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Beyond the Narrow Gate: The Journey of Four Chinese Women from the Middle Kingdom to Middle America
 
Beyond the Narrow Gate: The Journey of Four Chinese Women from the Middle Kingdom to Middle America
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Beyond the Narrow Gate: The Journey of Four Chinese Women from the Middle Kingdom to Middle America

by Leslie Chang
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Dutton Adult (1999-05-01)
ISBN: 0525942572
EAN: 9780525942573
Binding/Media: Hardcover - 400 pages
SKU: 5_900094
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: **A WONDERFU HARDBACK BOOK!** AS PICTURED. 1999. DUTTON, 1ST EDITION, EARLY PRINT. HARDBACK BOOK, DUST JACKET AND PAGES ARE IN MINT CONDITION. SHIPS RAPIDLY. GREAT PACKAGING. PRIORITY AIR MAIL.

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
An epic of four Chinese women and their journey from East to West. When the Communists took over mainland China, among the many that were forced to flee their homeland were four remarkable women. Arriving in Taiwan in 1948, Dolores, Suzanne, Margaret, and Mary met at the elite First Girls School, the "narrow gate" where a lucky few could become eligible for U.S. visas. In this refuge, their characters were built, their friendships were formed, and their eyes were focused on the future--a life in America, where their paths would diverge dramatically. But this group portrait does not end once the women reach America. Beyond the Narrow Gate chronicles the struggles and hardships the women faced in their new country and breaks new ground by taking readers outside of Chinatown into diverse communities and families, effectively re-drawing the map of Asian America. The daughter of one of her subjects, journalist Leslie Chang weaves her own personal story as a second-generation Chinese American into her narrative, illuminating generational differences and conflicts. She unflinchingly examines the experience of feeling like a stranger in both the white and Chinese communities, the constraints of parental expectations, and the complexity of interracial relationships. Impeccably researched, beautifully written, Beyond the Narrow Gate is an unforgettable epic of American immigration, a true story as riveting as any novel.
Amazon.com Review
The Chinese this century have endured traumas inconceivable to modern Western generations. Beyond the Narrow Gate is the story of four girls who fled extreme violence, privation, and the Communist Red Army in 1948. Author Leslie Chang hoped to uncover the family history that her mother, one of the girls, was unwilling to talk about and learn her own identity in the process. The gulf between their experiences is profound. As Chang says of her orphaned mother, "At thirteen, she had learned to expect only the worst from life; at thirteen, I thought the greatest tragedy was losing a contact lens." Chang's tale weaves together several themes: her mother's passage from Chinese student to American housewife; the varied experiences of three friends her mother made at an elite girls' school in Taiwan; the mother-daughter relationship; and growing up in an alien culture.

Chang brings great empathy, passion, and descriptive elegance to this important book about the contemporary immigrant experience, exploring territory opened up to us by Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior. When the book ends with mother and daughter celebrating Chinese New Year in Taiwan, we share in the understanding that enables them to sit quietly with the ancient aunt who took advantage of the mother when she was a defenseless teenager. For the first time, Chinese celebrations hold meaning for Leslie Chang. --John Stevenson
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