Beautiful Country is a literal translation of the Chinese words for the United States, but Qian Julie Wang's memoir of an undocumented child's experience in the United States has many moments that are anything but beautiful. Wang writes the voice and perspective of herself as a child so well that I really felt immersed in her world. She writes many phrases and sentences in Chinese pinyin. They're mostly translated or explained in the following sentences, but for me as a Chinese speaker, I could imagine all of the characters speaking in their native language.

I think Wang's story is important to tell because it is different from how people usually imagine both undocumented families and Chinese families. The poverty and struggles that are described in this memoir are so different from the "model minority" homogenous image that is applied to Asian Americans. 

The main reason this wasn't a 5 star book for me was because I wanted the story to go further. It's mostly about a specific period of Wang's life and ends pretty abruptly after that. Yet we know that she went on to go to a prestigious law school and have a very successful career. I would have been interested to read more of the transition between these two phases of life. Maybe there will be a sequel!

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

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A beautiful, utterly personal and raw memoir of her journey from China to America. In Chinese, America translated to “Beautiful Country.”
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This is a coming of age story tied into a journey where she and her family are hiding in the shadows trying to make a life for themselves in America. How one can feel simultaneously so different yet so the same in this beautiful country.
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This book is out today.
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Thank you @NetGalley and @Doubleday for an arc

In this memoir, Qian Julie Wang describes her childhood as an undocumented immigrant in New York City after moving from China at age seven. Her stories highlight the fear and confusion that defined her coming-of-age. It’s heartbreaking to read about the blatant racism and xenophobia she experienced as well as the moments of invisibility. Yet through it all, she is determined and hopeful.

I can’t find the right word to describe it, but I adored her style of storytelling. Compelling, tender, and observant would all apply. I flew through this because I was so drawn to her voice and journey.

This is a remarkable memoir that will tug at your heartstrings. I highly recommend it!

If you have read many immigrant stories before this one, you should begin to find a common thread running through them all. First, there is an escape from homeland, either because of war, poverty, politics, economics, religion, to freedom from any or all of that. Then, there is a realization that the place you escaped to doesn’t want you there; you look alien; you’re poor; you don’t speak the language (English generally). Next, there are no jobs for someone like you despite being a doctor, etc., in your homeland. So, you wash dishes, clean homes, anything to support the family. Hello!! Does this ring a bell yet? Wang’s life as described in this book reflects pretty much, all immigrant lives, documented or undocumented, in their desire to make a life for themselves as best as they can. They live with hope and dignity yet are continually getting knocked down, humiliated, in fear. So, we call Wang and others like her “lucky” because they happened to not die, commit suicide, or jailed, as they made their way from kidhood to adulthood. You need to read this book—someday, you will find that thread.

On the heals of Labor Day, this memoir is the perfect read and really struck a chord with me. As a daughter of Portuguese immigrants, I felt an immediate kinship with Qian from the get-go. And yet, she faced so many more struggles than I did, since she was the daughter of undocumented immigrants. Hers was a starkly different experience, in that she and her parents were constantly living under the veil of fear, never knowing if they would be deported. Living with this ever-present undercurrent of anxiety is a tremendous hardship, and one that affects an innumerable number of families in our country.

Ms. Wang takes readers along on her unforgettable, painful journey beginning in 1994, through childhood and into adulthood, as she maneuvers a new life where she and her family are shown nothing but disregard. It is a journey that most Americans cannot fathom, and yet it is all too common in the USA. We live in a nation that exhorts the evils of undocumented immigrants and yet relies heavily upon these hard-working individuals for essential jobs - jobs that allow us to live the very privileged lives we lead. And rather than exalting these members of our society, we often demean and disparage them, making them feel like outsiders in a land that was founded by foreigners just like them.

As you can clearly see, this novel hit home. And it made me remember what a privilege it is to live in this great country, while reminding me of the great responsibility we have to welcome those that choose to join our American Dream. Hopefully we can allow others to embrace this Mei Guo, "Beautiful Country."

