Fifth Chinese Daughter

by Jade Snow Wong

Originally published in 1945 and now reissued with a new introduction by the author, Jade Snow Wong's story is one of struggle and achievements. These memoirs of the author's first twenty-four years are thoughtful, informative, and highly entertaining. They not only portray a young woman and her unique family in San Francisco's Chinatown, but they are rich in the details that light up a world within the world of America. The third-person singular style is rooted in Chinese literary form, reflecting cultural disregard for the individual, yet Jad Snow Wong's story also is typically American.

We first meet Jade Snow Wong the child, narrowly confined by the family and factory life, bound to respect and obey her elders while shouldering responsibility for younger brothers and sisters - a solemn child well versed in the proper order of things, who knew that punishment was sure for any infraction of etiquette. Then the schoolgirl caught in confusion between the rigid teaching of her ancestors and the strange ways of her foreign classmates. After that the college student feeling her was toward personal identity in the face of parental indifference or outright opposition. And finally the artist whose early triumphs were doubled by the knowledge that she had at long last won recognition from her family.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, China, Asian American, Biography, History, Literature

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

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

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was impressive. It is one of those books you start and think you should dump .....then slowly, bit by bit, you find yourself liking it more and more. I recommend this book, but who is it for? It is for a reader interested in cultural differences. This is about an immigrant Chinese American family. The author's father immigrated to the US. She was born in the US in 1922. It is an autobiography of the first 24 years of her life. She is an impressive woman – here check out this snapshot: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... It takes you through the Depression and WW2. The central theme portrays with clarity an inside view of a Chinese family living in the US. In San Francisco’s Chinatown. A Chinese family that starts out as Chinese in thought, tradition and customs as you can get. You watch as they acclimatize to their new surroundings. The process is infinitesimally slow for her parents, faster for the daughter born and raised in the States. What is it like to be caught in two different worlds? I adored learning about the Chinese traditions at the same time as I was horrified by some antiquated beliefs. You end up seeing both he good and the bad of both the American and the Chinese culture. You watch a family find a middle road. You follow the author to the point where she is able to appreciate both her own heritage and the opportunities afforded by American life. Extremely satisfying. She becomes a writer and a pottery craftsman with a shop of her own .

- I particularly loved watching how her father and finally her mother changed.
-I particularly enjoyed learning about Chinatown in San Francisco. I loved stepping inside shops - a watchmaker's, a cobbler’s. My all-time favorite was inside a Chinese herbalist store.

The beginning is extremely simplistic. I thought I had picked up a child's book. Don‘t be deterred.

The audiobook narration by Andi Arndt was very good. Easy to follow. That is all I want form an audiobook narration.

[Vasha7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the other reviewers called this book "propaganda", and I can see what led to that opinion. It certainly has the air of an old-fashioned Social Studies text, whose theme might be "The Happy Immigrant Jade Snow Discovers the Wonders of the American Way", combined with "Everything You Need to Know About Chinese Culture in Four Easy Lessons"; Jade Snow Wong puts some lectures in the mouth of her parents that no human being would ever actually speak. But let’s consider why she might have chosen to write it that way. She published it in 1945, after spending the war years working in the administrative offices of a naval shipyard, where her most important job was researching what might improve productivity, and she was particularly proud of a paper she wrote about reducing absenteeism by "labor and management... set[ting] aside their differences... getting together and solving the basic problem of mass morale." It’s no wonder she absorbed a boosterish atmosphere. But the roots of her writing style go back farther. She wanted to "bring better understanding of the Chinese people, so that in the Western world they would be recognized for their achievements", and she intended her book to be read by white American children. Her own education formed her ideas about how one should write for children. In her Chinese evening school, the only thing the students wrote were edifying compositions on such themes as "The Value of Learning" or "The Necessity of Good Habits", and although Jade Snow found them rather mind-numbing, she certainly believed in their values. I don’t know what they wrote in the American school (she assumes her readers know this, and so doesn’t specify) but I bet there were a few such topics there too.

