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| Rating |  |
| Type | Kindle Edition |
| Release Date | 2009-05-26 |
| List Price | $15.00 |
| Price | Item currently not available |
Categories |
| Historical Literary Kindle Books Contemporary Fiction Literary Fiction |
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Description |
BONUS: This edition contains a Shanghai Girls discussion guide.
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of excellent wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial safety and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though together sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be extra different: Pearl is a Dragon mark, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Together are stunning, modern, and carefree . . . until the day their father tells them this he has gambled away their wealth and this in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to locate Chinese brides.
As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one this will get them throughout the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutch of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they initiate a fresh chapter, trying to locate love together with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and locate themselves hemmed in by Chinatown’s old ways and rules.
At its heart, Shanghai Girls is a story of sisters: Pearl and May are inseparable excellent friends who share hopes, dreams, and a deep connection, but like sisters everywhere they in addition harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. They love every other, but every recognizes exactly where to drive the knife to harm the other the much. Along the way they face terrible sacrifices, do impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-varying secret, but throughout it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold quick to who they are–Shanghai girls. |
Book Description
For readers of the phenomenal bestsellers Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love--a spectacular new novel from Lisa See concerning two sisters who go away Shanghai to locate new lives in 1930s Los Angeles. May and Pearl, two sisters living in Shanghai in the mid-1930s, are stunning, sophisticated, and well-educated, but their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Hoping to advance their social standing, May and Pearl’s parents arrange for their daughters to marry “Gold Mountain men” who have come from Los Angeles to locate brides. But when the sisters go away China and arrive at Angel’s Island (the Ellis Island of the West)--where they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months--they feel the harsh reality of leaving home. And when May discovers she’s pregnant the situation becomes even extra desperate. The sisters do a pact this no one can ever recognize. A novel concerning two sisters, two cultures, and the struggle to locate a new life in America while bound to the old, Shanghai Girls is a fresh, fascinating adventure from beloved and bestselling author Lisa See.
Amazon Special: Lisa See on Shanghai Girls
 I’m writing this on a plane to Shanghai. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been thinking concerning all the things I would like to see and do on this research trip: look deeper into the Art Deco movement in Shanghai, visit a 17th-century house in a village of 300 people to observe the Sweeping the Graves Festival, and check out some old theaters in Beijing. But as I sit on the plane, I’m not thinking of the adventures this are ahead but of the people and places I’ve left behind. I’ve been gone from home only a few hours and already I’m homesick!
This puts me in intellect of Pearl and May, the characters in Shanghai Girls. This feeling--longing for home and missing the people left behind--is at the heart of the novel. We exist in a nation of immigrants. We all have someone in our families who was brave enough, scared enough, or crazy enough to go away the home country to come to America. I’m a real mutt in terms of ancestry, but I recognize this the Chinese side of my family left China for the reason that they were fleeing war, famine, and poverty. They were lured to America in hopes of a better life, but leaving China in addition meant saying goodbye to the homes they’d been born in, to their parents, brothers, and sisters, and to everything and everyone they knew. This experience is the blood and tears of American experience. Pearl and May are lucky, for the reason that they come to America mutually. They’re sisters and they have every other. I’ve always wanted to put in writing concerning sisters and I finally got my chance together with Shanghai Girls. You could say this either I’m an only kid or this I’m one of four sisters, for the reason that I have a former step-sister I’ve known for over 50 years and two half-sisters from different halves who I’ve known since they were born. Is Shanghai Girls autobiographical? Not really, but my sister Katharine and I one time had a fight this was like the flour fight this May and Pearl got into when they were girls. And there was an ice cream incident this I used in the novel this sent my sister Clara right down memory lane when she read the manuscript. I’m in addition the eldest, and we all recognize what this means. I’m the one who’s supposed to be the bossy recognize-it-all. (But if this’s true, then why are they the ones who are always right?) What I recognize is this we’re very different from every other and our life experiences couldn’t be extra varied, and yet we have a deep emotional connection this goes way beyond friendship. My sisters knew me when I was a shy little kid, helped me survive my first broken heart, share the memories of bad family car trips, and were at my side for the happiest moments in my life. Extra recently, we’ve begun to share things like the loss of our childhood homes, the varying of the neighborhoods we grew up in, and the frailties and illnesses of our myriad parents. My emotions and experiences are deeply entwined together with the stories I put in writing. So as I fly over the Pacific, of course I’m thinking concerning May and Pearl, the people and places they left behind, the hopes and dreams this kept them moving forward, and the strength and solace they found in every other, but I’m thinking concerning myself too. As soon as I get to the hotel, I’m going to call my husband and sons to inform them I arrived safely, and then I’m going to send some e-mails to my sisters.--Lisa See (Photo © Patricia Williams) |
Customer Reviews |
 Great Ending to a Great Book! 2010-08-23 |
| By R. Fink (Washington, DC) |
Lisa See's "Shanghai Girls" artfully tells the story of two sisters, Pearl and May who fled Shanghai for the United States during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Pearl and May had been born into a privileged family in Shanghai, but their fates changed once their father lost the family money in gambling. To repay his debt, he agreed to marry his daughters to two men who lived in California. Pearl, May, and their mother tried to flee from the debt collectors and the arranged marriages, but they became victims to the Japanese during their travels. The sisters managed to leave China, but before reaching California, May and Pearl spent several months on Angel Island, a holding area. During that time, May had a daughter Joy. When May, Pearl, and Joy arrive in California, they find that their in-laws are not as wealthy as their father had claimed and their new husbands are not as desirable as they had hoped.
