Johnson County Community College ScholarSpace @ JCCC

Library Papers and Presentations Billington Library

Summer 2015 Nicole Mones: A Novelist Who Exemplifies Chinese-American Friendship Andrea Kempf Johnson County Community College, [email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_pp

Recommended Citation Kempf, Andrea, "Nicole Mones: A Novelist Who Exemplifies Chinese-American Friendship" (2015). Library Papers and Presentations. 24. http://scholarspace.jccc.edu/lib_pp/24

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Billington Library at ScholarSpace @ JCCC. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Papers and Presentations by an authorized administrator of ScholarSpace @ JCCC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. --,------I( Book Reviews J periment that until recently enslaved ed in World War II. blacks and women. But her main Nicole Mones: A As the paleontologists begin their focus is China. Novelist Who work, Alice learns about Chinese Sections include China's history archaeological prehistory. She also (chaotic), urban migration (doubled Exemplifies learns about some of the horrors in past 20 years), health care (un­ of the from a stable), materialism (on the rise), Chinese-American Chinese archaeologist in the group the pursuit of religion, and environ­ Friendship whose wife has been missing for 20 mental challenges. Of this last topic, By Andrea Kempf years since her arrest. Combining she writes, "More than three-fourths the present with the past, American of the country's forests have disap­ Delacorte Press: racial prejudice with Chinese racial peared. Two-thirds of its 600 cities • Lost in Translation, 1998 prejudices, and a serious investigation fail to meet the country's air quality of archaeology, Mones offers readers a • A Cup Light, 2002 standards. Only one percent of Chi­ of view of China rarely seen in American na's urban dwellers breathe air con­ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: fiction. She writes with the knowl­ sidered safe. Water pollution is severe • The Last Chinese Chef, 2007 edge of an insider who is captivated and deteriorating. Ninety percent of • Night in Shanghai, 2014 by China and Chinese culture. urban rivers are polluted, 62 percent A Cup ofLight, published four years of surface water cannot support fish, In 1977 at the age of 25, speaking later, was the author's second novel. and 26 percent is unsuited for any no Chinese, Nicole Mones went to In this work she moves to the world purpose. In addition, about one hun­ China and began trading textiles. of Chinese porcelain and into the dred cities in northern China were In the course of seventeen years she universe of art lovers, art forgers, and suffering severe water shortages." learned Chinese, developed a thriving smugglers. Again she introduces the Interspersed among these alarm­ bUSiness, and observed the astound­ reader to an American woman in Chi­ ingly heavy topics are personal vi­ ing changes that followed the end of na, protagonist Lia Frank, an expert in gnettes about the realization of her the Cultural Revolution. Then she antique porcelain. She has been sent impossible dream to study in the U.S. began to write novels drawing on her to China to evaluate a collection for And at the end of each chapter is a experiences and the things she had a buyer in the United States. section wrap-up, which reiterates the learned and observed. So far she has In this book, as in Lost In Trans­ East-West differences presented, but published four highly praised works lation, a lonely American woman is stresses these should be complemen­ of fiction that focus on Americans working in China. She becomes in­ tary differences. living and working in China, their volved in intrigues surrounding the "In to day's globalized world, it relationships with Chinese men and collection. Are the pieces authentic? is in our best interest to learn from women, and little-known aspects of How will the sellers smuggle the each other. Once we understand the Chinese history and culture. collection into since it different modes of thought between Published in 1998, Mones's first is illegal to sell Chinese treasures the West and the East, such as linear novel, Lost in Translation, won the abroad? Who forges these pieces with versus non-linear thinking, we can Kafka Prize for the year's best work of such accuracy? see they are actually complementa­ fiction by an American woman, the Pa­ The reader and Lia encounter ry, like the right and left sides of the cific Northwest Bookseller's Association smugglers, forgers, and Chinese brain. By learning to use both, we can Book Award for the year's best novel officials who want to keep China's achieve a greater oneness in thought from the five northwestern states, and historical treasures in China. She also that we can use to enhance personal was selected as one of the New York meets an American doctor who just and global problem solving for the Times Book Review's Notable,Books. might add romance to her hitherto betterment of all." It tells the story of Alice Manneg­ quiet life. This novel is part mystery, The Chinese Dream will be of inter­ an, the daughter of a Congressman part romance, and part scholarly les­ est to those readers wanting a basic noted for his prejudice against African son on the history and art of Chinese summary of some of the major issues Americans. To flee her father's racist porcelain. A Cup of Light illuminates facing China and the U.S. today, and reputation, Alice moved to China an aspect of Chinese art and history those needing a reminder of why it's where she is an interpreter for En­ that most readers will encounter for vital- as many members have oft glish-speaking business people. She the first time. repeated- that our nations be friends. also actively pursues one-night stands Mones's third novel, The Last with Chinese men she picks up in Chinese Chef, explores the Chinese ~ bars. Then she is hired by an Ameri­ culinary world. The protagonist is lana McBurney-Lin, author of My Half can paleontologist who believes the Sam Liang, a direct descendent of of the Sky (Komenar, 2006) and Blos­ missing bones of the Peking man were the last Chinese Emperor's chief chef. soms and Bayonets (Redwood, 2012), hidden in the deserts of Northwest Sam has returned to China to open is President of the USCPFA South Bay a restaurant and reconnect with his Chapter. China by the French scholar Teilhard do Chardin when the]apanese invad- family, whose attention to culinary

