What do you think?
Rate this book
Crossings
When it was first published in America in 1968, Chuang Hua’s evocative novel Crossings was completely unheralded and quickly went out of print. Years later it would be widely recognized as the first modernist novel to address the Asian-American experience, its deeply imagistic prose–marked by spatial and temporal leaps, an unconventional syntax, and unanticipated shifts in plot–as haunting as the writing of Jane Bowles.
At the center of Crossings is Fourth Jane, the fourth of seven children whose recollections of an oppressive yet loving father, Dyadya, are collaged with her constant migrations between four continents. Suffering from a domestic torpor occasionally enlivened by ritualistic preparations of food for her foreign lover, Jane’s displacement only heightens the remembrance of what she has fled: a breech of the familial code; a failed romance; and further in the past, the desolation of war as “bloated corpses flowed in the current of the yellow river.”
Spare, lyrical, Taoist in form and elusiveness, visually cinematic, tender and sensual, Chuang Hua’s powerful narrative endures as one of the most moving and original works of literature in the history of American letters.
222 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 1986
4 people are currently reading
557 people want to read
About the author
Chuang Hua
2 books4 followers...Stella Yang Copley (1931-2000) [wrote] under the name of Chuang Hua. Born in China, her family fled to Hong Kong in 1946 and then to England and finally to the United States. The father (Dyadya) doctor in China, became a stockbroker and ensured a comfortable living to his seven children. Chuang Hua graduated from Vassar College, and lived in New York and Connecticut. [Crossings is her only novel.]
(from http://mychinesebooks.com/frcrossings...)
(from http://mychinesebooks.com/frcrossings...)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 18, 2015
Crossings is a book of fragments that takes a number of chronological leaps of faith. That's worth establishing right away because if you're not a fan of that style, you might not be so big into this one. The fragments get longer and the chronology grows clearer as the novel progresses, but the scrambled-up feeling is still key to how this novel operates, which means I must throw the dread veil of "not for everybody" over it before I move onward.
But fuck everyone else - how was it for me? Pretty good, I'd wager, if not inner-circle bound. Hua's mastery of prose is in effect but not evident immediately, since her way of writing is pretty understated. As the old saw tells us, if you do your job right, no one will notice you've done anything. Hua's fractured form means she has to dive in on just the right details, in terms of plot points and character traits and physical details and family dynamics, and she does it so well you won't even spot it until after you've finished the book. If the modernist shoe often put on this book doesn't fit for you, it might not hurt to think of it as a series of related paintings. I still wasn't the biggest fan of it, but that's more a matter of my taste butting up against Hua's style than any failure of Hua's own; this book succeeds tremendously on its own terms.
But fuck everyone else - how was it for me? Pretty good, I'd wager, if not inner-circle bound. Hua's mastery of prose is in effect but not evident immediately, since her way of writing is pretty understated. As the old saw tells us, if you do your job right, no one will notice you've done anything. Hua's fractured form means she has to dive in on just the right details, in terms of plot points and character traits and physical details and family dynamics, and she does it so well you won't even spot it until after you've finished the book. If the modernist shoe often put on this book doesn't fit for you, it might not hurt to think of it as a series of related paintings. I still wasn't the biggest fan of it, but that's more a matter of my taste butting up against Hua's style than any failure of Hua's own; this book succeeds tremendously on its own terms.
January 12, 2019
Fascinating that this Shanghai-born author was only known to have written this one book. Everything seems to happen in a dream with the story moving from one time period to another. Sometimes Fourth Jane, the Chinese daughter, is remembering her father, sometimes her lover.
The family is quite close, all 7 siblings and their parents. But she keeps her relationship with her French lover a secret.
The story is not always satisfying but feels more contemporary than the 1968 date of its original publication. The food she describes sounds incredible.
The family is quite close, all 7 siblings and their parents. But she keeps her relationship with her French lover a secret.
