WebAn Interview With Qian Julie Wang. 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Qian Julie Wang An Inside Look at Beautiful Country Author Qian Julie When I first read Minor Feelings, I was shocked to find another Asian American woman, living across the country and many years older than me, who had precise insight into all of the things that I thought I had been oversensitive about. It is deeply problematic, and it creates this whole system of specialized high schools. I was just playing with things, and I didnt really have that concept of work yet. The first time I stepped into that room, I think I stopped breathing because I had never seen a room of that squalor. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two rescue dogs, Beyond that, we also work to create platforms for Jews of Color within our synagogue and in the Jewish community and to engage racial justice work and activism outside the temple and outside the Jewish world. KM: Names can hold so much power in our identities. WebFrom ages 7 to 12, Qian Julie Wang lived as an undocumented immigrant in Brooklyn, New York. We spoke to Wang (who went to Yale and is now a managing partner of a law firm dedicated to advocating for education and discrimination rights) to ask her more: The book is very moving and feels extremely personal. The book will forever represent to me the first time I felt accepted in the United States. The book is only the first chapter of your life, you cover moving to Canada and getting your legal documents quickly in the last chapter. SIMON: Your parents were academic professionals in China, but what did they do to get by in the U.S.? Wang is in conversation with Moment editor Sarah Breger about her familys search for the American dream, her connection to Judaism and the struggles and antisemitism faced by Jews of Color from within the Jewish community. In that sphere, I have been so fortunate to find lifelong friends my sisters and family in spirit. I realized that I had been Jewish all along; I simply hadnt known it. A graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College, Even with this rule though, there were months (and up to nearly a year) when I just had to take time off writing entirely. Please try again later. And I felt like such a complete fraud. I went on to graduate still pretending that food did not matter as much as it did to me as my childhood prescribed it always would. She said, secrets - they hold such power over us, don't they? When was the point in your life where you felt ready to open up about your experience growing up undocumented? WebQian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, which was named a best book of 2021 by the New York Thank you so much for being with us. This is where youll see your current point status and your earned rewards. QJW: There are people in my life who know me only as Qian, and others who know me only as Julie. Around twice a year, publishing houses used to hold informal drinks parties where journalists could meet authors and chat about their forthcoming books. When I quit, I was terrified, but every day that has passed since, I dont know how I ever questioned that choice. All of us are stared at and assumed to be new converts or gentile. So I walked into my judge's office and just kind of sat down and spilled everything. Memoirist Qian Julie Wang Finally Found a Home With Her Fellow Jews of Color The "Beautiful Country" author speaks with Alma about her love of libraries and SN: Theres a line in the book that reads, Ma Ma didnt know it, but she was the reason my imagination burned alive everywhere I went, the reason I saw love in all beings and things. Can you talk about the joyful, playful aspect of your relationship with your mom and your parents, and how they inspire your creativity? An Immigrants Story, Once Secret, Told At Last | Kirkus Reviews By Kathryn Monaco. Judaism is the religion of the enslaved, the uprooted, the marginalized, and the other, and we are dedicated to making sure that its American community lives up to its roots. Weve covered all you need to know But I guess when youre not carrying the trauma of never having had the chance to really play, you actually get to play for your entire life because it just comes out. My parents remain deeply ashamed and regretful of the past, and I dont think theyve ever forgiven themselves for my childhood years. Now as an adult, stepping back and having looked at everything in my childhood that led me to interact with work that way, I am now very consciously teaching myself boundaries that my work is indeed intellectual; it does not need to be physical. They could choose to do whatever they can for the world. Qian and her husband Marc exchanged vows in a lovely book-themed wedding in September 2019. In my book, I share my story about receiving my copy of Charlottes Web (which I still have!) Coming out of college, I was an English major. Im working on a novel now but after that I hope to return to the point where this book finishes our life in Canada. His family was marked as dissidents and counterrevolutionaries, and his parents were publicly beaten. Bio Qian Julie Wang But it bears stating that one cannot in good conscience stand for everything Swarthmore does while generating the waste I watched its student body, myself included, create in abundance. We are experiencing technical difficulties. It was where I learned English, discovered my favorite books and learned what it meant to feel comfortable in my new land. We are in overdrive pretty much all the time. And during every Sharples outing that first year, I always returned for seconds. On this front, Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" and Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"were my north stars in crafting my own book. She recalls their experience, with a childs frankness and naivety, which is really what makes this book stand out. Making more equitable access to books and literacy is, I think, number one. Memoirist Qian Julie Wang Finally Found a Home With Interview by Elena Bowes. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Books are my constant friend. I always loved books but after we moved, they took on the role of family. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt really inspired me to write my book. Qian Julie Wang You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime. In the book near the end a Judge says this very powerful line that seemed like the core of the book. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Im sure that things have changed and are changing still since I left campus some 12 years ago. But in late September 2019, on our flight to our honeymoon, I realized that the break had allowed me to subconsciously process everything else that needed to go into my book. The brunt of our changing ecosystems falls first upon people of color and the poor, long before it will ever threaten to touch the perimeter of our lush campus. During my undocumented childhood, a period of extreme poverty that I never dared speak of during my time on campus, I arrived at elementary school every day starving, stomach churning toward the free meal that would be slopped onto my tray at lunchtime. By clicking Sign Up, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. I realized she meant that all of us have these powerful secrets that we ascribe so much shame to but that really are very universal at its core. By virtue of being Asian is just - I was just seen as being weak. I mean, they were in their early 30s at the time. They were very different from the joyful people that they were in China. The young girl in the book is such a strong character resilient, humorous, scrappy. She is a commercial litigation associate in the New York office of Robins Kaplan, a law firm. From then on, I experienced a different Sharples. Now, she's telling her story for the first time - buoyed by For most of my life, I told myself that I was just oversensitive, that I read too much into thingseven though chink was among the first English words I learned, even though I had never been in a public space in America without fearing for my bodily safety. When I discovered Judaism, I finally felt complete. In China, Qians parents were professors; in America, her family is illegal and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. When did you feel you could begin to talk more openly about all of this? WebQian Julie Wang. Qian Julie Wang (@qianjuliewang) - Instagram Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is a New York Times best-seller list. Its described as the moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world. It's a voyage into the love, pain and secrets of family, a train ride through the confusion, resilience and delight of coming of age. While I grew up learning English on library books, I never found a book that depicted characters who looked like me and lived in the way my parents and I did. I suspect that in many ways, my book feels to my father like history repeating itself: His childhood was marked by his brother writing a daring, honest and critical essay that had his entire family persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College. The book will forever represent to me the first time I felt accepted in the United States. I never left behind a single crumb, stuffing everything into my stomach before smuggling some more out the back door and across the field to Mertz. But two months later, on December 30, I was done with the entire draft. Beautiful Country That experience really changed how I think about my story and my right to speak up and share it. Review of Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. It was really important for me to share the story from that childhood perspective because I know that some of the horrors of life can be much more palatable when presented to adults through the lens of a child, but at the same time deeply disturbing because this is a child whos filtering it through and not seeing everything that the adult should. American Judaism is Ashkenazi-centric, even though, historically and globally, Judaism is far more diverse. For me growing up, the library was my second home. SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER TO STAY IN-THE-NOW. It was where I learned English, discovered my favorite books and learned what it meant to feel comfortable in my new land. It was my biggest and wildest ambition to write a book that might allow others out there to see themselves reflected in literature, and have them know that it is possible to survive similar circumstances. It was clear early that my appreciation of Sharples was not widely shared, but I would not realize just how rare it was until one specific incident. Whats your favorite part about being Jewish? Its why I wanted to open the book with my first lie on the plane which I told to protect my mother. But I had to think about making an income, and law seemed like a way that I could use storytelling to make a difference in peoples lives and still make sure I could pay off my loans. As I started writing this book and then editing it, I was reacquainted with that 8-year-old little girl who found the condensed biography of Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg and was reminded of all the reasons why she wanted to go into law, and how, in her mind, lawyers were so powerful. They became that in so many ways, not just in terms of learning English, but also finding a sense of emotional safety in America that wasnt readily available to me, and understanding the power of storytelling. Id always dreamed about writing this book. What were some influential books for you growing up? The flippancy with which my peers regarded the many culinary options before them. You do fart jokes. Everything thats super-immature, we do. I think that kind of background at home cannot easily be supplanted by an external education system. QIAN JULIE WANG is a graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College. For me, being Jewish cannot be separated from tikkun olam, the concept that calls upon us to repair the world. Editors note: Swarthmore has committed to becoming a Zero Waste campus in efforts to reduce environmental harm and promote just and sustainable systems. It is obvious that synagogues, where discrimination is most hurtful, have not addressed this vexing, humiliating and ongoing problem, whether by a few or by many Jewish racists. When Im at work, I snap into that hyper-focus survival mode, and I could just go on working forever. That myopic focus in the U.S. tends to result in Jewish spaces that feel deeply unwelcoming, and often even overtly hostile, to Jews of Color. This years Rosh Hashanah is major for me for many reasons. And it was in that room that I first felt this sense of agency. My parents have read parts of it, and I have fact-checked certain memories with them, but they have not read the whole thing! You didn't speak English. Qian Julie Wang grew up in libraries. Beyond that, we also work to create platforms for Jews of Color within our synagogue and in the Jewish community and to engage racial justice work and activism outside the temple and outside the Jewish world. What do you hope readers take away from Beautiful Country? WANG: My father, I think, would've been very different if we had stayed in China. Those subway snippets would become Beautiful Country, out September 7, a gorgeous and heartfelt tale of Wangs childhood as an undocumented New Yorker. Big events in your childhood tend to be crystallised in lightbulb moments. I also took copious notes in my dairy from an early age, especially after I had read Harriet the Spy. Those notes helped to jog my memory me being jealous of my classmates eating an ice cream every