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Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, China Dolls, and Dreams of Joy, which debuted at #1. She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family's settlement in Los Angeles. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker's Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women.
Lisa See's website
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In two separate interviews, Lisa See talks about Peony in Love (2007) and Shanghai Girls (2009).
Lisa See discusses Shanghai Girls
What inspired you to write Shanghai Girls?
Four things, really. First, I've been collecting Shanghai advertising images
from the Twenties, Thirties, and Forties for many years. The so-called Beautiful
Girls, women who posed for commercial artists, were right in the heart of the
excitement in Shanghai. The charming and captivating life illustrated in
advertisements is one thing, but I was interested in seeing what real life was
like for those women. I also wanted to write about what it was like for Chinese
women who came to America in arranged marriages. (We had a lot of arranged
marriages in my family. I know how hard life was for the women. They'd had
servants in China, but they lived like servants in America.) Third, I wanted to
write about China City, a short-lived tourist attraction in Los Angeles. And
finally, I wanted to write about sisters.
What is it about Shanghai that so captures the imagination?
In part it's the juxtaposition of extreme opposites—dire poverty amidst
flamboyant wealth, upstanding English gentlemen going to the same nightclubs as...
Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Children's Blizzard, Mistress of the Ritz, The Girls in the Picture, The Swans of Fifth Avenue, The Aviator's Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
China Dolls
Try:
The Girls in the Picture
by Melanie Benjamin
Alan Brennert is a novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. He was born in 1954 in Englewood, New Jersey, to Herbert E. Brennert, an aviation writer, and Almyra E. Brennert, an apartment rentals manager. He has lived since ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Shanghai Girls
Try:
Honolulu
by Alan Brennert
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