The story is not always satisfying but feels more contemporary than the 1968 date of its original publication. The food she describes sounds incredible.
October 2, 2012
I read this book as part of a Chinese American Literature class.
Sometimes, the less you say the better (which has been something I have never mastered, by the way). But in that spirit, I don't want to say too much about this story. It is a fascinating read if you are interested in diaspora or cultural transitioning. The story itself reads like a puzzle, and if you are interested in such narratives, it is fascinating to think about the ways in which the author has arranged this piece of writing.
Sometimes, the less you say the better (which has been something I have never mastered, by the way). But in that spirit, I don't want to say too much about this story. It is a fascinating read if you are interested in diaspora or cultural transitioning. The story itself reads like a puzzle, and if you are interested in such narratives, it is fascinating to think about the ways in which the author has arranged this piece of writing.
November 26, 2025
A fairly convoluted, Surrealist or modernist rendering of an Asian / Asian American family as they experience a de-centered life in countries as varied as China, England, and America. The threads of the story jump back and forth in time and place, probably a bit too much for my liking. Two (but not the only) focused threads involve Fourth Sister (Jane) and her affair with a French (married??) journalist; and Fifth Brother (James)'s marriage to a "barbarian" woman, (Austrian or German? Again it was hard to make entire sense of basic chronology, plot, and characters), his parents' initial disapproval, and then later eventual somewhat reluctant acceptance.
Much of the stories are centered around meal preparation; the amah (servant) preparation of family meals, Jane's urging to spend more time with the journalist (and preparing elaborate dishes for the fairly unreliable narrator who might be having other affairs or might be married??), and the death of the patriarch, and the difficult medical interventions as the father suffers through end-of-life care (which the Seventh sister looks forward to having the dad back to have a celebratory meal).
The natural descriptions are also spot on; this is a book that is good to read aloud, to get a sense of the poetry and images, many of which are packed in minimal amount of words and spacing.
As with other modernist literature there are no quotation marks; the characters are referred to via pronouns without reminders of name, making it often difficult to follow who said what.
The book is worth a reread, to get a better sense of what happened. It's worthy as a book club discussion, so multiple readers can help each other out through the basics of the plot and characters, but also opinions about the book are likely varied. This book is a crucial addition to the Asian American literature, and as noted in the preface, predates Maxing Hong Kingston's work by some years. The book deserves a greater readership, and more mulling over by more readers.
Much of the stories are centered around meal preparation; the amah (servant) preparation of family meals, Jane's urging to spend more time with the journalist (and preparing elaborate dishes for the fairly unreliable narrator who might be having other affairs or might be married??), and the death of the patriarch, and the difficult medical interventions as the father suffers through end-of-life care (which the Seventh sister looks forward to having the dad back to have a celebratory meal).
The natural descriptions are also spot on; this is a book that is good to read aloud, to get a sense of the poetry and images, many of which are packed in minimal amount of words and spacing.
As with other modernist literature there are no quotation marks; the characters are referred to via pronouns without reminders of name, making it often difficult to follow who said what.
The book is worth a reread, to get a better sense of what happened. It's worthy as a book club discussion, so multiple readers can help each other out through the basics of the plot and characters, but also opinions about the book are likely varied. This book is a crucial addition to the Asian American literature, and as noted in the preface, predates Maxing Hong Kingston's work by some years. The book deserves a greater readership, and more mulling over by more readers.
