One of my favorite things about being a writer is visiting book groups. Over 20 book groups, both local and out of town (thanks to Skype), have read my memoir and have invited me to visit their group to discuss Good Chinese Wife. It was an honor last week to be mentioned in this book group article.
I’m visiting another next week and in May I’ll be bringing another group to Chinatown in Chicago for dim sum. I love the creative ways people center their lives around books.
It seemed like today would never get here, but it was finally the pub day for Gloria Chao‘s debut YA novel, American Panda (Simon Pulse, 2018)! I was so fortunate to read a review copy of American Panda months ago and am currently reading it now for the second time.
Gloria had a hectic day, speaking to a high school this morning, signing books at bookstores around the Chicago area during the day, and holding her launch party at Anderson’s Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois.
YA Novelist Christa Desir asked Gloria questions, mostly about how she wrote her characters and where she found her inspiration for American Panda. The story follows Mei Lu, a freshman at MIT whose parents have very high expectations for her–major in pre-med, go to med school, marry a nice Taiwanese-American guy. And most of all, she is not to waste her time on “frivolous” things that will deter her from their goals. But Mei has other plans and struggles to be the good Chinese daughter while at the same time following her own dreams. Can she have both? You’ll have to read American Panda to find out!
Other YA authors were in the audience!
One of the fun things about having a reading at Anderson’s is being able to sign your name to one of their pillars. Gloria chose a space just below Richard Russo’s signature.
If you’re in Chicago, it’s not too late to hear Gloria speak! We’ll be in conversation this Saturday at 57th Street Books in Hyde Park.
I met Samira Ahmed last summer at the American Library Association’s annual meeting. Her debut YA novel, Love, Hate, and Other Filters (Soho Teen, 2018) was one of the review copies I picked up at the conference and was the first I read.
It was so much warmer back then! Fast forward six months and today is finally her publication day. I drove out to Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville, Illinois for her book launch tonight.
She had a full house and talked about the Islamophobia in her book and how her protagonist, Maya, is completely unprepared for it in her Batavia, Illinois high school. Samira also discussed writing about first generation teens. If my kids’ school had YA books, this would be a must-read. But alas, it’s an elementary school and some of the content is a little advanced for 10 year olds. The message is crucial, though.
The questions from the audience were really great, too. Someone asked which part was her favorite to write (the end) and how she names her characters. She replied that she starts her novels with a title in mind and the characters’ names already decided. “It’s like naming your children,” she said. You wouldn’t change your children’s names after they’re ten years old, so it’s the same with her characters’ names.
Even though I had a review copy, I couldn’t not buy a hardcover. It’s so beautiful and every participant received a special card Samira designed.
And check out the back cover!
She’ll be doing events around the country and will be back in Chicago at 57th Street Books on Saturday, February 3rd at 3pm.
Last night I had so much fun meeting Lenora Chu, author of Little Soldiers: An American Boy, a Chinese School, and the Global Race to Achieve (Harper, 2017). She was reading at Common Good Books in St. Paul, Minnesota, a super cozy bookstore in a fun area near Macalester College. (I was in the Twin Cities for the day thanks to some Southwest credit and was visiting my friend Christine and her son, Sam.)
Little Soldiers is a combination memoir/journalistic look into China’s educational system. Chu and her husband send their oldest son to a local Chinese school in Shanghai and it’s been an eye opener.
She spoke about the differences between American and Chinese classrooms in her son’s top-ranked Shanghai school, but also in the countryside. Her anecdotes were fascinating, like rapid-fire nonsensical WeChat messages between the teacher and parents that sound so daunting I would probably throw my phone out the window. Or the time her teacher forced her son to eat eggs when he first started at the school. Speaking from experience, that would have been a disaster in my family; my oldest detests eggs.
She also spoke about the grueling exam system in China and how there aren’t enough university places for the 200 million students there, so competition is fierce. Children with disabilities are mainstreamed, but ignored and usually fall behind quickly. There are no special ed services.
But the Chinese system has lots of benefit. Children learn to work in groups and listen to one another. There is less unruliness in the classroom. I bet teachers at my kids’ school would appreciate that. And the best thing I heard all evening was that the Chinese government has been increasing its funding for education each year by 20%, a lot of which goes to teachers.
I can’t wait to read the book and actually bought a second copy to give to my kids’ principal. It’s always great to support authors and indie bookstores and our educators. I don’t personally have experience with the Chinese education system, but would have if I’d moved to China in 1998 instead of San Francisco. Those were my choices back when I was leaving Hong Kong.
