessman whose reputation for turning iron into gold began when he started his own firm at the age of nineteen.
Yet wealth and position could not shield young Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of her own family.
Adeline's mother died giving birth to her. As a result she was deemed bad luck, and considered inferior and insignificant by her older siblings, who bullied her relentlessly. When her father took a beautiful Eurasian as his new wife, Adeline found herself at the mercy of a cold and cruelly manipulative stepmother. While Niang treated all of her stepchildren as second-class citizens, the full power of her wrath was unleashed on Adeline.
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Some Other Similar Books
Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. ChangThe Chinese Work-ethic: A Survey of the Literature by Shirley A. Sagawa
China's Great Migration by Li Zhang
Little Emperors: Rising Incomes and the Changing Politics of China’s Youth by Yasheng Huang
The China Dream: Great Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in the Post-American Era by Joseph S. Nye
Steps Toward an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson
Countrymen of the Stony Plain: A Novel of the Chinese Revolution by Howard G. Gittins
The Corpse Walker: Real-Life Stories, China by Liao Yiwu
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