May 9, 2020
Crossings is challenging. It belongs in the “I want to cry I’m so confused” category but after a reread or two it’s like, aha, lightbulb moment! It’s more than just disjointed, fragmented, non-linear—it combines the past and present with myths and dreams, and within one paragraph (!) there can be shifts in space and time, even changes in POV. There are no quotation marks; punctuation is sometimes dispensed with. The story is centered on Fourth Jane, called such because of birth order. Jane’s biography mirrors that of the author’s: one of seven children, her father Dyadya a doctor-turned-stockbroker, living in exile in the US. Dyadya, disappointed in his two sons, wants Fourth Jane to be his successor. But instead she quits her job and flees to Paris for a year, where she falls into a rather meh affair with a married French journalist. Which seems ironic, considering the friction at home partially stemmed from her brother Fifth James’s elopement with a white woman. Dyadya eventually accepted the marriage after the birth of a grandchild but his wife Ngmah remained opposed. Jane sided with her mother for reasons unclear, though the text is full of clues and I have my theory. Dyadya passes away while Jane is abroad, heightening her sense of displacement. These are not spoilers, as Crossings is unconcerned with plot.
I read over my synopsis and it just doesn’t do the book justice. There are so many “crossings,” physical, mental, cultural. Difficult but ultimately rewarding.
I read over my synopsis and it just doesn’t do the book justice. There are so many “crossings,” physical, mental, cultural. Difficult but ultimately rewarding.
December 31, 2017
3-1/2 stars
This book is very disjointed and many chapters and paragraphs begin with a line about “she” and it takes a bit of reading to determine which character is referenced. On any one page, different paragraphs may be from different years or situations or perspectives. Actual events are mixed with interstices of dreams and daydreams. It may take a bit of reading to decide who “I” might be. So be prepared to untangle.
About halfway through the book there is an odd modified retelling of the story of The Searchers.
Published in 1968, this was a somewhat avant-garde style for that decade. I am glad the book was reprinted but this particular volume has been proofread by a computer as the word “phased” is used instead of “fazed” (this mistake often seen in subtitles of movies also) and “hangers” when the sentence was referring to “hangars.” That sort of thing truly bothers me. But at least the book is available. Strangely, the word “fazed” is used again later in the book and it is correct.
A particular kind of reader might give this book more stars.
This book is very disjointed and many chapters and paragraphs begin with a line about “she” and it takes a bit of reading to determine which character is referenced. On any one page, different paragraphs may be from different years or situations or perspectives. Actual events are mixed with interstices of dreams and daydreams. It may take a bit of reading to decide who “I” might be. So be prepared to untangle.
About halfway through the book there is an odd modified retelling of the story of The Searchers.
Published in 1968, this was a somewhat avant-garde style for that decade. I am glad the book was reprinted but this particular volume has been proofread by a computer as the word “phased” is used instead of “fazed” (this mistake often seen in subtitles of movies also) and “hangers” when the sentence was referring to “hangars.” That sort of thing truly bothers me. But at least the book is available. Strangely, the word “fazed” is used again later in the book and it is correct.
A particular kind of reader might give this book more stars.
August 11, 2020
Undeniably a cornerstone of Asian American literature – for me it was difficult to read, out of the obfuscations of modernism. I'm sure the chapters can evoke vivid scenes if you've read it ten times and have figured a lot of the obscurity out; I just felt like I was working really hard for too little payoff. But again, it's objectively impressive and significant.
October 28, 2022
A gorgeous little book - it has aged well and still feels really smart, painful, and subtle - it feels like “just” a story rather than a story of difference, despite how early this was written for English language Asian-American lit.
Read
August 11, 2019Give it to Me - Miya Folick
October 16, 2025
Let’s just pretend like I finished this
December 9, 2021
The story of Crossings by Chuang Hua is unusually disjointed, the writing is unconventional. The chronology grows a bit clearer as the story progresses, but overall remains a very complicated and confusing story intertwined with the narrator’s memories. The story reads like a puzzle, and the narrator seems to go through time periods to describe her life with her father and partner. She uses flashbacks in her book to connect the stories.
January 12, 2023
Crossings is a must for those interested in the Asian-American experience in literature. This novel from the 1960s focuses on the experience of a woman, named Fourth Jane in the text, whose present recollections shift between her (and others') past ones.
