Across Generations and Oceans: A Fireside Chat with Gish Jen

In partnership with the US-China Education Trust and the Serica Initiative, we cordially invite you to join us for the launch of Bad Bad Girl, the latest semi-autobiographical novel by Gish Jen. The book traces her mother's journey exploring gender, migration, and cultural identity through Jen's poetic prose.

The event features a reading and fireside chat with Gish Jen in conversation with Qian Julie Wang, New York Times bestselling author and litigator. A book signing will follow the event.

About Gish Jen

Gish Jen's work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has received NEA, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships, a Lannan Literary Award, and a five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award. Her short work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and many anthologies; she has taught at Harvard University, NYU Shanghai, and other universities. Bad Bad Girl is her tenth book.

About Bad Bad Girl

My mother had died, but still I heard her voice. . .

Gish’s mother, Loo Shu-hsin, is born in 1924 to a wealthy Shanghai family whose girls are expected to restrain themselves. Her beloved nursemaid—far more loving to than her real mother—is torn from her even as she is constantly reprimanded: “Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!” Sent to a modern Catholic school by her progressive father, she receives not only an English name—Agnes—but a first-rate education. To his delight, she excels. But even then he can only sigh, “Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.” Agnes finds solace in books and, in 1947, announces her intention to pursue a PhD in America. As the Communist revolution looms, she sets sail—never to return.

Lonely and adrift in New York, she begins dating Jen Chao-Pe, an engineering student. They do their best to block out the increasingly dire plight of their families back home and successfully establish a new American life: Marriage! A house in the suburbs! A number one son! By the time Gish is born, though, the news from China is proving inescapable; their marriage is foundering; and Agnes, confronted with a strong-willed, outspoken daughter distinctly reminiscent of herself, is repeating the refrain—“Bad bad girl! You don’t know how to talk!”—as she recapitulates the harshness of her own childhood.

Spanning continents, generations, and cultures, Bad Bad Girl is a novel only Gish Jen could have written: genre-bending, courageous, wise, and as immensely incisive as it is compassionate.

About Qian Julie Wang

Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, which was a Today Show Read With Jenna pick and named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and more. A graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College, Qian Julie is managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advancing educational civil rights for marginalized populations. Her writing has been published in major publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more, and she has appeared on the TODAY Show, NBC, PBS, and NPR, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

About US-China Education Trust

The US-China Education Trust (USCET), a program of the F.Y. Chang Foundation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to advancing US-China relations through education and exchange for next generation leaders. Founded in 1998, USCET brings together students, scholars, and policymakers to deepen US knowledge of China, strengthen Chinese understanding of the United States, and center the voices of individuals who make up the bilateral relationship.

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