If I’ve made this book sound stupefyingly dull, that’s wrong, it certainly isn’t! (Most of the time, anyway.) Wong had a keen instinct for what her readers would find interesting; she knew that they’d be unfamiliar with the minutiae of her daily life in Chinatown, and includes such things as a well-written description of the proper method of washing and cooking rice. And in spite of her educational purpose and her commitment to mostly focusing on positive things when talking about other people (evidently part of her ideas about proper human relations), something very personal comes through at times. The main character is not just a vehicle for discovering ideas and the world, she’s an idiosyncratic girl, for instance in her stubborn refusal to adopt the universal fashion of curling her hair with hot irons. Above all, her depiction of her relationship with her parents, especially her father (a complex, sometimes contradictory man), is vividly human. Jade Snow’s parents were very often harsh toward her, and showing affection was just not something they were capable of, so it was a difficult process for her to come to love them as individuals. She rejected those parts of their values that she found most oppressive, while keeping some positive things that she felt were Chinese rather than American, such as a commitment to community involvement and a sense of having a place in a web of family relationships. Her family could come close to crushing her, true, especially when she ranked very low in its hierarchy, but once she had won respect, she found it was supportive too. Therefore, the triumphant ending to the book is not her leaving home for the wide world, but rather her parents saying with newfound warmth, "It is good to have you home again!"

[Megan Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a memoir, this is fine. It did, however, spark me to sit down and have a conversation with my husband about memoirs and why I generally find them so unsatisfying. There are a few that I think justify the genre, but then there's a lot that just make me shrug my shoulders and not care very much.

Note: The rest of this review has been withheld due to the changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.

In the meantime, you can read the entire review at Smorgasbook

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024 Review

Reviewed here with further resources.

2022 Review
I came across Fifth Chinese Daughter in a library book sale while visiting relatives in Southern California. The copy lured me with its illustrated endpapers, ridiculously low price, and the author's note that she wrote in the Chinese style of "submergence of the individual," meaning she referred to herself in the third person (not even using "we") in this memoir/autobiography. Wong was classically educated in Chinese writing, literature, and philosophy, and writing Fifth Chinese Daughter with this Chinese technique, in English, perfectly expresses the confluence of Chinese and American culture that she displayed in her own life, as a Chinese-American woman born in San Francisco in the 1920s.

Wong's interior life is artfully written. Not using first person was a jolt at first for this English-language reader, but Wong's voice soon entranced me. The way she writes about her personhood, evolving concepts of identity and freedom, and how her relationship with her parents grew and changed, is a gloriously rewarding experience. The ending (which I won't spoil here) made me cry. I cry all the time at books (honestly, most books eke out a tear or two) but this one was from sheer emotional satisfaction. Wong's life story is quiet, but splendid. Her navigation of her relationship with her parents, and the ways in which she honored and elegantly subverted the traditional role for women in Confucian society, has such amazing complexity. With her love for writing and traditional handicrafts, we are kindred spirits. She would likely be around 100 years old if she is still alive, but oh, how I'd love to talk with her.

I loved, loved loved the tactile details Wong preserves here about growing up in San Francisco during the Great Depression and WWII. Her family's home, in the same building as her father's factory, is so well-described that I could envision it clearly. Her time at Mills College was really delightful to read about in particular. If I could change one thing, I would have Wong write more about her spirituality. Wong's father was a Christian, but denied very little of his Confucian background, and I'd be interested to learn more about how Wong navigated religion herself. Yet, her interior life and movements were so clear to me from the novel that I didn't notice the absence of spirituality until I finished the book.

Fifth Chinese Daughter will call out to me again and again, I'm sure. It might even become a favorite. All I know for now is that I loved hearing Wong's story in her own style of expression, and that I'm heart-glad I took a chance on the slim volume with the pretty endpapers in that library book sale.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifth Chinese Daughter
By Jade Snow Wong
256 pages
University of Washington Press
isbn13: 9780295968261

This memoir of Jade Snow Wong portrays her life as a kid until when she got older. This is a book about the morals of Asian families, but it also shows the problems, the conflicts, that an average Chinese person faces when put in a situation that's foreign. This author lives in Chinatown, San Francisco and she's an ordinary kid, just like any other. She must obey her strict grandmother, respect her elders, listen to her older sister, and take care of her younger siblings.

