Where should I start with this review? I could go on and on about how Lisa See only furthers the Chinese stereotype. I could also bluntly destroy her narrowness on the assumption that Shanghai Chinese are exactly like any other Chinese. But really the thing about her book Shanghai Girls was the obvious window she was looking through into the Chinese culture and history. She trivialized the Rape of Nanking, and used graphic imagery in most cases, which lead to the reader thinking of the Chinese characters not as humans, but as strange foreigners who will never belong in America. Well, guess what, Ms. See. You don't know what the hell you're talking about. I was offended from the first page, when you portrayed the patriarch as a overly dominating figure. Of course, it makes sense that you would portray him in that way because you're a white person, and you don't understand how our life works. Then you make the characters of the daughters infuriatingly Mary-Sue..."beautiful girls." Not to mention, Pearl gets a great husband. A man with an iron fan, regardless of the fact that he was a rickshaw puller. Then you make Joy a Commie. That's an interesting, yet severely offensive, choice. But I could forgive all that if you hadn't pulled the typical plot twist at the end, making Z.G. Joy's biological father. Way to trivialize and otherize the Chinese through your white people glasses. I can't even write a well-organized, coherent review of your work because it offend me so much. Rating: 3/10
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