{"id":7321,"date":"1995-01-01T15:39:24","date_gmt":"1995-01-01T19:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=7321"},"modified":"2015-08-17T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T14:35:23","slug":"author-profile-gish-jen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author-profile-gish-jen\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Profile: Gish Jen [in Notable Asian Americans]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Typical<\/a>Gish Jen cites her husband, David O’Connor, as “the\u00a0liberator” who helped her write again. Newly married\u00a0after completing her master’s degree in fine arts, Jen\u00a0had put her writing aside to become, as she said in an\u00a0interview with Terry Hong, “a dutiful wife,” a role that\u00a0eventually frustrated and enraged her. The turning point\u00a0came when she and her husband were preparing to\u00a0move from San Francisco, California, to the East Coast.\u00a0“We had this set of fancy glasses that I had just finished packing up to bring to California and now I was going to\u00a0have to pack them all up again to bring to Massachusetts.\u00a0And I didn’t even like them! But they were a wedding\u00a0gift, and I felt I had to do it. So my husband just picked\u00a0up one of the glasses and threw it out the window. It was\u00a0such a liberating experience. Then we had a huge\u00a0garage sale and got rid of all these things that were tying\u00a0me down, and I started to write again,” Jen remembered.\u00a0“I wrote a short story, ‘In the American Society,’ which\u00a0later became Typical American<\/a><\/em>,” Jen’s first novel. It was\u00a0published in 1991 and was a resounding success. It was a\u00a0finalist for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. Time <\/em>magazine called it “an engaging tale of one immigrant family’s pursuit of the American Dream.” From the San\u00a0Francisco Chronicle <\/em>to the New York Times Book Review<\/em> to the\u00a0B<\/em>oston Globe<\/em>, Jen was praised and lauded for Typical American.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Dutiful Daughter<\/strong>
\nBorn in Queens, New York, on August 12, 1955, to\u00a0immigrant parents from Shanghai, China, Lillian Jen was\u00a0the second of five children. She would later adopt the\u00a0name “Gish” \u2013\u00a0\u00a0as in the actress Lillian Gish \u2013\u00a0while in high\u00a0school. “It was part of becoming a writer,” she told the New York Times<\/em> in 1991, “… not becoming the person I was\u00a0supposed to be.”<\/p>\n

From her earliest memories, Jen was the one person in\u00a0her family with an insatiable interest in books. “My parents were very academically inclined. My mother was a\u00a0schoolteacher and my father a professor of civil engineering.\u00a0But we were a very aliterate family. We didn’t even get\u00a0any magazines at home. Although my parents were educated, they were struggling so much as newcomers in this\u00a0country that there was no room in their lives for leisurely things like reading. I think my book was the first\u00a0non-technical book that my father ever sat down to read.”<\/p>\n

Growing up, Jen moved from the predominandy working\u00a0class neighborhood of Yonkers, New York, to the more\u00a0affluent town of Scarsdale. She quickly discovered that the\u00a0Scarsdale school library had far more titles to offer than the limited Catholic school library in Yonkers. She told\u00a0Hong, “I felt like a kid in a chocolate factory. I must have read every book. I read indiscriminately, whether it was\u00a0Albert Camus or Walter Farley. They all made me say ‘wow.'” …[click here for more<\/a>]\n

Profile<\/strong>: “Gish Jen (1955 – ), Writer,” Notable Asian Americans<\/em>, edited by Helen Zia and Susan B. Gall, Detroit: Gale Research, 1995<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"TypicalGish Jen cites her husband, David O’Connor, as “the liberator” who helped her write again. Newly married after completing her master’s degree in fine arts, Jen had put her writing aside to become, as she said in an interview with Terry Hong, “a dutiful wife,” a role that eventually frustrated and enraged her. The turning point came when she and her husband were preparing to move from San Francisco, California, to the East Coast. “We had this set of fancy glasses that I had just finished packing up to bring to California and now I was going to have to pack them all up again to bring to Massachusetts. And I didn’t even like them! But they were a wedding gift, and I felt I had to do it. So my husband just picked up one of the glasses and threw it out the window. It was such a liberating experience. Then we had a huge garage sale and got rid of all these things that were tying me down, and I started to write again,” Jen remembered. “I wrote a short story, ‘In the American Society,’ which later became Typical American<\/a><\/em>,” Jen’s first novel. It was published in 1991 and was a resounding success. It was a finalist for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award. Time <\/em>magazine called it “an engaging tale of one immigrant family’s pursuit of the American Dream.” From the San Francisco Chronicle <\/em>to the New York Times Book Review<\/em> to the B<\/em>oston Globe<\/em>, Jen was praised and lauded for Typical American.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Dutiful Daughter<\/strong>
\nBorn in Queens, New York, on August 12, 1955, to immigrant parents from Shanghai, China, Lillian Jen was the second of five children. She would later adopt the name “Gish” \u2013 as in the actress Lillian Gish \u2013 while in high school. “It was part of becoming a writer,” she told the New York Times<\/em> in 1991, “… not becoming the person I was supposed to be.”<\/p>\n

From her earliest memories, Jen was the one person in her family with an insatiable interest in books. “My parents were very academically inclined. My mother was a schoolteacher and my father a professor of civil engineering. But we were a very aliterate family. We didn’t even get any magazines at home. Although my parents were educated, they were struggling so much as newcomers in this country that there was no room in their lives for leisurely things like reading. I think my book was the first non-technical book that my father ever sat down to read.”<\/p>\n