Lisa See tells a beautifully crafted story of the struggles faced by the two women and their baby as they adjust to life with a new family and new country. See does a wonderful job developing complex characters. She also succeeds in describing the affects of the Sino-Japanese conflict on the Chinese people as well as the difficulties facing the Chinese immigrants in the inhospitable United States. See also examines the struggles between the first and second-generation Chinese Americans.
Many popular books seem to sacrifice the ending in order to make everything turn out "right." See does not do this. She writes a realistic ending that creates many questions that will hopefully be addressed in a sequel. |
| Engrossing and wonderful 2010-08-22 |
| By Gail Simpson (New York City) |
| This was my favorite book of the summer! A real page-turner. Wonderfully written and interesting view of the immigrant experience. I didn't love the ending, seemed sort of rushed and not poignant, but the rest of the book was so good that I still rate it 5 stars and I'm telling all my friends to read it. |
 Forulaic, too long and too angsty 2010-08-16 |
| By Jeanette L. Ko (Los Angeles Ca.) |
| Lisa See has found a formula that seems to work for her. The only problem is, its boring totally predictable and about 50 to 100 pages too angsty and long. No satisfying ending, and ultimately no good review. |
 Could be better 2010-08-14 |
| By R.V.W.P. (Damascus, MD) |
| I read this for my book club and this book is my first experience with Lisa Lee. I am sad to say this book has made me wary of picking up another one of her novels. The story had great potential but Pearl and May were very whiny by the end of the novel and refused to take responsibility for their actions or lack there of in their own lives. The abrupt ending made it feel like the author just gave up on the story and decided to leave it unfinished. After all the trials and tribulations these girls go through during their lives there seems to be very little character growth and whenever they have the chance to be happy or secure in life another obstacle is thrown at them in attempt to keep the reader interested. I found myself depressed at how the girls never seemed to have a period of calm in their lives where you could delve deeper into their minds and understand why they do what they do. This book may be for devoted fans of Lisa Lee only. If you want to give the author a try choose another of her novels. |
| Simply Divine 2010-08-13 |
| By Ruthie Ramirez (San Diego) |
It is 1937 and Pearl and May are two beautiful sisters who live a privileged life in Shanghai. They model for local artists and their faces are featured in local ads and on calendars. They are a bit naïve, thinking their lives are going to go on like this forever. However, the world around them is changing. The Japanese are saber rattling, will be invading soon and their father has lost the family fortune gambling. For their parents to keep their home, they must sell the girls to the young Chinese American sons of Old Louie, an American Chinese who has extensive business dealings in Shanghai and who has always coveted the girls.
The girls have a dangerous trip to America, winding up at Angel Island in San Francisco, where the spend months held by immigration until they are finally allowed to travel to Los Angeles and their new husbands. The girls lives don't turn out a bit like they'd expected as they evolve into people they never expected to be.
This is a divinely written story and it almost makes me ashamed to admit that I've never read Lisa See before. However, I'll be seeking out Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan straightaway. I was held captive by this book and if her other works are anything like this, I have some wonderful reading to look forward to. |
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