Jade Snow Wong's writing style is different than any other because this book is based on a true story, her story. It's not fictional and it's what has happened to her. She's telling a true story about her and her family, and it's based on her race, too. Like many of us, she's a Chinese American and her lifestyle may be different than ours nowadays, since there's a huge difference between our age.

I would recommend this book to anyone because many people can learn from this book. Everyone can learn about the chinese culture, especially learn about the difference between the time then and the time now. Ones who are Chinese American, just like me, can relate to this book and learn more about the chinese culture. I think this would be a good book for others and I hope that they can learn from this book.

[aj! · Rating 4 out of 5]

not this memoir making me cry

there is an undeniable problematic element to this when you consider how much it exists in a binary, chinese vs. american, and how much it tries to exoticize its own culture, but there is something there where jade snow wong seems to see that chinatown itself is where you go to be Chinese American, not just chinese and american, considering the end of the book. my own connection to the book really came from the pieces in which the hard-to-pin-down father showed love in very blunt and strange ways.

a fascinating historical piece that no doubt created a lot of the memoirs that came after it. really excited to talk about this in my memoir seminar

[Eric Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

If read from a literary and/or Asian American perspective, FCD is a true model minority story: the fifth daughter in a traditional Chinese family succeeds in American society. Though quite a story, there is no depth, no insight on how and why. There is only “what” in the autobiography. To be even more blunt, Wong is writing with the notion that how an ethnic group acts is how they are supposed to act (Omi and Winant 60). On the contrary, if read from a casual reader’s perspective, FCD is a narrative with a strong storyline laced with rich details about a foreign culture. Nonetheless, Blinde’s analysis lacks a component essential in understanding why Wong wrote FCD in the way that it is. The arguments presented in the paper do not take account the temporality and scenery of FCD. Blinde narrowly focuses her arguments on the restriction of how the text is written. She proclaims that the text only ceases to reinforce Asian American expectations and stereotypes. However, the American people at that time are only ready for exoticism written in their particular form, which is in a vehicle of reinforcement of previously know facts about Asian Americans. Blinde is able to succinctly convey this idea, but fails to connect it with her criticisms of the novel. She never fully realizes that her criticisms could be lessened by the circumstances surrounding the particular time period in which FCD was written.

At the point of time in which FCD was written and published (late 1940s/early 1950s), there definitely were certain restrictions to how an autobiography could be written and especially how an autobiography of a Chinese American woman could be written. Progress is made gradually no matter whether it is minority rights, environmental protection, or social tolerance. Blinde, even in 1979, is looking at FCD in the lens of a more progressive society. In the span between 1950 and 1979, many landmark historical events have occurred including two wars and many social movements. In the perspective of the late 1970s, the Blinde’s arguments could be genuinely valid; however, FCD was not published at that time. FCD was published during the post World War II years in which there were still remnants of anti-Japanese sentiment and beginning hatred for Communist nations. How Blinde wants the novel to be written could never be fully actualized during this period if the author wanted the book to sell and the book to be read. Wong cannot be an Asian American and especially a Chinese American cultural nationalist and feminist without becoming lost in obscurity just how John Okada and No-No Boy did. FCD contains overtones of assimilation and American patriotism (Wong winning the essay contest), all smartly placed to generate readership and favorability towards Chinese Americans in a time in which the Cold War had just started. This is not to condone writing in an exotic tone and writing without depth, but to help put written works relative to their particular time period. Books can be reviewed in a modern lens to capture period discrepancy, but not to attack why and how the book was written. To legitimately do the latter, one must put on the lens of that particular period to review the autobiography. Relevant criticisms are legitimate; criticisms without perspective and relativity are not, which is what Blinde did in her review.

