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Lights and Shadows of a Macao Life, the title chosen by Harriet Low for her journal, aptly describes the conflicting emotions of the first American woman to live in China. Making a rude transition from the tranquility of Salem, Massachusetts into a world of sampans and sedan chairs, women with bound feet and men with queues, the lively young American records a detailed portrait of her life in Macao from 1829-1834. The constricted lifestyle of foreign merchants' wives, forced by the Chinese to live in Macao while their husbands traded tea and opium in Canton; balls, operas and picnics; Chinese customs and Catholic processions; true friendship and false; romance or religion are all reflected in the pages of her journal. Throughout nine volumes, Harriett Low displays wit and courage as she metamorphoses from a socially naive girl into a mature, independent woman.