Beautiful Country: A Memoir

In Beautiful Country, Qian Julie Wang recounts her childhood, moving from China to Brooklyn, NY when she was young and having to learn to adapt to a new country, culture, and economic status as an outsider. Her father’s family ran afoul of the Chinese government, which inspired them to travel to America for greater opportunity. Unfortunately, they found a system that preys on the vulnerable, where every day involved fear of deportation, fear of not finding enough food to eat, and fear of shame for not fitting into a culture built on white supremacy. Despite this, Wang did not fully realize the significance of some of the events until years later and quickly adapted to a routine, finding joy in books even as the stress began to take show more its toll on her parents. Her mother sacrificed the most, having been a professor of computer studies back home but only finding work in sweatshops, with the malnutrition from poverty taxing her health. Wang’s account uncovers the hidden costs of the American dream and how structures of privilege work to limit access to it. A must-read, particularly as it reveals the generational trauma of a rigged immigration system that works to maintain white supremacy. show less

Really good. She works well with the realities of memory. It's not strictly chronological. She captures the child's perspective so effectively that the last section where she talks about that girl versus her present self works so much better than other versions of that conceit.

She describes vividly. She gets across the complexity of people in the characters of her parents. She makes setting essential. At the end when she describes the drive to Long Island I was amazed at the idea of not seeing a horizon for so long--at the way she made it clear how limited (yet infinite) her child's world had been for those years.

This one is both a valuable read and a valuable memoir for a writer to study

I dislike passing judgment on memoirs…everyone has a right to their own story. Although this was written as an immigrant story and that is for sure what it is, it is also a grueling story of poverty, made all the worse by racism and fear. Reading vivid accounts of her childhood hunger and the resulting physical impact from a poor and uncertain diet, one aches for her that she had to experience such hardship. Her reactions were hard to read…anger, frustration, sadness, meanness, anxiety…all part of this little girl’s life when she was torn from comfort to uncertainty. She summarizes her life after childhood at the end. Some readers are frustrated by not being able to dig deeper into her rise from poverty. But this is the memoir show more she chose to write, and I respect her decision. Perhaps others just wanted the happy ending without immersing themselves into the deprivation of her childhood. I leave it up to you to determine if you will find this journey informative or unfinished. show less

This is an extraordinary memoir. The author writes about her childhood as an illegal immigrant who came with her family from China to America (“Mei Guo” or “Beautiful Country”) in 1994 at age 7. She manages to recreate her past without any adult hindsight coloring her impressions. Thus, we can fully appreciate her confusion, fear, and the enormous challenges - including the language barrier - as she tries to make her way in her new country.

Qian’s father continuously warned her not to talk to any strangers in New York, but she and her family were perceived as “other” nevertheless. Almost every day, they were called “chinks” by passersby in the street. Fear was a constant part of their lives.

Back in China, her parents show more had been professionals - her father taught English literature and her mother taught math. In New York, however, without papers, her parents had to take any menial jobs they could find. Qian’s mother found work in various sweatshops that literally paid pennies; Qian’s “Ba Ba,” who had English skills, was able, after an initial stint in a Chinese laundry, to find a job as a clerk for an immigration lawyer.

Qian went to school, but lacking English, was put into a class for “special needs” children, and left to learn English on her own. She indeed taught herself, availing herself of picture books that enabled her to associate words with objects. She discovered the riches available in the public library, too, and soon she was back in the regular classroom and outshining her peers.

At home, with the low wages her parents brought in and the stress of poverty, life was a struggle in other ways. She writes, “America was a living lesson in hunger. Our kitchen contained more cockroaches than food. . . . Hunger was a constant, reliable friend in Mei Guo. She came second only to loneliness. Hunger slept only when I did, and sometimes not even then.”

Qian decided in fifth grade that she wanted to become a lawyer. She reasoned that lawyers made good money, and plus, both Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall proved that lawyers didn’t have to be men, and didn’t have to be white. Her teacher laughed at her, and along with other adults tried to discourage her, but she would not be deterred, and eventually succeeded.

