Fifth Chinese Daughter

Jade Snow Wong author Kathryn Uhl illustrator Leslie Bow editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:University of Washington Press

Published:21st Nov '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Fifth Chinese Daughter cover

New edition of a groundbreaking memoir and foundational work in Asian American literature

Jade Snow Wong’s autobiography portrays her coming-of-age in San Francisco's Chinatown, offering a rich depiction of her immigrant family and her strict upbringing, as well as her rebellion against family and societal expectations for a Chinese woman. Originally published in 1950, Fifth Chinese Daughter was one of the most widely read works by an Asian American author in the twentieth century. The US State Department even sent its charismatic young author on a four-month speaking tour throughout Asia.

Cited as an influence by prominent Chinese American writers such as Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston, Fifth Chinese Daughter is a foundational work in Asian American literature. It was written at a time when few portraits of Asian American life were available, and no similar works were as popular and broadly appealing. This new edition includes the original illustrations by Kathryn Uhl and features an introduction by Leslie Bow, who critically examines the changing reception and enduring legacy of the book and offers insight into Wong’s life as an artist and an ambassador of Chinese American culture.

"A sensitive and revealing story of a Chinese American girl’s coming of age in America. It is unique."

* New York Herald Tribune *

"A fascinating narrative, not only because of the courage and humour which shine through every page of the book, but also because it shows how the members of a typical Chinese family can adapt themselves to American conditions and take their part in the national life of the United States without losing the essentials of the cultural heritage which they rightly prize."

* Times Literary Suppleme

ISBN: 9780295746562

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 476g

288 pages