According to our perspective, FCD is an autobiography that exoticized Chinese Americans and refused to comment on Chinese and Chinese American society, but it was also relatively avant garde considering no Asian American women and especially no Chinese American women were writing popular books at that time. The progression from the first works to the current works of Asian American literature is a gradual continuity relative to history and it is very important to consider the background and perspectives of each work during critical reading.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful small book, an autobiography by Jade Snow about growing up in Chinatown, San Francisco in the 1930s-40s. She covers her life from age five to twenty-three. The early years are very structured. She had six brothers and sisters, most older. She is formal when describing her in days and work at her parents' factory/house on Stockton Avenue, between Clay and Sacramento streets. They make overalls. She attends english school, chinese school and church. The beauty comes as she gets older and realizes sons have preference, and she will need to work outside the home to have enough money to go to school. Her contacts and the tender way she discovers life and how one realization leads to another makes all the difference as she grows up and attends college during the depression and then finds work during WWII. Jade Snow died in 2006. There is a very good obituary here: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article...

[jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am a person, besides being a female! Don't the Chinese admit that women also have feelings and minds?"

This is a darling, powerful read that is currently required reading for an Autobiography class I'm currently taking, and I'm oftentimes so grateful for mandatory books. Wong joins authors like L.M. Alcott or Lucy Maud Montgomery in a heartfelt, thorough detailing of a young woman's life as she resists outside deferrance from the world and traditional feminine limitations. This book is full of encouragement and the belief that hard work and a strong support system can take you anywhere. I particularly enjoyed the way we saw the small things in Jade Snow's life add up to eventual big things and the emphasis on community living. I want to stay in Wong's simple, strong writing forever.

[Nelson Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great. The text is straight forward, and not too much pontification while still being stunningly beautiful. From what I can tell, FCD is a real cornerstone of Asian-American Lit, so definitely happy to have taken the time to absorb it.

[Shu Lan · Rating 3 out of 5]

book for my Asian American women writers class

[May ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚]

For school :)

[tessa jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love jade wong's style of prose and i thouroughly enjoyed reading about her story, finding her depictions of maturity and childhood realizations in a extremely relatable manner. however, i am worried by her deployment through the State Departmenr as well as their subsequent role in the publishing of this novel. this novel can very easily interpreted as reinforcing 'model minority' stereotypes and other misconceptions about 'good immigrants'. i think this novel's portrayal of race, while a valid experience, should not be wholly taken as the 'standard' chinese-american experience.

[Eileen Souza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book from my neighbor.

This is the true story of Wong Jade Snow, the fifth daughter of a chinese family, who was born and raised in Chinatown, San Francisco. The story was told in an unusual third person, because she spoke of her family - Daddy, Mother, Prosperity, with first person knowledge, but referred to herself as Jade Snow throughout. It took a little bit to get used to, but once you were in the story was very interesting.

The story starts when she is quite young, and shows the clear differences between life and expectations at home vs. with the "foreigners" (I thought this term was classic, since they were living in San Francisco). She is a dedicated young learner, though as her brother says she has no creativity or personality, but takes that drive and shows them all that she is not only a valuable part of the family, but that she can be a success in her own way. Without her family's support, she put herself through college, worked successfully for teh Navy during WWII, and started her own business, which allowed her to write this book.

I think it was most interesting because it was a true story, and she wrote about her life from a perspective that showed the depth of other people's feelings as well as her own.

Good book overall!

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jade Snow Wong is the "fifth Chinese daughter" of a large, austere and formal Chinese family. She attends both public and Chinese school in San Francisco. After high school, she graduates from junior college, then from Mills College on a full scholarship. She supports herself in high school and college by working as a housekeeper and maid. Sadly, Jade's parents never contribute to her education even though they are putting her brother through medical school.
Jade gives vivid descriptions of the ordered Chinese life--funerals , births and weddings. Jade became successful as a pottery maker, as well as a writer. This book is a literary pleasure; the illustrations of Kathryn Uhl are charming. Published in 1945, this autobiography shows a young woman's metamorphosis from her early rigid upbringing to a more liberated Chinese-American woman. Recommended to readers who enjoy Chinese culture.

