I just finished a very mesmerising book called Shanghai Girls by author Lisa See. The book is set in the 1900's when China was under attack by the Japanese and mass migration to other countries such as America occured.
The two sisters in the book were married off to Chinese Americans and were told to expect a big house, servants and lots of money waiting for them. Instead, life in the new world is not all a bed of roses. Chinese people in the America during that time were racially discriminated. Immigrants were firstly herded into a detention centre (I suppose similar to the Villawood in Australia for refugees). They were then examined, questioned and integorated until their stories fell apart.
Those who successfully survived the detention centre were allowed into the country however due to discrimination, were only able to work in very few places that would accept them such as in Chinatown. They were unable to marry outside of their race, work freely, own assets or live safely.
I was deeply touched by the hardships the two sisters had to go through fleeing war in their own country, hardships in the detention centre at San Francisco and then a tough life in America. From a leisure filled life in Shanghai, they sank to the lowest of workers in Chinatown, San Francisco.
Perhaps I had been wondering if my grandparents had migrated to America instead of Malaya, my parents and subsequently my life would have followed a different path too. Although I never met my paternal grandparents, their lives in Malaya were not easy but the elders made no mention of racial discrimination. It is disheartening that only now racism should rear its ugly head to threaten the harmony of the country.
1 comment:
Good to share the book you've read. I would like to read this book, too.
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