Janet Song Archives - BookDragon

One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong [in Library Journal]

06 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Malaysian, Nonfiction, Repost

China's infamous one-child policy lasted just 35 years. Forced sterilizations, gruesome late-term abortions, an overseas adoption boom, and baby trafficking emerged as by-products of the draconian law. What was touted as a "necessary step in [China's] Herculean efforts to lift the population…from abject poverty" resulted in...

Stars Between the Sun and Moon: One Woman’s Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang with Susan McClelland [in Library Journal]

16 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Korean, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean, Repost

Within mere months, four memoirs – including Stars – by North Korean women hit U.S. shelves: Hyeonseo Lee’s The Girl with Seven Names and Eunsun Kim’s A Thousand Miles to Freedom debuted in July; Yeonmi Park’s In Order to Live hit in September; and Stars...

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong

30 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Hawaiian

If you're tuned to celluloid pop culture, you probably heard about the Aloha casting controversy earlier this year, most specifically that casting Emma Stone as a hapa Chinese Hawaiian Swedish character named Allison Ng was probably not the smartest (accurate? effective? politically correct?) choice. Depicting...

The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist’s Release from Captivity in North Korea by Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey

16 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean

In 2009, journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling made headlines around the world, first for being kidnapped by North Korean border guards, then five months later being miraculously released. Such international reverberating news usually begets a book – in this case, two: both Lee and Ling released...

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite by Suki Kim

12 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Korean, Korean American, Memoir, Nonfiction, North Korean

Over a decade has passed since a Suki Kim title landed on my shelves. That she's been repeatedly crossing the "immutable border" into North Korea since 2002 – just months after George W. Bush dubbed the closed country as one of the "axis of evil"...

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

03 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction

As I look back on my post for Dreams of Joy's prequel, Shanghai Girls, I was clearly, quickly aware then that Janet Song was not the best choice for narrator. That I was somehow fooled into listening to Song again is surely a 'shame on...

World and Town by Gish Jen

14 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Cambodian, Cambodian American, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race, Southeast Asian, Southeast Asian American

Hattie Kong's email inbox is full of desperate pleas from various relatives to please send back her parents' bones to the family plot in Qufu, China. Because her American missionary mother and her Confucius-descended Chinese father found their final rest in Iowa, the remaining Kong...

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

23 Jul, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Chinese, Chinese American, Fiction

Since Lisa See's latest has been sitting high on all the best bestseller lists for many weeks, presumably many have already read the story of two sisters and their odyssey from China to LA's Chinatown. I probably should have done the same – read the...

BookDragon Janet Song Tag

One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment by Mei Fong [in Library Journal]

Stars Between the Sun and Moon: One Woman’s Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang with Susan McClelland [in Library Journal]

Diamond Head by Cecily Wong

The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist’s Release from Captivity in North Korea by Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey

Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite by Suki Kim

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

World and Town by Gish Jen

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Smithsonian Institution
Asian Pacific American Center

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