Growing up, Jen moved from the predominandy working class neighborhood of Yonkers, New York, to the more affluent town of Scarsdale. She quickly discovered that the Scarsdale school library had far more titles to offer than the limited Catholic school library in Yonkers. She told Hong, “I felt like a kid in a chocolate factory. I must have read every book. I read indiscriminately, whether it was Albert Camus or Walter Farley. They all made me say ‘wow.'” …[click here for more<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Profile<\/strong>: “Gish Jen (1955 – ), Writer,” Notable Asian Americans<\/em>, edited by Helen Zia and Susan B. Gall, Detroit: Gale Research, 1995<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,21,6,6535,31],"tags":[83,6608,58,59,10,2114,51,25,5151,5158],"class_list":["post-7321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-author-interview-profile","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-repost","category-young-adult-readers","tag-assimilation","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-family","tag-gish-jen","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-notable-asian-americans","tag-typical-american"],"yoast_head":"\nAuthor Profile: Gish Jen [in Notable Asian Americans] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/author-profile-gish-jen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Author Profile: Gish Jen [in Notable Asian Americans] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gish Jen cites her husband, David O'Connor, as "the liberator" who helped her write again. Newly married after completing her master's degree in fine arts, Jen had put her writing aside to become, as she said in an interview with Terry Hong, "a dutiful wife," a role that eventually frustrated and enraged her. The turning point came when she and her husband were preparing to move from San Francisco, California, to the East Coast. "We had this set of fancy glasses that I had just finished packing up to bring to California and now I was going to have to pack them all up again to bring to Massachusetts. And I didn't even like them! But they were a wedding gift, and I felt I had to do it. So my husband just picked up one of the glasses and threw it out the window. It was such a liberating experience. Then we had a huge garage sale and got rid of all these things that were tying me down, and I started to write again," Jen remembered. "I wrote a short story, 'In the American Society,' which later became Typical American," Jen's first novel. It was published in 1991 and was a resounding success. It was a finalist for a National Book Critics' Circle Award. Time magazine called it "an engaging tale of one immigrant family's pursuit of the American Dream." From the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review to the Boston Globe, Jen was praised and lauded for Typical American. The Dutiful Daughter Born in Queens, New York, on August 12, 1955, to immigrant parents from Shanghai, China, Lillian Jen was the second of five children. She would later adopt the name "Gish" \u2013 as in the actress Lillian Gish \u2013 while in high school. "It was part of becoming a writer," she told the New York Times in 1991, "... not becoming the person I was supposed to be." From her earliest memories, Jen was the one person in her family with an insatiable interest in books. "My parents were very academically inclined. My mother was a schoolteacher and my father a professor of civil engineering. But we were a very aliterate family. We didn't even get any magazines at home. Although my parents were educated, they were struggling so much as newcomers in this country that there was no room in their lives for leisurely things like reading. I think my book was the first non-technical book that my father ever sat down to read." Growing up, Jen moved from the predominandy working class neighborhood of Yonkers, New York, to the more affluent town of Scarsdale. She quickly discovered that the Scarsdale school library had far more titles to offer than the limited Catholic school library in Yonkers. She told Hong, "I felt like a kid in a chocolate factory. I must have read every book. I read indiscriminately, whether it was Albert Camus or Walter Farley. They all made me say 'wow.'" ...[click here for more] Profile: "Gish Jen (1955 - ), Writer," Notable Asian Americans, edited by Helen Zia and Susan B. 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Newly married after completing her master's degree in fine arts, Jen had put her writing aside to become, as she said in an interview with Terry Hong, \"a dutiful wife,\" a role that eventually frustrated and enraged her. The turning point came when she and her husband were preparing to move from San Francisco, California, to the East Coast. \"We had this set of fancy glasses that I had just finished packing up to bring to California and now I was going to have to pack them all up again to bring to Massachusetts. And I didn't even like them! But they were a wedding gift, and I felt I had to do it. So my husband just picked up one of the glasses and threw it out the window. It was such a liberating experience. Then we had a huge garage sale and got rid of all these things that were tying me down, and I started to write again,\" Jen remembered. \"I wrote a short story, 'In the American Society,' which later became Typical American,\" Jen's first novel. It was published in 1991 and was a resounding success. It was a finalist for a National Book Critics' Circle Award. Time magazine called it \"an engaging tale of one immigrant family's pursuit of the American Dream.\" From the San Francisco Chronicle to the New York Times Book Review to the Boston Globe, Jen was praised and lauded for Typical American. The Dutiful Daughter Born in Queens, New York, on August 12, 1955, to immigrant parents from Shanghai, China, Lillian Jen was the second of five children. She would later adopt the name \"Gish\" \u2013 as in the actress Lillian Gish \u2013 while in high school. \"It was part of becoming a writer,\" she told the New York Times in 1991, \"... not becoming the person I was supposed to be.\" From her earliest memories, Jen was the one person in her family with an insatiable interest in books. \"My parents were very academically inclined. My mother was a schoolteacher and my father a professor of civil engineering. But we were a very aliterate family. We didn't even get any magazines at home. Although my parents were educated, they were struggling so much as newcomers in this country that there was no room in their lives for leisurely things like reading. I think my book was the first non-technical book that my father ever sat down to read.\" Growing up, Jen moved from the predominandy working class neighborhood of Yonkers, New York, to the more affluent town of Scarsdale. She quickly discovered that the Scarsdale school library had far more titles to offer than the limited Catholic school library in Yonkers. She told Hong, \"I felt like a kid in a chocolate factory. I must have read every book. I read indiscriminately, whether it was Albert Camus or Walter Farley. They all made me say 'wow.'\" ...[click here for more] Profile: \"Gish Jen (1955 - ), Writer,\" Notable Asian Americans, edited by Helen Zia and Susan B. 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