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Shanghai Girls
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Shanghai Girls (Sisters Pearl and May): Book 1

Shanghai Girls (2009) (edit title/settings)

by Lisa See (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw... read more

Summary edit see section history

Beginning in the late 1930s and ending in the early 1950s, this novel chronicles the lives of two Chinese sisters, Pearl and May, originally of Shanghai. They live luxurious lives, by most Chinese standards, while they are teenagers. They are not proper Chinese girls because they often do... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Beginning in the late 1930s and ending in the early 1950s, this novel chronicles the lives of two Chinese sisters, Pearl and May, originally of Shanghai. They live luxurious lives, by most Chinese standards, while they are teenagers. They are not proper Chinese girls because they often do not follow their parents' orders and work as "Beautiful Girls" or models for advertisement painters of the time. Their sheltered world comes crashing down around them, both literally and figuratively, when they discover their father has gambled away the family's money and due to his outrageous debt, he sells his daughters as brides for two brothers. The brothers are Chinese, but have American citizenship. The girls are trying to figure out how to avoid leaving China and becoming wives of strangers when Shanghai is attacked by the Japanese. Barely escaping death, the girls and their mother survive great tortures in an attempt to get to safety. The girls end up in America, with their arranged husbands, after spending a long time at Angel Island, an immigration station. The rest of the story follows the lives of these two sisters and the consequences of the very different choices they make. During a time when most foreigners are considered enemies, Pearl and May find a way to carve out a place for themselves in one of Los Angeles's Chinatowns and live out their fates.

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Pearl Chin: The protagonist and older sister. She is a recent college graduate who speaks three languages, 2 Chinese dialects, American English and British English. Pearl calls this 4 languages, but the two forms of English aren't even different dialects.
  • May Chin: Younger sister of Pearl and a primary character
  • Sam Louie: Pearl's husband from an arranged marriage. Old man Louie's son
  • Vern Louie: Old Man Louie's youngest son. Married to May, through an arranged marriage.
  • Baba ("daddy" surname Chin): Pearl and May's father
  • Mama: Pearl and May's mother
  • Z.G. Li: An artist who specializes in painting "beautiful girls" for calendars, such as Pearl and May. Pearl believes she is in love with him before she leaves Shanghai.
  • Old Man Louie: Vernon & Sam's father who arranges a marriage between his sons and Baba's daughters, Pearl and May, in order to release Baba from his gambling debts.
  • Pockmarked Huang: Criminal boss of the Green Gang, he was an actual Shanghai person.
  • Lee-shee: A older-Chinese woman that Pearl and May meet at the Angel Island detention center.
  • Uncle Edfred "Fred" Louie: Old Man Louie's son.
  • Uncle Wilburt Louie: Old Man Louie's son who currently works as first cook at the Golden Dragon, one of Old Man Louie's businesses.
  • Uncle Charley Louie: Old Man Louie's son. Currently works as second cook at the Golden Dragon, one of Old Man Louie's businesses.
  • Tom Gubbins: Owner of Aslatic Costume Company in China city
  • Betsy Howell: Pearl's American school friend in Shanghai whose father is a diplomat in the State Department.
  • Hazel Yee: Joy's best friend
  • Joy Louie: May's birth daughter, mothered by Pearl. The fact that Joy is actually May's daughter is never revealed to anyone else.
  • Pearl: The main character that is a thoughtful sister to mei.She thinks she is destined to protect her sister. Pearl is a very delicate shanghainese girl that was born to a wealthy family.
  • Yen-Yen: Old Man Louie's wife
  • Mr. Howell: The father of Pearl and May's friend Betsy, who works for the American government
  • Mariko: Uncle Fred's Japanese wife. They have three daughters.
  • Christine Sterling: An actual historic person from Los Angeles history, she financed and encouraged the businesses of China City but dictated that it be a quaint tourist attraction.
Show all 22 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Everything always returns to the beginning.”
    May
  • “Maybe we're all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they're extraordinary.”
    Pearl
  • “When you don't have much, having less isn't so bad.”
    Pearl
  • “I hope I would have done everthing differently, except I know everything would have turned out the same. That's the meaning of fate. But if some things are fated and some people are luckier than others, then I also have to believe that I still haven't found my destiny.”
    Pearl
  • “When you are held underwater, you only think of air.”
    Pearl
  • “As Mama said, we're like long vines with entwined roots.”
    Pearl
  • “Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life.”
    Pearl
  • “We're told that men are strong and brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat and bear physical and mental agony much better than men...As men, they have to put a brave face on tradgedy and obstacles, but they are as easily bruised as flower petals.”
    Pearl
  • “What's the first impression you have of a new place? Is it the first meal you eat? The first time you have an ice cream cone? The first person you meet? The first night you spend in your new bed in your new home? The first broken promise? The first time you realize that no one cares about you as anything other than the bearer of sons?”
    Pearl
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Maybe we’re all like that with our mothers. They seem ordinary until one day they’re extraordinary.
    Highlighted by 181 Kindle customers
  • We’re told that men are strong and brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat, and bear physical and mental agony much better than men.
    Highlighted by 157 Kindle customers
  • Parents die, daughters grow up and marry out, but sisters are for life. She is the only person left in the world who shares my memories of our childhood, our parents, our Shanghai, our struggles, our sorrows, and, yes, even our moments of happiness and triumph. My sister is the one person who truly knows me, as I know her. The last thing May says to me is “When our hair is white, we’ll still have our sister love.”
    Highlighted by 141 Kindle customers
  • It has been said that marriages are arranged by Heaven, that destiny will bring even the most distantly separated people together, that all is settled before birth, and no matter how much we wander from our paths, no matter how our fortunes change—for good or bad—all we can do is accomplish the decree of fate. This, in the end, is our blessing and our heartbreak.
    Highlighted by 138 Kindle customers
  • People say you need to be strong, smart, and lucky to survive hard times, war, a natural disaster, or physical torture. But I say emotional abuse—anxiety, fear, guilt, and degradation—is far worse and much harder to survive.
    Highlighted by 123 Kindle customers
  • That’s what sisters do: we argue, we point out each other’s frailties, mistakes, and bad judgment, we flash the insecurities we’ve had since childhood, and then we come back together. Until the next time.
    Highlighted by 114 Kindle customers
  • Confucius, who wrote, “An educated woman is a worthless woman.”
    Highlighted by 96 Kindle customers
  • You can always count on people to crowd your party when you are in glory, but you should never dream of people sending you charcoal in the snow.
    Highlighted by 95 Kindle customers
  • “There is no catastrophe except death; one cannot be poorer than a beggar.” I want—need—to do something braver and finer than dying.
    Highlighted by 94 Kindle customers
  • We don’t know what it means to get by on almost nothing. We don’t know what it takes to survive day to day. But the family that lives here and the woman who took us in last night do. When you don’t have much, having less isn’t so bad.
    Highlighted by 85 Kindle customers
Show all 19 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

