134: Beautiful Country, with Qian Julie Wang

09/28/21 • 37 min

Sometimes there are those books that are so hauntingly beautiful, disturbing, or touching (or all three) that you can’t stop thinking about them for days after you finally put them down after binge reading them. Some of those for us are The Handmaid’s Tale, or Americanah, or Song of Solomon. But recently, we found another book that we’ve been thinking about ever since putting it down - Beautiful Country.

In her debut memoir, which she started writing in 2016 while on the subway on her iPhone, Qian Julie Wang tells her story of being an undocumented seven-year-old who arrives in New York City in 1994 with her parents from northern China - and all of the wonders and heartbreak and LIFE that happens as you come of age in a country that has expressly shown you that you don’t belong, in so many ways. Talking to her was like seeing this book come to life - but we didn’t just stop with the book. Listen in to hear about Beautiful Country, but also so much more, in this conversation that we didn’t want to end.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

What it felt like to risk everything and write openly about their move away from China
Experiences growing up living in fear and poverty in New York, and how that’s shaped her current career as a lawyer
Her thoughts on Afghani refugees, anti-Asian hate, and what we can all do to better understand the people in our communities

About the book: In Chinese, the word for America, “Mei Guo,” translates directly to “Beautiful Country.” Yet when 7-year-old Qian is plucked from her comfortable life in China where she’s surrounded by friends and family and arrives in New York City in 1994, she finds the roads paved not with gold, but instead crushing fear and scarcity. Her professor parents now work in Chinatown sweatshops and sushi factories. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly. She no longer loves school because she’s too hungry to pay attention. Her mother, her sole confidante, is too sick to get out of bed, but going to the doctor isn't an option. And most distressing of all: the number one rule in America is that she must go unnoticed—or risk losing everything. It’s under this perpetual specter of deportation that we watch Qian Julie come of age. Yet, while Qian Julie’s is a story of hopes dashed, it’s also one of life lived tenaciously in their stead, with small, vital joys and glimmers of hope: a dollar slice of pizza, Rockefeller Center at Christmastime, a bedroom with her own door, or her very own Tamagotchi digital pet.

About the author: Although the book ends when Qian Julie Wang’s family leaves the US 5 years later, her remarkable true story did not end there. She attended Swarthmore College and Yale Law School and, until recently, worked as a high-powered corporate litigator in Manhattan—in fact, she wrote the book almost entirely on her iPhone during her daily subway commute. She is now pursuing her advocacy work full-time and is managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advocating for education and discrimination rights. She regularly speaks and writes on these issues, including recent op-eds for the New York Times and Washington Post.

Where to pre-order Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism: https://thecollectivebook.studio/dear-white-women

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Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

What it felt like to risk everything and write openly about their move away from China
Experiences growing up living in fear and poverty in New York, and how that’s shaped her current career as a lawyer
Her thoughts on Afghani refugees, anti-Asian hate, and what we can all do to better understand the people in our communities

Where to pre-order Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism: https://thecollectivebook.studio/dear-white-women

Like what you hear? Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Catch up on more commentary between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and even more opinions and resources if you join our email list.

Previous Episode

133: The Inner Work of Racial Justice, with Rhonda McGee

Last week’s episode was all about QAnon and how conspiracy theories can divide us as a nation. One of the things we think we can do to bridge the divide is bring mindfulness and skills around living with mindfulness into conversations about race, racism, identity, and beliefs - and to do that, we got to speak with an incredible law professor named Rhonda McGee.

In speaking with Rhonda, we learned not only about the role of law in helping - and hurting - racial divides, but we also discussed the role of mindfulness in helping people come into a grounded space to do this work in the first place. Once we added in her own brand of racial awareness called ColorInsight, we left this conversation with not only some reframed concepts but a deeper understanding of why we all need to be doing this work.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

How her background in law drew her into mindfulness - this part will blow your mind
For those who are new to mindfulness and new to meditation, Professor McGee leading us through an actual few minutes of meditation!
ColorInsight and what it means to hold race in our bodies
How we can all navigate criticism - from Black people about catering to Whiteness, from White people about being racist for naming White as a race - in a more mindful way

About Rhonda: RHONDA V. MAGEE is a professor of law at the University of San Francisco. Also trained in sociology and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), she is a highly practiced facilitator of trauma-sensitive, restorative MBSR interventions for lawyers and law students, and for minimizing the effects of social-identity-based bias. Magee has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society and a visiting professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley.

Where to pre-order Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism: https://thecollectivebook.studio/dear-white-women

Like what you hear? Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Catch up on more commentary between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and even more opinions and resources if you join our email list.

Next Episode

135: Remember the Titans

Remember the Titans has the specific scene that happens part of the way through the movie, when Coach Boone gets everyone out of bed in the middle of the night and tells them they’re going for a run in the woods. They run to the location of the Battle of Gettysburg. And Coach Boone stands there and he tells them:

“Anybody know what this place is? This is Gettysburg. This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin’ the same fight that we’re still fightin’ amongst ourselves today. This green field right here was painted red, bubblin’ with the blood of young boys, smoke and hot lead pourin’ right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men: “I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family.” You listen. And you take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed - just like they were. I don’t care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other.”

That’s a movie, but we’re in this same place right now. We’ve been here throughout the past 5 years and while people have chosen to look away, believing that things are better in 2021 - they’re not. Listen to this episode to hear just how bad things have become - and what we can do about it, because while we are in a constitutional crisis, it’s not too late to push for change and get loud.

Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at [email protected]

What to listen for:

Why the 2020 election and January 6 was so much worse than we believed, with the release of the Eastman memo
What is the election reform that certain Republicans are pushing, and why we’re investigating election results when no fraud has been established
What’s at stake if we don’t abolish the filibuster - because right now, it’s progress, or the destruction of our democracy
The numbers to call Congress and the White House - and other ways to demand that we remove the filibuster

More resources:

DWW Ep 110: Why we should all care about the filibuster

Kagan’s Op/Ed in the Washington Post

Call Congress at (202) 224-3121, the White House at (202) 456-1111, or your Senators or Representatives to abolish the filibuster. Discuss what’s at stake (Immigration reform, The For the People Act, The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Reproductive rights, Gun control, Medicare for All, A Green New Deal, A $15 minimum wage, and the foundations of our democracy).

Where to pre-order Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism: https://thecollectivebook.studio/dear-white-women

Like what you hear? Don’t miss another episode and subscribe!

Catch up on more commentary between episodes by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter – and even more opinions and resources if you join our email list.