day. For many years of my life, I operated by a set of clear and abiding principles, and asked inconvenient, challenging questions, but I had no formal spiritual framework. She joins us now from Brooklyn, N.Y. So, I turned down partnership, and it shocked absolutely everybody in the firm, and I opened up my own firm to focus on education law, civil rights, and discrimination work. Wang is also an active member of a synagogue and its Jews of Color community. Courtesy of Quian Julie Wang More than two decades after I first landed at JFK, I earned my citizenship. So, when all of us have our guards down and the children come out, its like the best playtime ever. Accuracy and availability may vary. Soon, she was spending all her free time in her local Chinatown library, soaking up as much English as possible. It became her second home, a place of safety. Its the story of her childhood. That mystery never materialized, but it really helped me as an adult to look back and try to place myself in that little kids shoes. As we approach the Jewish New Year, any Rosh Hashanah plans you are looking forward to? So help us understand how you navigated through that world. My book is a celebration of childhood, that wondrous time when we were all still so tender and open. If I had all the money in the world, I probably would have become a writer right away because I loved books and thats where I lived. I would say the first year of working on the book was just me in therapy trying to break everything apart and understand what had happened. The first time I entered Sharples, I wandered from food station to food station with suspended breath. At that point, I had maybe one third to half of the book finished. The act of having to keep something secret formed a cloud over me. It weighed constantly on my psyche. WebWang converted to Judaism, founding and leading a Jews of Color group at Manhattan Central Synagogue; on the day her debut memoir was released, Wang delivered a lay I decided to embark on writing this when I became a citizen in May 2016, six months before the election. Lauded by clients as "exceptionally talented" and "exemplary," Qian Julie has represented Fortune 500 corporations, governmental entities, and individuals in But more than that, books gave me insight into how other Americans lived in the parts of the country to which I did not have access: series like Sweet Valley Twins and the Baby-Sitters Club showed me how regular American kids lived, and how I was not so different from them. It became her second home, a place of safety. Nor, alas, were the circumstances of my childhood. You're afraid to go to a hospital, aren't you? I wrote the first draft of "Beautiful Country" while making partner at a national firm. A recent book would be Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hongwhich was the first book that I read that tackled face-on the dynamic of being an Asian American woman and the racism you deal with on a daily basis. Its an incredibly moving, eye-opening book told through the eye of seven-year-old Wang about the struggles they endured. QJW: For a child who found herself transported overnight to other side of the world, where she knew no one other than her parents, books were my salvation. As a child who felt lonely and lost most of the time, the Chatham Square public library branch in Chinatown was my anchor in my American life. 04 Mar 2023 20:24:54 I realized that I had been Jewish all along; I simply hadn't known it. It took me six months after the book deal to work up the courage to tell my parents. It wasnt until the discourse of the 2016 election, which took place just six months after I became a naturalized U.S. citizen, that I discovered that I had a newfound power and thus responsibility to share my story, that at that juncture of my life, I was making an actual decision to stay quiet a privilege that millions of undocumented immigrants do not have. Beautiful Country Summary and Study Guide | SuperSummary My small hope is that if my parents dont read the full book until its available to the public, they wont know the full scale of details shared, so they wont be sitting there, counting down the days to when ICE might be banging down their doors. The only way to balance it with working 60-80 hours a week was a concrete rule: As long as I was on the subway platform or on the subway on my way to or from work, I was writing on my phone. I'm delighted to be here. Daily, I fought the urge to rescue perfectly edible meals from the garbage. Jewish spaces that feel deeply unwelcoming, Jewish Actor Adam Brody Will Play a Charming Rabbi on Netflix, I Tried to Contact My Jewish Ancestor Through an Ashkenazi Seance, 18 Things to Know About Jewish Model Sofia Richie. The fear of keeping that secret (of being undocumented) seems to be central to your life as a child. Qian Julie Wang Books played a central part in your childhood. Sign up for news about books, authors, and more from Penguin Random House, Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network. I never even thought about it until my husband pointed out, Your parents are super-playful. The Shadow of Hunger Are you writing another book about the second half of your life? I think litigation really saved me. What would that little girl think about me having paid off all my loans and having no excuse anymore to be afraid of being hungry, to continue to work for and represent corporations and billionaires and be in this kind of golden-handcuff situation? Verified. That was all pre-covid. Qian Julie Wang was bornthe daughter of two professors in China and when she was seven, they moved to Mei Guo (the Beautiful Country) America and became undocumented immigrants. It also means standing up and speaking out even when it might be uncomfortable to do so to be rooted first and foremost in our faith in equality. While I grew up learning English on library books, I never found a book that depicted characters who looked like me and lived in the way my parents and I did. She responded with such empathy and understanding. It made my whole year. What do you hope readers take away from "Beautiful Country"? Qian Julie Wang - Wikipedia I love memoirs that read like novels - the ones that are not just factual but also artistic. Shifting focus, can you tell us about your work with your Jews of Color group? And my parents have held on to their childhood selves, for better or for worse, more than any adult or older person that I have met. That changed when I started gathering with my fellow Jews of Color. It was there that I never had to question whether or not I belonged. Has your family read "Beautiful Country"? You have grown to understand him. That contrast weighed on me far more than my newfound pounds. In many ways, Beautiful Country is *such* an American story. Coming to America at age 7, she was thrown into the brand new world of New York City.