Summer 2015 US-CHINA REVIEW. 19 [Book Reviews Jf------excellence exceeds the imagination. there is Mones's Signature love story ascendancy that was filled with chaos He is also competing for a place on to keep the readers' interest. and bloodshed- a month that seems the Chinese Olympic Food Team. In sum, Nicole Mones has written to have disappeared from the memo­ Enter Maggie McElroy, an Amer­ four fascinating novels about Amer­ ries of the Chinese citizenry. ican food writer whose magazine icans in China in the 20th and 21st The mystery of the missing month has sent her to China to write about centuries from an insider's perspec­ is driving certain people on a mis­ Sam's restaurant while she is also on tive. She has explored archaeology, sion. They want to know the truth. a personal mission to discover if her fine porcelain art history, cuisine, and This disparate group includes an recently deceased husband had a Shanghai on the eve of World War II. itinerate world traveler named Fang child in China and whose family is She speaks Chinese, she knows the Caodi; Little Xi, a failed lawyer who pressing a claim against the estate. Chinese people. She is a member of posts anti-government screeds on Again Mones manages to combine the Committee on U.S.-China Rela­ the Internet as she hides in various a romance with a serious discussion of tions. She may possibly be the first places throughout China; and Zhang an aspect of Chinese culture, this time American woman since Pearl Buck to Dou, a young man who was a child food. And the author does know her write so knowledgeably about China. slave-laborer and now plays guitar in food. She is a contributing writer for Her novels are well worth reading.~ small restaurants. They converge on Gourmet Magazine. The Last Chinese a noted Taiwanese author, Old Chen, Chef won first place in the World Andrea Kempf, Professor/Librarian who has moved to because life Gourmand Cookbook Award contest Emeritus at Johnson County Commu­ has become so pleasant in China. in the U.S. and third place worldwide. nity College in Overland Park, Kansas, At first, Old Chen doesn't want Most delightful is her depiction of was named Fiction Book Reviewer of the to get involved with these people. Sam's cranky family of chefs who Year 2000 by the Library Journal. She However, he has a long-standing want him to succeed, but are rigid in is also an alumna of the Asian Studies crush on Little Xi, so his romantic their approaches to perfection. Development Program at the East-West interest gets the better of his desire Finally there is her latest novel, Center, University of Hawai'i. to continue his pleasant existence. Night in Shanghai. This time Nicole Then Fang Caodi begins to present Mones ventures into Chinese histo­ his evidence to Old Chen. It seems ry. She writes about Shanghai in the New literature from that old publications and journals 1930s on the verge of World War II. are no longer available in print-only At that time Shanghai was one of China online; however, the online versions the most cosmopolitan cities in the By Andrea Kempf have airbrushed out occurrences like world. The British, French, Ameri­ The Fat Years the Tiananmen Square uprising and cans, and Japanese had carved out By / similar unpleasant events of the past concessions in the city. The Chinese sixty plus years. did not require visas for entry, which Chen Guanzhong More important, there are no made the city a haven for Jews fleeing london: Doubleday, 2011, magazines or newspapers from the the Holocaust in Europe. The popula­ translation by Michael Duke missing month. Fang Caodi has col­ tion loved jazz, so African American Winter Sun Poems lected small bits of evidence, like a musicians were imported to the city By Shi Zhi few pages of a publication from the to entertain the population. missing month that he found in a Night in Shanghai manages to tell Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2012, trash can, a scrap of paper mention­ several stories with historical accura­ translation by Jonathan Stalling ing the crackdown of that month. cy. There is the story of the African The mystery builds. It leads Old American musicians who were freer In The Fat Years, a fascinating Chen to an underground Protestant and more respected in China than novel that was officially banned in Church in Henan Province where they ever were in the United States. China, journalist Chan Koonchung Little Xi has found refuge, but not There is the story of the Shanghai describes a not too distant future religion. It takes him to the home Ghetto, whose 20,OOO-plus Jewish when China has entered the" Age of Zhang Dou shares with his girlfriend refugees were saved from extermina­ Ascendency." At the same time, the Miaomiao on the edge of Beijing. tion. There is the story of the grow­ economy has tanked in the West, There Miaomiao, a former journalist, ing divide between the Nationalists and former economic powerhouses is now somewhat out of her mind and led by Chaing Kai-Shek and the like the United States, France, and spends her days feeding stray cats. Communists led by Mao Tse-tung, Germany are struggling to stay afloat. The answers come when the whose inability to join forces aided Furthermore, almost everyone in group kidnaps a high-ranking party the Japanese in their conquest of China is happy, not necessarily eu­ official and learn what happened to China during World War II. There is phoric, but certainly satisfied with the missing month, why everyone the story of the tongs, the gangs who life. Those few who are not always is so content with life, and what the controlled much of Shanghai's busi­ smiling remember a month before the Politburo's plans are for the people ness- legal and illegal. In addition, announcement of China's economic of China.

20 • US-CHINA REVIEW Summer 2015