Many thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for gifting me with this early reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. Special thanks to Ms. Wang for sharing your journey with us and enlightening your readers on the struggles that so many endure.

"I have been unfathomably lucky. But I dream of a day when being recognized as human requires no luck— when it is a right, not a privilege."

This memoir is a must read. The author's childhood experience of being undocumented in the 90s in the US should be a wake up call to many Americans. It goes from her arrival at age 7 to when she's in middle school. She worked in a sweatshop in NYC (at seven years old!), she went hungry for months, she didn't go to the doctor or dentist for years, and she taught herself English by reading alone in the special needs classroom she was moved to solely because she didn't speak English. This wasn't in the 1890s. This was the 1990s.
I could not stop reading this memoir and I finished it in one day. My heart broke for the author when she described being laughed at every time she told a teacher that she planned to become a lawyer when she grew up. Spoiler alert - she did! It also broke for her when she internalized at a young age that white and blond was the beauty standard. This is very well written and a fast and engrossing read.

Beautiful Country is why I read. I felt every emotion, I learned about lives other than my own, and I was completely sucked into the story. This is a memoir that I think all readers will find both something to relate to and something they learn about both themselves and the world around them.

I just finished reading this in time for #PubDay ! Thank you @netgalley @doubledaybooks @qianjuliewang for the digital ARC of this one.

Beautiful Country is Qian Julie Wang’s memoir about coming to the United States: “In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive.”

Told through her memories of childhood, she puts you into her shoes as she struggles to understand life in which her professor parents work odd jobs, her language is suddenly looked down upon, and she must fear every authority and lie about where she was born. It’s striking to hear her telling of a child’s understanding and the small joys she finds in things like a fancy pencil, library books, and visiting Rockefeller Center at Christmastime.

I won’t give away too much, but this is a revealing look at immigration in this country and what it really looks like for families who are trying to stay together.

Funny enough, I’m writing this from Toronto, where the author and her family were able to become Canadian citizens.

Wang’s memoir tells the gripping story of her childhood as an undocumented Chinese immigrant living in New York City. It’s told from the perspective of her young self. Done this way, this memoir juxtaposes Wang's inherent childhood innocence--the innocence children possess regarding lack of knowledge and world experience--with the harsh realities she experiences. Told this way, the racism and challenges her family faces—work in sweatshops, cockroaches in their shared kitchen, language barriers, a Secret Santa at school where Qian's gift is one much less expensive than the $10 limit—are particularly stark. Yet, even as a child, the terrifying undercurrent of deportation still affects her. It’s a constant threat and heightens the emotions and tension throughout the narrative.

Wang’s memoir is immersive—you can virtually hear the click of the cockroaches with her vivid description—and you can feel when her innocent joy is trampled. Her use of Chinese and childhood terms of endearment help with this authenticity as well.

I loved this memoir. Its ultimate juxtaposition--America known as a "beautiful country" versus the realities and racism Wang and her family faced coming here is hard to read about (by a progressive white women like me!), but also a call to do better. I'm so amazed at how she triumphed with education and becoming a writer. Everyone needs to read this, learn from it, and take action to make our country do better.

A phenomenal, stunning literary achievement.

Immigration policy, especially in regards to undocumented immigrants, is such a hot button issue in America. And sometimes in the midst of all the debates, we forget that we are talking and arguing about actual human beings and their lives and well-being. It's so easy to make it all about political policies and debates, but what I want to always be thinking about are the people affected by the political policies. Stories like this one help me to see these issues from a human perspective and lead me to be more compassionate in my response to these divisive issues.

This memoir from Qian Julie Wang documents her childhood experience as an undocumented immigrant from China living in New York City. It was well-written and insightful. Wang shares vignettes about her early life and struggles in America, but they are pieced together chronologically so it still feels like one story. The result is an honest and sincere memoir that offers a view of immigration from the eyes of a child who was forced to leave all that she knew of home and start over in a new country where she had nothing.

