Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Length: 309 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Trigger Warnings in this book for Graphic Depictions of Rape, Violence, Blood, Racism and Xenophobia, Suicide, An Intense Birth Scene, Illness and Death

"The last thing May says to me is 'When our hair is white, we'll still have our sister love.'"

My sister, who is a huge fan of See, has been trying to get me to read something of hers for years now. Finally, I decided to read the one I had on my list: Shanghai Girls.

Beginning in 1937 in Shanghai, the "Paris of Asia", this novel follows the Chin sisters: the eldest, Pearl, who is a Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac which makes her strong and stubborn (sometimes to a fault), and May, who is a Sheep. Sheep are gentle, creative, and will always need someone to look after them. They are twenty-one and eighteen, work as "beautiful girls", posing for an artist to paint them to use their likenesses in ads and calendars, and stay up late going from club to café. Their life is that of a modern Chinese girl, one not bound by tradition and filial piety.

And then, their world crumbles. Their father announces he has lost all of their money, and to keep their house he has arranged marriages for each of them to "Gold Mountain Men", Chinese men from California. No matter how they fight they cannot win. Pearl is heartbroken, because her one-true love is the artist Z.G., but when she confesses her feelings he brushes her off. What follows is a tale of heartbreak, set amongst the beginnings of the Sino-Japanese war, as Pearl and May fight to escape the invading Japanese and get to America. But America is not a place of endless opportunity, like they were told. America has its own problems, from the Depression to Pearl Harbor, and their fight will be one that goes on for many mores years and claims many that are important to the girls.

The heart of Shanghai Girls is always the relationship between the sisters, which goes from caring to fractured to anger and resentment and back again. It is a true story of "sister love", and "mother love", too, and how strong those bonds are in even the darkest of times.

This book is dark, yes, as it features some of the darkest moments in the history of mankind, but throughout it all there is hope and love, as bright and searing as it can be. A must-read for women everywhere!