Chinese American Fiction

Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 4:05pm

Novels about Chinese Americans. Provided by the staff at the West University Branch Library.

 
Chieh Chieng. A Long Stay in a Distant Land
How the zany Lum family of Orange County, California deals with the disappearance of their beloved Uncle Bo in Hong Kong.
 
Gish Jen. The Love Wife
A distant cousin from China (who may be either nanny or concubine) comes to stay with the Chinese-American/Irish-American Wong family, much changing the family dynamic.   
 
Gish Jen. Mona in the Promised Land
A laugh-out-loud novel about Mona Chang, a wise-cracking suburbanite Chinese-American who chooses to be Jewish.   
 
Kim Wong Keltner.  Buddha Baby
Lindsey Owyang, a sassy third generation Chinese-American, with two part-time jobs and two love interests, decides to investigate her family’s mysterious San Francisco Chinatown heritage.
 
Don Lee. Yellow: Stories
Short stories and a novella about the tensions between various Asian-Americans living in the fictional town of Rosarita Bay, California.
 
Gus Lee. China Boy
How a small and vulnerable Chinese boy learns to survive in on the tough streets of San Francisco in the 1950s.
 
Fae M. Ng. Bone 
How one Chinese American family copes with the suicide of their middle daughter.
 
Mei Ng. Eating Chinese Food Naked 
After graduating from college, Ruby Lee returns home to Queens, NY to temporarily live with her parents in the four rooms behind their small laundry business.
Amy Tan. The Bonesetter’s Daughter
While her mother struggles with Alzheimer’s disease, her daughter struggles to understand their family’s Chinese origins.
 
Amy Tan. The Hundred Secret Senses
Half sisters get to know each other after their father dies, especially during a trip to their ancestral China.
Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club
This beloved contemporary classic examines the tangled connections between four Chinese mothers, all members of a mah jong group, and their four American-born daughters.
Amy Tan. The Kitchen God’s Wife
A Chinese-born mother and her American-born adult daughter draw closer after the mother shares many stories from her tortured past.
 
Shawn Wong. American Knees 
A divorced Chinese-American man finds happiness with a Japanese-American woman.