[Kayla Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book of 2022 read! Took me a few months but I got there. This was a true story about a Chinese-American family living in San Francisco during and after the Great depression. I enjoyed it because I found parallels between their family and my family; stories, myths or proverbs that I'd heard from family members over the years. Also, weird or random customs/traditions that my family does that I always thought were a tad strange lol one instance is calling someone "third uncle." 🤣 We do that! And the story of how man has different skin tones coming from a Chinese story that God cooked or toasted us all at different lengths of time, but that we're all perfect the way we are. My grandpa Roy(who was not Chinese) used to tell me that, and I'm guessing someone Chinese had told him that story at some point. Just oddly familiar things that made me smile. The Wongs were also Cantonese 🙂

[Rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lived in my grandmother’s house and I read it many times throughout my childhood. I loved reading about Jade Snow and her sister Jade Precious Stone, who lived very different lives from me, and I still think of them whenever I cook rice. I’m not sure I’d love it as much as an adult and am somewhat reluctant to find out, not wanting to spoil the memories of what was one of my favourite books as a child.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This autobiography is an insightful look into a Chinese-American girl's life in San Francisco during the 30's and 40's. Although this book has a slow start, it picks up and provides a down-to-earth and at times, humorous, look into America during this time period. I learned a lot about Chinese family life. A very interesting read.

[Linden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever.

[Kennedy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This autobiography tells the story of Jade Snow Wong a Chinese girl who lives with her family in China town in San Francisco it details her struggle with trying to balance the two very different she was exposed to. Much of the story takes place around Jade trying to break the stereotypes her family and community put on her about being a girl. Throughout the book her family shows favoritism to her brother Just because he is a boy. Often Jade was treated like a second class citizen by her own family. She was expected to get good grades but not rewarded nor congratulated for doing so. They wouldn’t pay for her college even though they payed for her brothers because he is the boy and to them it was more important. She was forced to work full time to save up to pay for college. As she’s furthering her education she starts broadening her horizons and becoming exposed to westernized culture that is much different from what she was use to. For once in her life she was being extremely independent and achieved academic success although her family did not believe in her.

Culturally speaking Chinese family’s seem to be much more formal and stricter than American families as well as more sexist. This is most likely due to the fact that at the time (1950’s) the man was the sole provider so they felt that their sons were the most important children and explains why girls received less attention since they could just marry.

The authors purpose is to show the struggle of coming from one culture and being fully submersed into an entirely different one along with coming to age.Also to show what it’s like being a girl in a Chinese family. “Don’t the Chinese admit that women also have feelings and minds” (110). This is a quote she said to her dad and describes the pain many Chinese girls at that time felt.

The theme of this text is that you can be anything you set your mind to. She wanted to get and education and have a strong support system and she made it happen for herself.”she had shown her father and mother that without a penny from them she could balance her own budget and graduate from college” (181).

I would recommend this text if you’re interested in a very honest and real autobiography. I think it was pretty interesting and informative.

[Nancyliz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Asian American Lit class. I wouldn’t have picked it, and that��s the point of going to PSU and taking classes. This is a memoir, written in third person, because in her culture, one does not make oneself the center of attention. In this case, it was great. It gave her the liberty of treating her life like a story, and relieved the reader from being bombarded with I, I, I, and Me me me. It was published in 1950, set in San Francisco’s China Town. It is a window into the life of a first generation American, growing up in an immigrant household where english is a foreign language, and American culture is emerging slowly. One of the themes of our class is considering the idea of the Model Minority. Asians are often regarded as bright, industrious, well-behaved and reserved. Does this book support that description, or not? The class was fairly divided, but I think that it does. This was an era in which women had little control over their own destinies, regardless of culture, or even class. Jade Snow works her way to academic success, in spite of zero emotional support or financial support from her parents. The older brother gets money for college, but Jade Snow cleans houses for white people. While parental expectations are high to bring honor to the family, girls are meant to marry and move to their husband’s homes and take care of the mother-in-law. Jade Snow creates her own path, works ridiculously hard (model minority on steroids), and brings honor and success to her family. She is lucky, wildly lucky in several situations, but she doesn’t toss anything aside and makes every situation work for her. Within this effort, she is never obnoxious, does not brag, does not slouch, does not cheat, does not use people. She is industrious, hard working, respectful, and determined. She also could have elaborated a bit, and maybe embellished a few things, but it’s hard not to when you have made your way in a less than welcoming world. To me, she was a model woman, and the stoicism of her upbringing was a benefit. She didn’t get hugs or compliments, or even acknowledgments most of the time, but what that created was pure self determination, and because she was successful, her family came to be proud of her, and celebrated her. So, win - win.