The family finally found a path to citizenship by moving to Canada. The story mostly ends there, although Qian adds at the end that she eventually made her way back to the U.S. She attended Swarthmore College, Yale Law School, and then landed a job at a top law firm.

In May 2016, “just shy of eight thousand days after I first landed I New York City” she finally became a U.S. citizen. But the frightened and traumatized little girl remained inside her. She wrote this book in part to unburden herself from the past, so it would lose power over her present and future.

She said she also wanted to convey a message to Americans and immigrants everywhere: “The heartbreak of one immigrant is never that far from that of another.” But most of all, she writes in the preface, “I put these stories to paper for this country’s forgotten children, past and present, who grow up cloaked in fear, desolation, and the belief that their very existence is wrong, their very being illegal.”

Evaluation: While I have read a number of immigrant memoirs, this one stands out for the ways in which it seems unfiltered by the benefit of adult hindsight. Those who want a good look at what immigrant children go through should not miss this poignant story. show less

If reading is an exercise in empathy, then it makes perfect sense to seek out the stories of those who are marginalized. It is never easy to read about hunger and poverty, especially when children are involved, but when a child goes hungry in an affluent society, surrounded by full and sated peers, in a first world country that calls itself a world leader, then outrage is unavoidable.

Perhaps we need to remind ourselves that how a society treats its most vulnerable members (the young, the elderly, the infirm) is an excellent gauge of its humanity. Closing our eyes makes us complicit, which is why this is an important book that should be widely read.

Beautiful Country is not only a deeply moving childhood memoir that chronicles the first show more years of an undocumented family in America, it is a searing indictment of the policies and laws that contribute to endemic poverty and exploitation of undocumented workers.

In an increasingly divisive society, in a world that appears to be regressing, hope cannot afford to be fragile or idealistic. Instead, it might wear the unwashed overalls of a hungry child and be as determined as a mother who, left with nothing, still wants everything for her daughter.

Against all odds, Qian Julie Wang fought her way out of abject poverty and horrendous discrimination, becoming a civil rights lawyer. Sharing her story with the world is a courageous act, helping give voice to the voiceless. Her story is one that most of us are too privileged to know but, hopefully, not too privileged to acknowledge. show less

What an eye-opening, shocking story this book will be for most of us who read it. Being undocumented, intentionally invisible, never quite fitting it but never quite wanting to go “home” because that place where we started is no longer home. Nearly impossible to understand or relate, until an author like Qian Julie Wang writes such a strong, moving memoir that we are forced to almost live her life; we can’t turn away. We feel the pain and the shame and the anger and the hope. Author Qian Julie’s use of the perspective of her younger self makes the story all the more fascinating and at times heartbreaking. In some ways a child is a child is a child. But no child should have to endure what she did, to feel what she felt.

Most of us show more go about our lives oblivious to how cruel and impersonal, how unwelcoming, our behavior is to those who are different and are trying to find their place, to blend in while remaining true to themselves. We think, “You’re lucky to be in this Beautiful Country.” And that’s true, but author Qian Julie gives us the depth and the background and the reality of the struggle of another version of the American family.

Thanks to Doubleday, Penguin Random House for providing an advance copy of Beautiful Country via NetGalley for my honest review. It was an honor and a joy to read this heartfelt memoir and I recommend it without hesitation. All opinions are my own. show less

I'd seen this book recommended several places, so when a new bookstore opened up near me, this was my selection. It is an astonishing book, beautifully written, brutally honest, and an education, I am pretty sure, to most of its readers. My family immigrated here at the beginning of the last century. Their story is one of struggle and hard work, but the experience so different from what Qian Julie Wang recounts. It was heartbreaking and eye-opening for me. To the author, thank you for digging deep, for letting that little girl surface, and for sharing with your readers this glimpse into another America. In these days of adjusting visions, of examining beliefs and actions, your experience will be part of the measure I use for behaviors show more in the future, for doing what I can to make this a beautiful country for those who arrive from afar, however they arrive and whatever their status. Thank you.

2021 pandemic resurgence/Delta variant read. (Please wear a mask, get vaccinated, and stay safe.) show less