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Beautiful country wang6/2/2023 ![]() ![]() At first, Wang is also employed, toddling off to do piecework with her mother, but eventually she is enrolled in school, where she proves to be highly capable once she overcomes the barriers of language and culture. I’ve lived here all my life.” Because they are in the US illegally, they must find work to do under the table, and so they are exploited by the most malevolent sweatshop owners. From the moment her feet touch American soil, her parents drill the story into her: “I was born here. Wang comes to the USA, which in Chinese translates to “Beautiful Country,” as a small child. My thanks go to Net Galley and Doubleday for the invitation to read and review, along with my apologies for being inexcusably late. Wang’s memoir tells of the deprivation and terror, combined with occasional lifesaving windfalls and ingenuity, of growing up as an “illegal,” and of how, against all odds, she ultimately finds success and citizenship. When her father finds a way to relocate himself and his family to New York, it is under a tourist visa, and so they cannot legally remain in the USA, or get any sort of legitimate employment. Her father’s elder brother has written critically about Mao Zedong, naively signing his own name to the article, and as a result, the entire family lives under a cloud and the threat of violence, courtesy of Chinese Stalinism. Qian Julie Wang is born in China to a professional couple living under the shadow of governmental disfavor. ![]()
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