Beautiful country : a memoir
(Book)
Author
Published
New York : Doubleday, [2021].
Edition
First edition.
ISBN
9780385547215, 0385547218
Physical Desc
x, 305 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Status
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Somerville - Adult | 974.71 WA | On Shelf |
Somerville West - Adult | 974.71 WA | On Shelf |
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Acton - Adult | Biography Wang, Q.J. | On Shelf |
Arlington - Adult | B WANG, Q. | On Shelf |
Ashland - Adult | B WANG | Checked Out |
Bedford - Adult | BIO Wang, Qian Julie | On Shelf |
Belmont Beech St. - Adult | B WANG, Q./ WAN | Storage |
More Details
Published
New York : Doubleday, [2021].
Format
Book
Edition
First edition.
Language
English
ISBN
9780385547215, 0385547218
Notes
Description
"Beautiful Country is the real deal. Heartrending, unvarnished, and powerfully courageous, this account of growing up undocumented in America will never leave you."--Gish Jen, author of The Resisters. "Ba Ba told me this and I in turn carried it in my heart: so long as we didn't stake claim to what wasn't ours--the things, our rooms, America, this beautiful country--we would be okay." An incandescent and heartrending memoir about Qian Julie Wang's five years living undocumented after immigrating with her parents from China to New York City in 1994. In Chinese the word for the United States, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country," but when seven-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. Unable to speak English at first, Qian is isolated and disregarded, put into special education classes because she doesn't speak the language and humiliated by teachers and classmates when she struggles to pay attention because of hunger or exhaustion. She encounters racism, and people of other races, for the first time, shocked at where her family fits in comparison to their status as educated elites in China. After school she works shifts alongside her mother in Chinatown sweatshops. There is so much about Qian's new home that doesn't make sense, but the rules of survival are drilled into her head: If you see a policeman, you must run in the other direction. If anyone asks--or even if they don't--you tell them you were born here. Do as you're told or we could be separated forever. Understanding impliclity the toll this has taken on her parents, Qian tries desperately to cheer them up and mediate their increasingly heated arguments, certain that if she is good enough, she can hold the family together. In remarkable, unsentimental prose Wang channels her childhood perspective, illuminating the cruelty and indignity of America's immigration system, while also crafting a narrative of resilience from her family's small moments of joy: their first slice of pizza, "shopping days" when the family would unearth unlikely treasures in Brooklyn's trash, and the necessary escape she found in books at the local library. Searing and unforgettable, Beautiful Country is an essential book about the cost of making a home in a hostile land from an astonishing new talent"--,Provided by publisher.
Description
In Chinese the word for the United States, Mei Guo, translates directly to "beautiful country." When seven-year-old Qian is plucked from her warm and happy childhood surrounded by extended family in China, she finds a world of crushing fear and poverty instead. For five years she lived undocumented after immigrating with her parents to New York City. Shocked at where her family fits in comparison to their status as educated elites in China, she works shifts alongside her mother in Chinatown sweatshops. Unable to speak English, isolated and disregarded, Qian put into special education classes and humiliated by teachers and classmates when she struggles to pay attention because of hunger or exhaustion. Her memoir illuminates the cruelty and indignity of America's immigration system, and the cost of making a home in a hostile land. -- adapted from publisher info
Subjects
LC Subjects
Autobiographies.
Biography.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Biography.
Chinese Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Illegal immigration -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Noncitizens -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Shijiazhuang Shi (China) -- Biography.
Wang, Qian Julie, -- 1987- -- Childhood and youth.
Wang, Qian Julie, -- 1987- -- Family.
Biography.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Biography.
Chinese Americans -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Illegal immigration -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Immigrants -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Noncitizens -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography.
Shijiazhuang Shi (China) -- Biography.
Wang, Qian Julie, -- 1987- -- Childhood and youth.
Wang, Qian Julie, -- 1987- -- Family.
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Citations
APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)
Wang, Q. J. (2021). Beautiful country: a memoir (First edition.). Doubleday.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Wang, Qian Julie, 1987-. 2021. Beautiful Country: A Memoir. Doubleday.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Wang, Qian Julie, 1987-. Beautiful Country: A Memoir Doubleday, 2021.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Wang, Qian Julie. Beautiful Country: A Memoir First edition., Doubleday, 2021.
Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.
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