The initial setting of this novel is 1937 Shanghai, China; an international and cosmopolitan trade city bisected by the Whangpoo River, a tributary of the Yangtse.
  • Hongkew District: Shanghai area where Pearl and May's home is located.
  • Angel Island: The picturesque island off the San Francisco coast which housed the U.S. Immigration Station which housed Pearl and May for several months before allowing entrance into the United States. It was known as the "Ellis Island of the West."
  • Los Angeles: The home for Old Man Louie and his family in the US. Father, mother, sons and Pearl and May live in a small house.
  • China City: A tourist attraction in LA in which Old Man Louie has his business and competitor to Chinatown.
  • Olvera Street: A pedestrian way in LA lined with small shops. It is adjacent to the Plaza where Pearl and May will go to sit, listen to Mexican music and talk on some nights.

Organizations edit see section history

  • Green Gang: A criminal gang that Baba owes gambling debts.

First Sentence edit see section history

"Our Daughter looks like a South China peasant with those red cheeks," my father complains, pointedly ignoring the soup before him.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part One: Fate
Beautiful Girls
Gold Mountain Men
A Cicada in a Tree
White Plum Blossoms
Moon Sisters
Soaring Through the Night Sky
Eating Wind and Tasting Waves
Shadows on the Walls
Isle of the Immortals
Sisters in Blood
Part Two: Fortune
A Single Rice Kernel
Dreams of Oriental Romance
Scents of Home
Eating Bitterness to Find Gold
Even the Best of Moons
Part Three: Destiny
Haolaiwu
Snapshots
Ten Thousand Happinesses
The Air of This World
Fear
Forever Beautiful
Inch of Gold
Dominoes
The Boundless Human Ocean
When Our Hair Is White

Glossary edit see section history

  • iron fan: The shape and strength of a man's chest who has pulled rickshaw for many years
  • coolie: manual laborer or slave in in Asia.
  • lai see: Traditional wedding gifts of money given to the bride.
  • lo fan: Caucasian
  • bu-er-ch'iao-ya: Chinese for bourgeois class
  • cheongsam: specific type of Chinese dress

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 2 in Shanghai Girls (Sisters Pearl and May). (standard series)

Followed by Dreams of Joy.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Lisa See (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Random House
Country: United States
Publication Date: May 26, 2009
ISBN: 1400067111
Page Count: 336

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3569.E3334 S53 2009
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Frank mentions of sex, brutal gang rape, war violence. While historically accurate, prereading before giving to a teen to read is strongly recommended. Significantly more disturbing than The Hunger Games.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
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