Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang

 

"I figured being rejected was just the same as not trying---worse probably, because I would always wonder. Perhaps that was Ma Ma's voice within me, telling me that I could do everything she hadn't done but wished that she had, promising me that whatever I saw out there, whatever I envied, could be mine as long as I chose to make it so."

             -The author's thoughts, from the memoir

This memoir was suggested by one of our Page Turners for this year's reading. It was a bit reminiscent of The Girl with Seven Names except that Ms. Wang immigrated to America from China. Along with her parents, Ma Ma and Ba Ba, Qian arrived in New York City in 1994. She was about 6 years old. 

Although her parents were professors in China, they could find only menial work in the U.S. and the family lived in poverty most of Qian's childhood. What her father called the Beautiful Country did not become beautiful in Qian's eyes for quite a while. Not only did they have to fear deportation but many of Qian's teachers were far from understanding and kind. Many classmates either ignored or teased her. She felt very lonely. But she discovered a sanctuary in the New York Public Library and became a voracious reader. She taught herself much of the language and culture through books and TV shows.

The television she enjoyed was familiar to me, but I really got a kick out of the books she mentioned. Many of them I had read and loved when I taught elementary school like Charlotte's Web, The Giver, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil T. Frankweiler and Where the Red Fern Grows to name a few. I could appreciate her elementary school humor, also. Qian was a very precocious child and a feisty one, so it is not surprising that she graduated from college and Yale law school.

I was bothered by the fact that some of the Chinese dialogue was not translated, and I have no idea how to pronounce Qian.

I rated the book a 3, very interesting but not really a page-turner. It remains to be seen what the group will think.

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Page Turners met to discuss Beautiful Country. As a group we liked the book, rating it a 3.8. We agreed that it opened our eyes to the experience of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and encouraged more empathy. Much of our discussion focused on those experiences and the relationship of Qian and her parents. Our knowledge of Chinese culture was expanded, as well. We felt by ending the book when she did, she left enough memories for another book!