![]() ![]() Wong tells of her realization that the very strict upbringing of her home, devoid of outward expressions of love, was not the norm in mainstream American society. As a child, Wong frequently puzzled over the differences between her home life in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where her parents owned a home-based garment factory, and the wider American world. I read it slowly, savoring each anecdote of this honest and in some ways charming coming-of-age story. I thoroughly enjoyed the hours I spent reading this book. In some ways, the book reminded me of the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (also written in third person), partly because Wong spends a lot of time describing the food and customs she grew up around, and also because she gets to the heart of the matter in a succinct, simple, authentic way. The third person point of view gives the memoir a formal feel, yet Wong’s simple, direct language is very accessible. In written Chinese, prose or poetry, the word ‘I’ almost never appears, but is understood” (p. Wong chose to write in third person, rather than first person, because of Chinese habit, as she explains: “The submergence of the individual is literally practiced. Fifth Chinese Daughter, first published in 1945, was one of the first memoirs by a Chinese-American. ![]()
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