[Tyler Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a memoir of a Chinese-American girl growing up in the Depression and WWII-era in San Francisco, this book explored self-discovery in connection to culture and often seemed to find a balance between new and old. Her father was Christian, so they adopted some Western traditions connected to that, but also held strongly to their Chinese roots. Part of her father's move to America and adoption of Christianity was to give his daughters more opportunity than they would have had in traditional Chinese culture, yet there were still incredibly strict roles that we would certainly see as sexist now and less opportunity that the author's brothers received. The author struggled with feeling accepted by her family, yet there were many moments of great joy and pride in connection with her family.

I think these areas of tension, the both/ands, were often where the author struggled to find her place. She didn't want the traditional Chinese life her family or other Chinese people presented her as one option, but as a Chinese woman of the time, she often wasn't fully accepted into the Caucasian world, such as around work opportunities. Yet it seemed to be the places where the author embraced the best of her Chinese culture and her learning how to navigate the American culture where she was able to succeed and find self satisfaction.

Now of course, this balance of the positives and negatives of the story are all just my thoughts and take on the book - I could understand someone just being frustrated with her facing an often sexist, racist world and not even getting enough support from her family. I saw aspects of that and additional complexity and nuance that I think the author intended as well.

Overall, it was a relatively slow paced book that really only covered about 25 years of the author's life, yet that I still relatively enjoyed.

[Vivian]

I don't feel right giving this a rating when it's this landmark historical piece that I shouldn't really evaluate based on my personal opinion of whether I liked it or not. I think what strikes me is how ethnographic it is, so detailed that sometimes I felt like I was reading a cookbook or some other type of how-to manual. I can see why writers would criticize it as ethnic tourism because that's precisely what it is. But at the same time, reading as a Cantonese American with young kids, I'm also reading it as a document of my heritage. I don't know what my own family would've been like as far as personality or culture goes, back in this time period that Wong writes about. So I can't say whether they were similar or not, but it's all in the realm of possibility, which piques my interest. And of course there are some unexpected things that echo across the years: the method of measuring water for rice by the finger, for instance. Other things are just very different, in a time before mass production made consumer goods so cheap and resulted in us no longer needing to do things like sew our own clothes.

As for her father, who dominates the narrative, I'm sort of most surprised by how he's constantly portrayed as a very traditional Chinese person yet the book concludes with his commitment to feminism (defined by the standards of the time), informed by his Christianity. So the book does an interesting trick of making the family both appear very traditional and foreign, yet very modern and same. I totally see why it was a bestseller for its time - it plays to the values of its time well. Also, what a surprise to learn their factory-home was located at the site of Ping Yuen, a cool research overlap.

[Jing · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a pretty straightforward narrative, a memoir of a Chinese American woman born as the fifth daughter into a family of first generation Chinese immigrants in 1930s San Francisco. Being Chinese American myself, I was completely amazed at how little the writer's experience growing up Chinese in America differed from my own. Seventy years or more separates me and the little girl in the narrative, and yet on a very fundamental level, our identity struggles feel the same and the same cultural conflicts still present themselves.

However, this is not an engaging book--it reads like an impersonal outline of a life. Part of the impersonal feel of this woman's story stems from the fact that the memoir is written in the third person. The author addresses this narrative choice in the first chapter, but it doesn't change the effect of such a choice, which is to make everything seem unnecessarily removed, as if instead of watching the movie and having it be an immersive experience, the reader is looking at the Wikipedia plot summary of the movie through a foggy computer screen.

[Sharlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book via the 500 Great Books by Women Group on Goodreads. It’s a group that discusses the list in the book by Erica Bauermeister. It’s also a list on List Challenges if you like ticking off things online and that sort of thing.

And like in Family Trust by Kathy Wang, a book I was also reading at around the same time, it’s a book set in San Francisco. Unlike the 2018-published Family Trust, Fifth Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong was originally published in 1945, and it’s quite telling of its time, with a 73 year difference between publication of these two books.

Fifth Chinese Daughter is an autobiography but is written more like a novel. And it has a rather educational tone to it, like it’s trying to teach the (presumably) white person reading it. So as a modern Chinese-Singaporean reading this book, it sometimes is amusing but more often it feels a bit heavy-handed and didactic.

I must admire Wong’s life and her determination to be educated and find a career. It wasn’t easy at that time for women, and I must imagine, even more so for a Chinese woman living in the US. Her father, while pushing education, especially Chinese-language education, when she was younger, is unwilling to pay for college, as he’s already paying for her brother’s medical school.

“You are quite familiar by now with the fact that it is the sons who perpetuate our ancestral heritage by permanently bearing the Wong family name and transmitting it through their blood line, and therefore the songs must have priority over the daughters when parental provision for advantages must be limited by economic necessity. Generations of sons, bearing our Wong name, are those who make pilgrimages to ancestral burial grounds and preserve them forever. Our daughters leave home at marriage to give sons to their husbands’ families to carry on the heritage for other names.”

She then begins working as a housekeeper for various families and manages to also find herself a scholarship to a college.

It’s an interesting account of various Chinese traditions, such as a funeral, a baby’s first full month with red eggs (which is something that Chinese families in Singapore still do) and pickled pigs’ feet (that was new to me).

Fifth Chinese Daughter may be a bit dated but it does offer an insight into the life of a young Chinese-American growing up in San Francisco at the time and trying to find a balance between her traditional Chinese upbringing and the more American lifestyle she’s becoming accustomed to as she goes to school and finds a career for herself.

[Arella Dai · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple to be read, but also takes time to finish.

Author's claim for herself in using a third-persona is so brilliant. Because as a modern reader and female, I was yearning for more psychological description and mentality, sentimental parts. There is little to find.

As a modern and female critic in Chines Context, I was amazed about the severe criticism from Frank Chin on Wong. The history and text are complex. But there is only on Jade Snow Wong. She just came out this book and her life before she had the "privilege" to join in the propaganda and being seen by the public. She strived for her life, an early typical Asian Student.

[Royce Ratterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful window into life in San Francisco's Chinatown, Chinese culture, and the blending of 'Western' and 'Eastern' back in the 1930s - 40s. Read for personal historical research.
I found this work of immense interest and its contents helpful and inspiring - number rating relates to the book's contribution to my needs.
Overall, this work is also a good resource for the researcher and enthusiast.

More info HERE: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...

JADE SNOW WONG (1977) Video: https://vimeo.com/126857095

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating cultural study of a first generation Chinese American girl’s upbringing during early 20th century America. If I hadn’t been reading an exceptionally old copy, I would have thought this was a modern person writing and trying their best. The views expressed and her mindset is stunningly modern, and this is a piece of feminist literature. It reads more like a sociology case study than a story, but if you’re interested in cultural differences and immigrant stories this is a must-read.

[Taylor W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifth Chinese Daughter tells the story of Jade Snow Wong as she grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The daughter of two Chinese immigrants, she draws upon her own experiences to produce a commentary and narrative of what it was like to be a 1st generation American-born Chinese daughter born in the 1920’s. Though her story has cultural and historical value, as well as the potential to be an honest, unfiltered account of life in the Chinese community at the time, I found too many stylistic issues, such as heavy bias and a narrowed scope of view, with her writing style to consider it as such and have come to view the book as more of a novel rather than an authentic account.

