“If there’s one thing I love, it’s a novel that’s ambitious, that’s kaleidoscopic, that’s large in scope and unafraid of its expansiveness—a novel like The Chinese Lady. Wang’s novel is a rich tapestry that follows the life of the first Chinese woman to be brought to America…. This novel is stunning—glittering and alive. It deserves a place on your bookshelf.” – LitHub
“Riveting…With nuanced character work and detailed storytelling informed by deep research into immigrant life in the 19th-century U.S., Wang offers a clear-eyed depiction of the myriad ways her protagonist is dehumanized. It’s an admirable achievement.” – Publishers Weekly
As rich in detail and emotion as Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Lisa See's Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, but with an exciting structure that reinvents the genre, Bo Wang’s gorgeous and immersive debut historical novel immortalizes the life of the first Chinese woman to be brought to the United States in the 1800s.
Little Sparrow, Julia, Afong Moy, Madame Moy, The Chinese Lady, were her many names . . . but her true name has been lost to time.
In 1834 Afong Moy was brought to New York by two merchants as a live exhibit. Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses.
As the story moves from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names. Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York. The captain’s wife names her Julia and “graciously” treats her as her own. And when she is shunted off to P.T Barnum, her fellow human exhibitions call her China. Eventually arriving in San Francisco's Chinatown, she will at long last claim her name and her own story.
Combining archival research and brilliantly imaginative storytelling, Bo Wang masterfully fills in history’s gaps to weave a powerful narrative of survival in the face of hardship, tragedy, and betrayal. Told through the eyes of those around her; mirroring her life as an object on display, until we finally see the world through her own eyes.
