1920s china
A01=Gish Jen
Author_Gish Jen
autofiction
biographical novel
Category=DNC
Category=FBA
Category=FXB
china to america
east west culture gap
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
immigrant experience
louise erdrich
mother daughter relationship
new york book
nicole krauss
Product details
- ISBN 9781803513256
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 02 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Granta Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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My mother had died, but still I heard her voice...
Growing up in an affluent neighbourhood in 1930s Shanghai, Loo Shu-hsin is told that it is 'no good for a girl to be smart' - and yet when rumours of the revolution reach their enclave, she is the one sent abroad for an education. In New York, she meets Chao-Pei, a Chinese engineering student, and they set out to make a life together. By the time their daughter - Gish Jen - is born, her parents have only sporadic contact with their families, who are locked in repressive Maoist China. And in her struggle to discipline her American daughter, Loo Shu-hsin finds herself repeating the punishing refrains - 'Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!' - that punctured her own childhood.
Bad Bad Girl is a compelling exploration of a mother's life in exile from one of America's finest stylists.
A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gish Jen has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, and taught at Harvard, Brandeis and NYU Shanghai. Her work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times.
