beautiful country qian julie wang review

Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops.

In China, Qian’s parents were professors in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. Can’t we all relate to trying to make sense of the world when we were kids?īeautiful Country is now available and was the Today Show / Read with Jenna book club pick for September, 2021. The result is a memoir that feels relatable even if you have nothing in common with her circumstance other than the shared experience of being a child. She writes of her youth as an illegal immigrant with the innocence of a young girl, as opposed to filtering it through a lens of an adult who has lived and learned and is now looking back.

The thing that struck me most about “Beautiful Country” is how razor-focused Qian’s childhood memories are. Learning the new language comes a bit easier to her, but that doesn’t save her from the poverty, racism, and overall hardships. Since she’s just a child under 10, she’s slightly more adept at acclimating to the US way of life than her parents. Qian and her parents moved to New York’s Chinatown in 1994 and had to rebuild their life amidst sweatshop employment conditions and disgusting tenement living quarters. I’ve read a few immigrant stories in my day, but none so vividly captured the contemporary experience of moving to my “beautiful country,” America, through the eyes of a child as did Qian Julie Wang’s 2021 memoir.

Beautiful country qian julie wang review