Shanghai Surprise

The controversial new law in Arizona that requires law enforcement to verify the legality of people who might possibly be illegal immigrants strikes me as yet another dent in our shiny Ford fenders. It seems to me that if someone felt there were too many Dutch illegal immigrants, and such a law were enacted, I would be in quite a pickle. My grandparents came, literally, straight off the boat. I'm an American, but I've been to the Netherlands, and know I look like everybody there. I'd be worried.

It seems that over the years the United States has taken the opportunity to oppress just about every minority that comes its way. Not a very patriotic sentiment, I know, but I spent a lot of years believing we did everything perfectly. Then I started to learn about Jim Crow laws, and women's suffrage. I remember being stunned when I read Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston in college for Adolescent Literature (thanks, Professor Baron!). American citizens of Japanese descent were sent to internment camps? I couldn't believe it; this was not the mighty, benevolent land I knew. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson continued to educate me in that vein.

In Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, which I am currently enjoying (not finished yet--final word later), I am learning about a deep World War II-era prejudice of which I had no earlier inkling. The main characters in this book are illegal immigrants, forced to resort to duplicity because the United States will not allow any Chinese citizens to naturalize. Incoming Chinese are detained at Angel Island to be interrogated regularly until their immigration authorizations are found out to be fraudulent or decided to be authentic. Once in the country, they are despised first for being Chinese and despised later when "Occidentals" mistake them for Japanese.

Lisa See, who wrote another novel of China that I liked, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, writes about female characters who have to find their inner strength in difficult circumstances. She vividly brings Shanghai, war and the immigration experience to life. For a girl whose childhood knowledge of China didn't get far beyond the cartoon "Hong Kong Phooey," it's always eye-opening to read a mile in someone else's shoes.