The quick summary could be: Chinese-American woman from a large, bourgeois immigrant family goes to Paris and has an affair with a married Parisian journalist, but this is the kind of work that is about the evocative experience and less about the plot. Through vignettes we get a deep feel for her family dynamic, with the strong, often overbearing patriarch Dyadya deeply involved in the lives of his seven children. (“Dyadya did not give her away but kept his First and all his rest in self-raging love and self-sweet bondage.”; but he also drove hours to her college to hand-deliver her a typewriter.) Jane's life in Paris revolves around making food and waiting for her lover, and the food scenes in particular have a hypnotic meditativeness that ground those parts of the novel in a deep present quality.
The style is very flowing and thus often confusing, probably intentionally so - memories merge and compress into each other and give the novel a poetic ambiguity. Particularly notable is Jane's speech about her double consciousness as both Chinese and American, and the mixing and melding of identities, while not feeling fully one nor the other.
The quick summary could be: Chinese-American woman from a large, bourgeois immigrant family goes to Paris and has an affair with a married Parisian journalist, but this is the kind of work that is about the evocative experience and less about the plot. Through vignettes we get a deep feel for her family dynamic, with the strong, often overbearing patriarch Dyadya deeply involved in the lives of his seven children. (“Dyadya did not give her away but kept his First and all his rest in self-raging love and self-sweet bondage.”; but he also drove hours to her college to hand-deliver her a typewriter.) Jane's life in Paris revolves around making food and waiting for her lover, and the food scenes in particular have a hypnotic meditativeness that ground those parts of the novel in a deep present quality.
The style is very flowing and thus often confusing, probably intentionally so - memories merge and compress into each other and give the novel a poetic ambiguity. Particularly notable is Jane's speech about her double consciousness as both Chinese and American, and the mixing and melding of identities, while not feeling fully one nor the other.
January 11, 2025
'Days, weeks, months, years, the pains of birth, absences, voyages, wars, losses, solitude, storms at sea, thirst and hunger, her Father dead, miles of silks newly dyed floating sullen and heavy in the waters of the canal, silks twisted and looped in the waters of the canal, silks twisted and looped oozing dripping colors not yet fastened into the fabric from overnight soaking in the canal, silks unfurled and drying in the sun on the road by the edge of the canal.' (16)
[...]
'a phrase which the children were told to say when they entered the room and approached her to perform a neat obeisance, the little ones running up, pausing then shouting the phrase at her in English or Chinese whichever they were capable of, then running away immediately afterward so that she had barely time to acknowledge the greeting although occasionally she whispered machine gun the only word she could by now remember in English the sounds pleased her.' (26)
[...]
'She took her time preparing an elaborate meal for a guest uncertain to appear.' (61)
[...]
'Built into the wall, it had drawers on either side in which he kept documents and papers such as certificates of medical studies completed in China, Germany and America, assorted travel documents, and official papers, military decrees in Chinese, yellowed postcard memories of a week in Torquay with Mr. and Mrs. Stiff, watches purchased in Geneva, cameras, old sturdy Parker fountain pens, stamps and paper clips, a rubber doll from the Folies Bergères, a thank-you note in a thin box of handkerchiefs presented to him by a woman whose handbag he had found in the subway and returned, his Zeiss microscope in the square black box, surgical instruments hurriedly picked from the glass-doored cabinets of his clinic and packed into his black physician’s bag in the dark, leaving the rest to the Japanese who took the city in the morning, a commemorative medal from the World’s Fair of 1939, collected on the occasion of his first visit alone to America, children’s school bills, letters from those who entered and left his life, people from whom he received and to whom he gave he could not part with.' (71)
[...]
'She turned the pages to Missouri and found the river, then turned more pages to find the source. Entranced by its length, the river flowed through seven states, she traced the course of the water, her lips moved in silence and wonder, inking the names of colors beasts saints trees ideas Indians rocks the names of men, a holy procession signifying man’s enduring tenure.' (185)
[...]
'The lake was a sheen of gold encircled by dark shores. The dark scattered islands loomed out of the water like petrified sentinels. In the distance she saw a moving haze, a cloud of locusts hovering above water.' (202)
[...]
