The most recommended books about Chinese Americans

Wow, I love this book. I read it out loud with my daughter when she was in seventh grade. It’s the story of a 10-year-old girl, Sugar, who works on a plantation with other Black laborers post-Civil War. She’s an orphan, witnessing first-hand the white plantation owner and his family in the midst of a total meltdown brought on by fear and greed. It’s an effective juxtaposition set against Sugar’s supportive and loving community which widens to include Chinese immigrants who arrive to help in the fields. At first, the Black and Chinese laborers regard each other with skepticism, but because of Sugar’s hope and optimism and kindness, they join forces. It’s a powerful historical novel that has stayed with me for years. 

Fans of Schitt’s Creek, Crazy Rich Asians, and Little Miss Sunshine will delight in Chang’s debut. At turns bawdy and brilliant, The Wangs vs. The World tells the hilarious story of Charles Wang, a Chinese immigrant who achieves the American Dream by turning waste into wealth only to get hit by the financial crisis and lose his dazzling Bel Air home and everything he holds dear—everything, that is, except his quirky but lovable family. Chang’s razor-sharp humor and bold writing style have made me an instant fan.

Reading this graphic novel just feels good. It’s so positive and full of all kinds of sweet relationships—romantic, friends, and family.

It’s also a fantastic portrayal of numerous people with something that makes them different from most others, including wearing hearing aids, lesbian grandmas, large bodies, and last but not least, being nonbinary. None of these things is an issue in the book, and instead they’re presented as being as normal as breathing.

I just love the normalization of human differences. Add to that the fun urban fantasy elements of magic and werewolves, and it’s a perfect mix.  

The middle-grade novel, New from Here, really hits home for me. The main character, Knox, a resilient young boy protecting his friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, makes this book incredibly relatable to young readers.

The book combats racism and promotes togetherness, issues that I am passionate about in my own writing.  

On my first read of this book, I raced through the matte black pages reading as fast as I could, both to discover the ending and to reassure myself that the characters I adored could survive. (Horror, as a genre, can be cruel to the flawed, nerdy, and eccentric sorts of characters that I tend to sympathize with.) So it was my second, more measured, pass through the fantastically dark graphic novel that allowed me to absorb far more of its world and reflect on my own as well. As much as this story is about demons, human sacrifices, and horrific entities summoned from hellish realms, it’s also very much about how we each navigate our humanity.

When Ipo, the matriarch of her family, broods on how much of her heritage and personal history to pass on to her children, her dilemma truly resonated with me. Her circumstances and identity… show more.

In Watercress, Andrea Wang tells a heartfelt story highlighting the importance of appreciating one’s heritage.

She takes what was initially an embarrassing moment from her childhood and gives it a new meaning. Reading this book reminded me of how many of my own childhood memories have inspired my writing career.

Mary Lui’s fascinating book hinges on a hook that nearly always works—a murder mystery. In this case, the victim was Elsie Siegel, a young white woman from a good family who did missionary work with the Chinese American community in New York City. She was the picture of innocence until her body was found bound up in a trunk in a Chinese American man’s apartment. Further investigations uncovered a set of love letters not only to this man but also to another Americanized Chinese immigrant. Seemingly one of her lovers had killed her out of jealousy. What followed was not only a manhunt for her killer but also a backlash against the Chinese American community including the many hand laundries scattered throughout New York City. Elsie Siegel’s death prompted rumors that these laundries allowed widespread assaults against white women and girls. Lui paints us a heartbreaking account of the suffering… show more.

I was instantly drawn into Lina's world, where postcards became a lifeline between an immigrant girl and her parents.

The story beautifully captures the complexity of Lina's emotions as she reunites with her family in America after five long years. Her struggles at school and with her little sister felt so real and relatable. The way the story navigates cultural differences and the challenges of adapting to a new country is both heartwarming and eye-opening.

Lina's journey to find her voice, both literally and metaphorically, is inspiring. It's a touching and empowering tale of resilience and the universal need to be seen and heard.

When talking with younger writers, sooner or later I ask them to name a writer or a book they can point to and say, “That’s the goal. That’s what I care about. That’s what I want to do.” If I asked myself this question, one of my answers would be Karen Joy Fowler’s first novel, a pitch-perfect account of 19th-century America and the mysterious title character, a weird woman whose weirdness confirms how weird everything else already is.

This book is a fine example of where we are now in the depiction of diversity in fiction where the main character, Frida Liu, is Chinese-American, and although we have references to her parents and her immigrant upbringing, it is not really what this book is about.

Not usually one for speculative fiction, I found myself mesmerised by this tale of how a fictional authoritarian state dictates who and what makes for a good mother. 

Leaving your wife with your tiny baby while you run off with your mistress? Fine.

Being a frazzled, deserted working mother who inadvertently leaves her baby alone for two hours? Not fine and punishable by a stay in the school for good mothers where you are forced to practise motherhood on an AI robot doll in the hope that maybe you can be good enough to mother your own child again.