logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2021
8m 50s

'Beautiful Country' looks back on a youn...

NPR
About this episode
Living as an undocumented immigrant means living in the shadows, says Qian Julie Wang. Her memoir Beautiful Country tells the story of her family's life in New York after fleeing China in 1994. Her mother worked menial jobs in terrible conditions. Her father struggled with his status as a man in a country that equated being Asian with weakness. They couldn't even seek out regular medical care for fear of being deported. Wang joins NPR's Scott Simon in today's episode to talk about how those experiences shaped and shamed her, even as she became a Yale Law graduate and successful attorney.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy
Up next
Today
'We Were Liars' author returns for more teenage catharsis in 'We Fell Apart'
E. Lockhart understands the struggle of being a teenager. Her first novel <em>We Were Liars</em> was a standout YA hit of 2014, celebrated (and at times, criticized) amongst teens in particular for its twisty and devastating coming-of-age narrative set on a fictional island near ... Show More
7m 49s
Yesterday
Comic journalist Joe Sacco on his portrait of deadly riots in Uttar Pradesh, India
In 2013, two young Hindu cousins killed a Muslim man in a rural part of Uttar Pradesh, India. What followed was a series of alternating violence in the region between Hindus and Muslims. Renowned comic journalist Joe Sacco's new book, <em>The Once And Future Riot</em>, investigat ... Show More
8m 55s
Nov 24
Justinian Huang’s new novel follows a Taiwanese-American family intent on a male heir
Justinian Huang’s new novel <em>Lucky Seed</em> is about a single, gay son pressured by his Taiwanese-American family to produce a male heir. In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, Huang tells NPR’s Ailsa Chang that his own family asked him to have a baby boy – or else ... Show More
8m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2023
A Family History in Chinatown
In seeking to learn more about her family history, author Ava Chin was able to trace many of her relatives back to one building on Mott Street in Chinatown. From the Chinese Exclusion Act to present day, Chin traces the history of her family, and the Chinese community in America, ... Show More
16m 52s
Feb 2023
We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States
Today’s book is: We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States. The “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship, and has promoted the idea that access ... Show More
50m 58s
Oct 2022
Unfamiliar Territory: The Unclear Circumstances Behind The Smuggling and Disappearance of Wang Yuanxia
On August 2, 1998, a United Airlines flight arrived at Washington Dulles Airport from Paris, France. A man emerged from the gate with a young girl who appeared to be in her young teens. The man, a Thai citizen, told immigration officials that the young girl was his niece, and tha ... Show More
1h 14m
Mar 2023
Erin Raffety, "Families We Need: Disability, Abandonment, and Foster Care's Resistance in Contemporary China" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
Set in the remote, mountainous Guangxi Autonomous Region and based on ethnographic fieldwork, Families We Need: Disability, Abandonment, and Foster Care's Resistance in Contemporary China (Rutgers UP, 2022) traces the movement of three Chinese foster children, Dengrong, Pei Pei, ... Show More
40m 6s
Aug 2018
Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, “The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age” (U Illinois Press, 2018)
Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez‘s new book, The Labor of Care: Filipina Migrants and Transnational Families in the Digital Age (University of Illinois Press, 2018) traces how globalization, neoliberalism and new technology have reshaped migrant care work from the Philippines. The ... Show More
1h 1m
Jun 2021
A Chinese immigrant living the American Dream
Mei Xu is a Chinese American entrepreneur who made it big in the US by setting up a global candle business. She grew up in Chairman Mao's communist China, but was educated at an elite school, where she learnt English with the aim of becoming a diplomat. That was until the pro-dem ... Show More
17m 29s
Sep 2022
The fight for domestic workers’ rights
Millions of people, mainly women, sign up for jobs as domestic workers overseas. Yet much of this work is informal, with households enforcing their own terms behind closed doors - leaving the workers vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. In this episode, Laura Heighton-Ginns meet ... Show More
17m 51s
Aug 2023
Asad L. Asad, "Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life" (Princeton UP, 2023)
Because immigration is such a recurring-and divisive-topic in the United States, it is easy to assume that we understand what it means for an immigrant to live under the specter of surveillance and punishment. It is easy to assume, as many scholars and journalists do, that undocu ... Show More
1h 12m
Aug 2023
Asad L. Asad, "Engage and Evade: How Latino Immigrant Families Manage Surveillance in Everyday Life" (Princeton UP, 2023)
Because immigration is such a recurring-and divisive-topic in the United States, it is easy to assume that we understand what it means for an immigrant to live under the specter of surveillance and punishment. It is easy to assume, as many scholars and journalists do, that undocu ... Show More
1h 12m
Sep 2023
Immigration Law: From Corporate Visas to Pro Bono
Host Montana Funk (herself a Canadian living and working in the United States) talks with immigration lawyer Stephanie Baez about the many facets of immigration law—a field that has been in the public eye a lot recently. Immigration law covers an array of niches, including employ ... Show More
27m 31s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami