Fifth Chinese Daughter (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)
At a glance:
- Author: Jade Snow Wong
- First Published: 1950
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Family or family life, Parents and children, Tradition, Gender roles, 1940’s, 1930’s, Fathers, Multiculturalism, Conformity, Asian Americans, China or Chinese people, Chinese Americans, Career women
- Locales: San Francisco, CA, Oakland, CA
The Work
Fifth Chinese Daughter, Jade Snow Wong’s autobiography, directly and honestly relates the struggles and accomplishments of an American-born Chinese girl. Although it is an autobiography, it is written in the third person, which reflects the Chinese custom of humility. This use of the third person also reminds the reader of how difficult it is for the author to express her individual identity.
The book explains Wong’s desire to prove to her parents that she was “a person, besides being a female.” Even as a toddler, she was taught to obey her...
[The entire page is 823 words long]
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