The Chinese word for America is Mei Guo which means Beautiful Country. Wang does share about the moments of beauty found in her new life in America. But at the same time, much of her early life in America was very unbeautiful, and Wang earnestly and honestly shares about all of it. This is an eye-opening account from a unique point of view, and I highly recommend it!

Qian Qian, or Julie, has arrived in America, Beautiful Country, only to find that it isn't quite the dream that she and her family expected. Told through various memories from her birth through college graduation and her law clerkship, the story is of the tarnish of the American dream. the fear of living undocumented in our country, and the continued racism that scars these new members of our society. Though nothing new, it was so disheartening to read how a math and computer teacher was working in a sweatshop and as a waitress and at wages that resulted in the family going hungry. So often I felt the desire to reach out and hug Qian Julie. Her heart is laid bare throughout the entire book. I am thankful to have read her story and hope others read and are equally impacted by her story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
"...this awful, beautiful country."

The Chinese translation for America is Mei Guo, or "the beautiful country." But the America 7 year-old Qian Qian arrives in with her mother is not all that beautiful. Qian Julie Wang's memoir of her arrival in the United States and her experiences show the ugly side of this country--poverty, racism, and struggle, and her small family unit's distrust of anyone who was not Chinese. After joining her father, who had moved to the strange new country two years earlier, Qian Qian and her mother must learn to adjust to a very different world than the one they came from. She describes with the innocent voice of a child the nitty gritty details of their life as "dark" or undocumented immigrants, in clear prose that brings the reader into her mind and follows her through her earliest experiences and memories of living in the United States. I really appreciated her writing about how she found the public library, and how books opened up a whole new world to her. Her writing about her intense hunger during the earliest months was especially poignant, as was her description of the unsympathetic sweat shops her mother worked in, with Qian Qian often by her side.

Memoirs can be difficult to rate, as I find it difficult to rate someone's lived experience, but I am giving Beautiful Country five stars.

Through the eyes of a child, the experiences of being an undocumented immigrant will leap off the page and into your heart in this unforgettable memoir. In 1994, Qian Julie Wang arrives in America with her mother (Ma Ma) to join her father (Ba Ba) who has come before them. He could no longer stay in a country where he did not have freedom of expression. Both of Qian’s parents were professors in China yet their education and background became meaningless and their comfortable life disappears once they have to start anew in Mei Guo, America – the “Beautiful Country.” Harsh living conditions, hunger, sweatshops, racism and the daily fear of being found and deported become their new reality. Through it all, Qian teaches herself English and escapes into books. Their struggle seems hopeless. Yet the family’s incredible determination and resiliency moves them closer to fulfilling their dream of a better life.

Beautiful Country – A Memoir is a remarkable debut for the author, a Yale educated lawyer who had the courage to tell her story, which at times is hard to believe took place such a short time ago as the working conditions and squalor often read like a Dickens novel. Yet this is a very timely story that is especially relevant today as people continue to seek freedom.

This is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is a heart-breaking and eye-opening memoir about Qian’s childhood as an undocumented Chinese immigrant in New York City in the 1990’s. Her parents were professors in China. Her father suffered through China’s Cultural Revolution and he wants a better life for his family. He travels to Mei Guo (America) and overstays his visa. A couple years later, Qian and her mother obtain visas and follow him. The life they experience in America is a life of extreme poverty. Her parents find jobs with employers who do not ask questions. These are low-paying menial jobs with horrible working conditions. Qian is always hungry, is malnourished, and is not clean. Her parents teach her that Mei Guo is a dangerous place. She must always be on her guard. She must never draw attention to herself. She lives in constant fear of deportation. She also feels that it is her job to ensure that her mother is happy. The hardships her parents face brings about a deterioration of their relationship. This affects Qian as it is not a healthy home-life.

Qian is resilient. A smart girl, she learns English by reading picture books. At a young age, she navigates herself through the streets and the subway system of New York City. She takes refuge in reading. She is determined to make something of herself despite many of her teachers laughing at her dreams.

