Shanghai girls by Lisa See

First of all did you know Lisa See was white? Whiter than me. She was one great grandparent that is Chinese. I was going to do a piece about white authors that white Asian Pacific Islander novels... and how much I like them. I mean at first I avoided them, reading Amy Tan and Chinese novels translated by westerners... but then when I started reading Alan Brennart's Honolulu and Molokai, and then went on to Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha because I'm not from those cultures anyway. But I still saw a lot of similarities between my experiences and the female protagonists. I realized something. I am a white guy  (that is also Chinese), so reading from a white author's point of view, one who did extensive research on and likes the Asian culture they are writing about would probably appeal to me.
Lisa See's book was particularly eye opening and familiar at the same time because they end up in America. So it is a novel about Chinese Americans. When reading the Jook Sing daughter's dialogue, I can't say that I agree with her at all, but I know girls like her and it help me have some insight into that tension between an Americanized Chinese teenager and a Chinese Parent. I never had that because my mother was white and my father was dead. For some reason, being white and speaking Chinese as well as hanging out with a lot of older Chinese men, I got to see their perspective more than the abc's perspective, from their complaining about work, their kids etc..... until I started teaching them Kung Fu en masse and got to overhear their conversations and perspectives.
I'm wondering if Lisa See got to hear more from older Chinese people because she could talk to them in that way as both an insider and an outsider. Chinese enough to be a Chinese American writer. White enough not to get emotionally triggered when talking to an older Chinese person about their experiences.
Anyway. Shanghai girls is awesome. I looked at Lo wah kew differently after reading it. (My Dad jumped ship in 70's I think and most of the people I hang out with came from China. They weren't in the states for the Red scare and all that so honestly I really didn't know much about it. It also makes you think about people of middle eastern descent (or who look like that) in America today. Back during the Red scare they basically thought every Chinese person was a potential communist spy. They didn't trust them. Sound familiar? Just saying Muslim Americans (and Muslim "looking" Americans) get a lot of looks nowadays. Asian Americans (East asian ones) shouldn't be so quick to jump on the group that is being suspected when not that long ago in the states the same was true of people that looked like them. Of course as I said a lot of Asian Americans were still outside the U.S. or their Asian ancestors were outside the U.S. (That includes me, even though to most people, I'm just white) during that time so they don't really think about what Asian Americans who were here went through.