No Chinese Stranger

by Jade Snow Wong, Ming-Dao Deng (Illustrator)

No Chinese Stranger carries on with the exceptionally intersting life of Jade Snow Wong.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, China

366 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Jade Snow Wong was born in San Francisco and brought up in a family that maintained traditional Chinese customs. Due to the high importance her family placed on education and her own desire to learn, Wong graduated from Mills College in 1942 with a hard-earned Phi Beta Kappa key. She worked as a secretary during World War II, and discovered a talent for ceramics. When she began to sell her work in a shop in Chinatown, it quickly found popularity. Wong's pottery was later displayed in art museums across the United States. In 1950, Wong published the first of her two autobiographical volumes, Fifth Chinese Daughter. Her second volume, No Chinese Stranger, was published in 1975. Towards the end of her life, Wong ran a travel service in San Francisco, and died there in 2006.

Reviews

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really lucked out with buying a used copy of No Chinese Stranger, since my copy happened to be a first edition signed by the author and illustrator! (See here.) It's lovely to read about Wong's adult life, her marriage, her forays into the art world, and her work with the State Department. She and her husband were among the first to be let into China after Nixon's visit in February 1972. Her view of China (the curated version the CCP let her see) is fascinating. I especially enjoyed the portions where she wrote about art, and let her questions about artistic expression vs. communist lifestyle just be heavy and unresolved. Wong is such a fascinating figure in US history and I'm so glad a library book sale browse led me to her work!

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The continuance of Jade Snow Wong's life adventure after her early years covered in her work 'Fifth Chinese Daughter'.
Read for personal historical research. I found this work of immense interest and its contents helpful and inspiring - Overall, this work is also a good resource for the researcher and enthusiast.
- Synopsis:
Wong's career in pottery took off after she was fortunate enough to have a merchant on Grant Avenue in Chinatown, San Francisco, put her workshop in his store window. Her ceramics were later displayed in art museums across the United States, including a 2002 exhibition at the Chinese Historical Society of America. They were also displayed at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago (a one-woman show), the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and the Cincinnati Art Museum, as well as shows in Omaha, Nebraska, and Portland, Oregon. In addition to these shows across the United States, Wong's ceramics have also been placed in the permanent collections of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the International Ceramic Museum in Faenza, Italy.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found much history that I had not previously known by reading this book. It was written shortly after Richard Nixon's visit in 1972 so it is, to me, a very interesting look into China visited by an American who's father was born in China and is of both worlds, American and Chinese. Most other readers of this book have summarily dismissed this book but I found it fascinating. But only if you like history and are fascinated by it would someone like this book.

A glimpse into a diary really of someone following her progression of being raised Chinese in America and her "conversion" into an American yet retaining and appreciating her roots and upbringing.

This book is mostly about her return to China and her visits with the people during the early 1970's. Like I said, I found it fascinating.

So much has changed in the almost 40 years since it was written.

Love this quote: ".. I prayed that that star and that moon which have risen in eternity would see both the children of China and the children of America, those pure in heart in both countries, blessed with peace and love, within our lifetime."

Amen, sister.

[The Hofs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Excited to find a sequel to fifth Chinese Daughter . . . Will see how it is! Not nearly as good as the first.