That being said, I do believe that there are some positive aspects to Fifth Chinese Daughter, such as the well-composed narrative and the fact that there is some anthropological and historical value to her story. There is no doubt that Jade Snow Wong is more than capable as a writer, made evident through her numerous academic accomplishments including finishing “nine years of Chinese study” (96) and graduating “Phi Beta Kappa [with] Honor and Distinction in Economics and Sociology” (180). As a result, her novel progresses fluidly and allows the reader to become both mentally and emotionally invested in Jade Snow Wong’s story through the universal themes of suffering and triumph. These overarching motifs can be seen through scenes such as young Jade Snow’s constant and brutal discipline from her parents - “Mother usually spanked until the wooden hanger broke” (3) - and Jade Snow’s elation and pride at her graduation - “She had shown her father and mother that without a penny from them, she could balance her own budget and graduate from college, not in debt, but with one hundred of the original hundred and seventy-four dollars still in the bank” (181).

In addition, another strength of the book was the cultural and historical value inherently built into it. Jade Snow Wong is in a unique position where she has all the tools (education, personal experience) to produce a first hand account of life of a Chinese-American in the early to mid 1900’s. Her story could potentially be used in conjunction with other primary accounts to draw conclusions about a variety of topics, such as the Chinese community in San Francisco, what it was like to grow up under the strict tutelage of Chinese immigrants, the family dynamic and values of a Chinese family residing in San Francisco, among other matters. For instance, Jade Snow Wong’s continued commentary and emphasis on her brothers’ higher status reveals a male-prioritized Chinese mentality as can be seen through moments such as “Forgiveness from Heaven [Jade Snow Wong’s younger sibling], because he was a brother, was more important to Mama and Daddy than dear baby sister Precious Stone, who was only a girl” (27) and her father’s insistence that because “you are a girl […] It will not be necessary for you to go to college” (18).

Though there are these strengths to Fifth Chinese Daughter, there are also some major flaws within the novel. In my opinion, Jade Snow Wong fails to write from a wholly authentic view and rather produces a work that comes off as tailored for the white community of the time. She continually inserts side comments and various observations into her narrative that perpetuate stereotypes that could not have possibly been thoughts that she had at those moments. For example, during her discussion of the Chinese Moon Festival celebrations she states that “The round Chinatown mooncakes which Jade Snow knew were about four inches in diameter and an inch and a half thick” (42). At the time this quote was stated in the book, Jade Snow could not have been older than 11. It is highly unlikely that an 11 year old would have the mental focus and knowledge to know that a Chinese mooncake is “four inches in diameter and an inch and a half thick.” Thus, it is clear here that Jade Snow is writing with the intent of informing and teaching her readers about her perception of Chinese culture (as this is not a thought she would have had herself at the time). Because of comments such as this, her story comes off as biased and lacking in objectivity and cannot be read as an unfiltered account of her experiences. Additionally, Jade Snow Wong’s use of third person personal narrative further undermines the genuineness of her supposed autobiography. The book comes off more as a story based on experience rather than the relating of one’s actual experience, as she is forced to recreate quotes of her family members based on her memory of them (for she was most likely not keeping a record of what everyone was saying when she was a young girl).

Overall, I really did want to like this book; I wanted to read an honest account of a Chinese-Americans experience growing up in 1920’s San Francisco to learn more about the Chinese community in America overall. However, I could not ignore the intense bias present in her writing and severity against her own culture. I found that her book was more directed towards what outsiders would wish to read rather than relating an authentic account of her life which actually speaks to the American viewpoint at the time (of wanting to portray a daughter of an immigrant in a positive light). I would recommend this book as a novel to read in one’s free time, but not for those seeking to read a book that will provide a true cultural analysis.

[Lars · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this account of a young, Chinese-American (or American Born Chinese) woman’s life in the 1930s and 40s. She provided so much detail and description of the conflicts in her two cultural environments and in the belief systems underpinning each. She was also super resilient, determined and smart. And it was refreshing to read a coming of age story where the focus was decidedly not on seeking “love” or romance.