This memoir is beautifully written. Told through the eyes of a child, the reader experiences the struggles that Qian endures as she learns to adapt to this new country. The book is not totally full of hardships and sadness. There are simple joys that Qian experiences such as enjoying New York’s holiday decorations, adopting a cat, and discovering some “treasures” when they go “shopping” on trash pickup day.

This is a must-read! Many Americans do not realize how difficult it is to be an immigrant in America. The hardships and poverty that undocumented immigrants experience is horrific! Thank you to Qian Julie Wang for telling her story.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a lawyer of Chinese heritage (and first-generation U.S. immigrant), BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY was one of the most highly anticipated books for me in 2021. What drew me to the book was two-fold: (1) the play on words - America in Chinese (美国) translates to “beautiful country;” and (2) Wang’s dedication to serving underprivileged communities as a lawyer.

Reading BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY, I learned about Wang dreaming of becoming a lawyer since she was nine years old. But that’s not all. As Wang recounts her childhood growing up in New York City as an undocumented immigrant with such raw honesty, I read about her hunger, desperation, anxiety, panic, fear, and hurt. Her isolating experience. Her family’s woes & fractures. Wang’s heartbreaking memoir paints a picture of how America bends and breaks immigrants.

“Ma Ma and Ba Ba had adopted Americanized names, because, they said, lao wai had thick tongues and could not handle the delicate elegance of our language. I stayed with Qian. Why should I have to change what I was called just because their tongues were too clumsy.”

Yet, in many ways, Wang’s memoir is also about the story of a child that overcame the harsh reality life handed her: the pages are full of life and interspersed with love, hope, and small joys. I especially loved reading about Wang’s love for books as a child.

“From then on, there was no saving me. I lived and breathed books. Where else could I find such a steady supply of friends, comforts, and worlds, all free for the taking?”

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

✨Happy Pub Day & Book Review✨

Happy book birthday to Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. Thank you to @netgalley and @doubledaybooks as well as @qianjuliewang for the eARC.

I had been reading a bit on this one in the school pickup line, but went ahead and finished this beauty of a memoir snuggled up with Coco on the couch yesterday.

Wang shares her childhood memoir with exacting prose and enlightening truths that took my breath away in parts. In the letter from the editor, this book is described as the next great childhood memoir in line with The Glass Castle and Educated, to name only those I’ve personally read. I can honestly say that Wang’s story, as told from her seven-year-old perspective, is just as heart wrenching.

Don’t pass this one by, pick it up starting today! I highly recommend it!

P.S. Did you know that our country 🇺🇸 translated from Chinese literally means Beautiful Country? If only Wang’s first experiences in America were beautiful…

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for gifting me this powerful memoir by Qian Julie Wang - 5 stars for a look into the immigrant life in the US.

In Chinese, the characters for the US are Mei Guo, which translate into Beautiful Country. In the 1990s, Qian's parents fled to the US hoping for a better life. Instead of being able to use their professional degrees, they were now illegal immigrants in NYC, living in fear that they would be deported. They now could only find work in sweatshops for such meager wages that they were all left starving and living in deplorable conditions. Qian found refuge in books at the library and taught herself English by watching PBS. The family starts to fracture under the weight.

What a beautifully written story of the hardships faced by the marginalized in our society. Qian's perseverance and drive made her a success story but it was a hard fought road with much to bear on her small shoulders. It's an eye-opening look that children in America are starving and living in these deplorable conditions. Definitely a must read.

I haven't read a memoir in a while because I'm really picky when it comes to the genre. Immigration is a hot topic right now and it is what drew me to this book. Beautiful Country is a beautiful story. The poignant writing as Wang unburies her memories had me misty-eyed several times.

When we think of immigrants, we most often think of those coming through our southern border. But New York has always been a huge gateway for immigrants. Sure they often enter legally - on a tourist, student, or short-term business visa. However, these visas have an end date, and many immigrants who do not want to return to their home country remain in the U.S. on an expired visa.

