The Chinese Lady: A Debut Historical Fiction Novel Set in Early 19th Century America

As rich in detail and emotion as Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and Lisa See's Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, but with an exciting structure that reinvents the genre, Bo Wang’s gorgeous and immersive debut historical novel immortalizes the life of the first Chinese woman to be brought to the United States in the 1800s. Little Sparrow, Julia, Afong Moy, Madame Moy, The Chinese Lady, were her many names . . . but her true name has been lost to time. In 1834 Afong Moy was brought to New York by two merchants as a live exhibit.Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses. As the story moves from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names.Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York.The captain’s wife names her