In Shanghai Girls, author Lisa See transports us to the world of Shanghai, China 1937. Modern western influence is attempting to coexist with cultural traditions decades old. It is a volatile environment of grim poverty, excessive wealth, graft, sin, ugliness and great beauty. The story revolves around two teenage sisters. The narrator Pearl and her younger sister May have resolved life's dichotomies by being dutiful conventional daughters in the world at home and in the world of the city "beautiful girls" by posing for an artist painting commercial posters and advertisements.
Nothing is as it seems in the glitter of Shanghai. Political dissent and the rumble of war with the Japanese are heard in the background. Events are about to converge, and everything will change forever for Pearl and May. Their secure middle class life dissolves suddenly when their father, to pay off his mounting gambling debts, secretly sells the sisters through arranged marriages to two unknown Chinese Americans.
Pearl and May resist leaving their beautiful home city to join their new husbands in Los Angeles, but the decision is made for them with the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. The events of their escape forever shape Pearl and May in tragic and lasting ways. They are no longer "beautiful girls", but penniless refugee's steps ahead of the invading army.
The author gives us vivid insight into the emotional issues of losing one's cultural identity. As Pearl and May build a new life the two sisters must turn to each other for solace and courage. Their vastly different personalities don't mean they are always in accord, but sisterhood means they will never forsake each other.
The author provides historical period detail of Chinese cultural traditions, Chinese family life, Chinese acculturation in the US, the tangled nuances of immigration law and the history of the Japanese occupation of China. Shanghai Girls is a fascinating history of China in the 1930's and Chinese life in the United States in the 1940's and 1950's. This book is for those who like historical fiction combined with the intricacies of family.
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