That is how Wang Qian came to Beautiful Country - the literal translation of the Chinese word for America - as a seven-year-old. Her father had already been here for 2 years (it is never mentioned what kind of visa he entered on) and she and her mother finally are able to join him with a tourist visa. I have known several Chinese students and it is often very difficult to get a visa - probably because the Chinese government knows it is unlikely they will return.

Wang's mother and father have very different backgrounds. I wish we had been told how they met. Her mother comes from a rather well-to-do family (probably considered middle-class) while her father's family is poor, largely due to his brother's political dissidence as a teenager - feelings that her father shares. While his life improves it is the control that prods him to go to America. (He is a professor of English Literature and the government's insistence on what can and cannot be taught and said chaffs against his desire for academic freedom).

When they arrive in the U.S. they soon find that life isn't easy. The regular stresses of being in a country where you don't speak the language or fully understand the culture are compounded by the fear of being undocumented.

Immigration is a complicated web of legalities, political motivations, moral considerations. Our politicians and news media often dehumanize the issue but books like Beautiful Country make it human and very personal.

For the Wang family life was hard. They often lived in a room or two and shared a kitchen and bathroom with the rest of the house occupants. They scavenged the streets for items to furnish that room. The part of her life that Wang focuses on occurred in the mid-1990s and maybe early 2000s. Their weekly grocery budget was $20. Wang had only a couple of shirts and jeans - usually several sizes too big so she could grow into them. She was often dirty and malnourished. The reader may be thinking "well, she is here illegally."

I will admit I had to wonder wasn't there a way they could have stayed in the country legally - like a student visa or a work visa. Both her mother and father were professors in China (her mother even wrote a book on computer science). I'm not sure that they were university professors though as her mother eventually does go to graduate school in the U.S.

Through reading Beautiful Country I was confronted with American's own complicity in the undocumented immigration problem. One issue that is invariable brought up during discussions of immigration is that they are taking jobs away from citizens. However, seeing the jobs that Wang's mother takes on and for the amount of pay - very few Americans (if any) would take on those jobs. Wang and her mother would do 12-hour shifts at a clothing manufacturing plant. Wang (at sever years of age) would snip loose threads from shirts for a penny a shirt and her mother sewed labels onto those shirts for 2 pennies - they would also get a plate of rice. They did this 7 days a week. While we aren't told about all the jobs her father had we know he worked long hours in a laundromat before getting a position with an immigration lawyer as a translator.

Wang didn't shy away from the traumatic, shameful, or difficult aspects of her childhood. While we know that looking at our childhood through the lens of our adulthood can often affect our perspective of those events, Wang is honest when memories aren't as crisp or maybe muddled with things she was later told about the event. She is also honest about when she didn't understand situations as a child but now has more insights to better understand.

If you want to put a human face on immigration or want to try to understand life for a new immigrant, then Beautiful Country would be an excellent book to pick up. Most Americans will never know the cost - both emotionally and monetarily - to leave everything behind (knowing you will never be able to return) and start a new life in a place so alien and often unwelcoming.

My review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2021/09/beautiful-country-memoir-by-qian-julie.html

I found this story both compelling and disturbing. Reading Qian’s story has helped me understand the hardships faced by undocumented immigrants and those living in extreme poverty. The author is very honest about the trauma she and her parents experienced and how that affected them. I had to take a break after a few of the more difficult chapters, but I’m glad I persisted, because the story turns out well in the end (for everyone except the poor cat).

Be aware that there are scenes of child abuse, spouse abuse, and animal abuse.

I was provided an unproofed ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

I have mixed feelings about memoirs. So many of them dwell on the 'poor me' aspects of their lives. There's a fair amount of that here too, but with what the author went through as a child, I guess she's earned that right. The writing is descriptive and well done although the jumping around and extensive description becomes tedious at times.

It's impressive that Qian has been able to achieve all the success she has - and this is an admirable first effort at writing.