June Book Review

Yup, I finished a book in June and never did a review with everything else going on.

June's book was "China Wakes", a really interestingly written book. It's written by a husband and wife team, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, chronicaling their time as reporters for the New York Times while living in Beijing. Sheryl is a third-generation Chinese-American from NYC while Nicholas is from Oregon.

I think this is a really wonderful book, every odd chapter is written by Nicholas and every even chapter is written by Sheryl. At first, when this was mentioned I thought, how will it work? Turns out that every chapter is it's own little story, each one on different themes but somehow flowing into the next chapter quite well.

They lived in China for many years and were able to get to know far more than a tourist, a 'normal' outsider ever would. They visited villages closed to 'outsiders', were present during the Tiananmen Square uprising, the saw the very highs of the emerging Chinese culture and the very lows, from Tibet to Hong Kong, from the very young to the very old.

One passage by Sheryl talks about how she never quite felt through life that she fit in. Looking Chinese in the US could be isolating, and being in China but not being native to China was also isolating. She looked like everyone else there, but few treated her as if she belonged. She felt American but also felt Chinese. She quotes:

"In New York, I had spent much of my life trying to be American, playing by American rules, learning the ins and outs of American society. In China, I found myself trying to be Chinese, playing by Chinese rules, and learning how to operate in Chinese society. Yet in neither place did I entirely fit in the mainstream. So, perhaps, my time in China was not just a search for the "Real China" but also a search for an identity"

she goes on to talk about 'finding your roots'.

"In China, where you come from, where your family comes from, is a critical part of your character. In America, when you first meet someone you might want to find out about his family, his interests, his background. In China, you want to know is laojia, his "ancestral home", where his family came from. Ask an American where his family comes from and he might say, 'we're Irish or Italian'. Ask what village he is from and he would probably shrug his shoulders. A Chinese-American in China finds out very early on that she had better knjow exactly where her family is from".

I think Sheryl tugs at the heartstrings of the adoptive families from China, you know, the ones who really want to help their child(ren) identify with being Chinese, those willing to acknowledge they are not just American. What can we give to them, how can we help them? I know Magpie will at times connect with her American heritage and at other times I know she will rebel against it, likewise with her Chinese heritage, there will times of embracement and times of discontent. It will be up to Eric and I to give her the courage and strength to challenge who she is, what she identifies with and the security to know that we will always be there, no matter what.
There won't be a book review for July as I didn't read one! I am however planning to read "Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son" next and will finish in August so jsut a short hiatus till the next one. And after that one I need to head back to the bookstore as my shelves are empty!