{"id":8510,"date":"2010-10-06T06:00:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=8510"},"modified":"2010-09-29T10:47:22","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T16:47:22","slug":"girl-in-translation-by-jean-kwok","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/girl-in-translation-by-jean-kwok\/","title":{"rendered":"Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Based in part upon her own life experiences, author Jean Kwok has hit the mark in\u00a0her\u00a0debut novel, Girl in Translation<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Much like her character, Kwok also emigrated from Hong Kong\u00a0and\u00a0starting working \u00a0in a Chinese sweatshop at a young age.\u00a0 She and her family also lived in a roach and rat-infested apartment — without heat!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Still, this story\u00a0is not so much about\u00a0deprivation,\u00a0but\u00a0more\u00a0of a\u00a0story about\u00a0hope and about overcoming adversity — in short, it’s today’s version of the American dream.<\/p>\n

Ah-Kim Chang (translated to Kimberly\u00a0once they moved to\u00a0New York) had always excelled in school.\u00a0 After her father died, she and her mother are indebted to Aunt Paula for financing their trip to America, so they both begin working long hours in a Chinatown clothing factory for much less than minimum wage.\u00a0 On top of this, they live in a condemned apartment (think roaches, no heat, and garbage bags covering the window) and Kimberly must also\u00a0attend school, where language and cultural differences abound.\u00a0As she begins to master English, she again begins to\u00a0show academic promise,\u00a0eventually earning\u00a0admission to an elite private high school,\u00a0and thereby paving the way for her ticket out of the slums.<\/p>\n

The author sometimes spells out conversations phonetically — an effective technique –especially since\u00a0she\u00a0\u00a0wanted the English-speaking reader to understand life on the “other side of the language barrier.”\u00a0 She\u00a0also incorporates\u00a0a few surprising plot twists at the end, which helps makes\u00a0the story\u00a0even more personable and endearing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Based in part upon her own life experiences, author Jean Kwok has hit the mark in\u00a0her\u00a0debut novel, Girl in Translation.\u00a0 Much like her character, Kwok also emigrated from Hong Kong\u00a0and\u00a0starting working \u00a0in a Chinese sweatshop at a young age.\u00a0 She and her family also lived in a roach and rat-infested[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[705,87,1352,155,1353],"class_list":["post-8510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-staff-picks","tag-america","tag-china","tag-chinese-immigrants","tag-family","tag-immigrant-experience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-2dg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8510"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8733,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8510\/revisions\/8733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}