'a phrase which the children were told to say when they entered the room and approached her to perform a neat obeisance, the little ones running up, pausing then shouting the phrase at her in English or Chinese whichever they were capable of, then running away immediately afterward so that she had barely time to acknowledge the greeting although occasionally she whispered machine gun the only word she could by now remember in English the sounds pleased her.' (26)
[...]
'She took her time preparing an elaborate meal for a guest uncertain to appear.' (61)
[...]
'Built into the wall, it had drawers on either side in which he kept documents and papers such as certificates of medical studies completed in China, Germany and America, assorted travel documents, and official papers, military decrees in Chinese, yellowed postcard memories of a week in Torquay with Mr. and Mrs. Stiff, watches purchased in Geneva, cameras, old sturdy Parker fountain pens, stamps and paper clips, a rubber doll from the Folies Bergères, a thank-you note in a thin box of handkerchiefs presented to him by a woman whose handbag he had found in the subway and returned, his Zeiss microscope in the square black box, surgical instruments hurriedly picked from the glass-doored cabinets of his clinic and packed into his black physician’s bag in the dark, leaving the rest to the Japanese who took the city in the morning, a commemorative medal from the World’s Fair of 1939, collected on the occasion of his first visit alone to America, children’s school bills, letters from those who entered and left his life, people from whom he received and to whom he gave he could not part with.' (71)
[...]
'She turned the pages to Missouri and found the river, then turned more pages to find the source. Entranced by its length, the river flowed through seven states, she traced the course of the water, her lips moved in silence and wonder, inking the names of colors beasts saints trees ideas Indians rocks the names of men, a holy procession signifying man’s enduring tenure.' (185)
[...]
'The lake was a sheen of gold encircled by dark shores. The dark scattered islands loomed out of the water like petrified sentinels. In the distance she saw a moving haze, a cloud of locusts hovering above water.' (202)
June 11, 2014
I stumbled upon Crossings by Chuang Hua because it was referred to by Ruth Reichl as an important food novel. Not a food book per se, but considered to be the first modernist Chinese American novel and what an extraordinary work of writing. Hau only penned this one book (1968) and then retreated from society.
The writing is very unconventional in its use of (or often lack thereof) punctuation and paragraph structure. During a single paragraph she may take you from the present to the past and even into fantasy. You have to stay on your toes!
"The past continues to speak to us. But this is no longer a simple, factual “past,” since our relation to it, like the child’s relation to the mother, is always-already “after the break.” It is always constructed through memory, fantasy, narrative and myth. (p224)"
This short book is worth a read, if not two; a fascinating, haunting, erotic and mouth watering journey for the character Jane, middle daughter of an upperclass Chinese-American family in the mid 20th century.
The writing is very unconventional in its use of (or often lack thereof) punctuation and paragraph structure. During a single paragraph she may take you from the present to the past and even into fantasy. You have to stay on your toes!
"The past continues to speak to us. But this is no longer a simple, factual “past,” since our relation to it, like the child’s relation to the mother, is always-already “after the break.” It is always constructed through memory, fantasy, narrative and myth. (p224)"
This short book is worth a read, if not two; a fascinating, haunting, erotic and mouth watering journey for the character Jane, middle daughter of an upperclass Chinese-American family in the mid 20th century.
March 31, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book and found it to be interesting and eloquent, but I did find it hard to keep up with where the story was in plot, location, and time. The afterwards by Amy Ling was the best part of the book because it helped explain the story and justified my near-constant confusion.
March 21, 2014
I have never read a book that was at the same time almost impossible to follow and impossible to put down. It jumps from reality to dreams and memories and I believe from different view points of various inter woven characters, although I'm not sure. I think it may warrant a second reading.
Want to read
May 20, 2014Ruth Reichl recommends.
August 14, 2014
This book was a mess. Period.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews