The Chinese Lady

It was four years ago when I first learned about Afong Moy, purported to be the first Chinese woman to live in the United States. In the debut novel by Bo Wang, The Chinese Lady, we get a fictionalized account of her life in the 1830s and 1850s. From China to New York to San Francisco, our character goes through several names and living circumstances, but how others see her isn’t necessarily accurate to who she truly is. This is a thoughtful look at a strong woman who endures a lot in a world that may never be kind to her or know her.

What I Liked:

• Getting different perspectives on the so-called Chinese Lady. This novel is divided into four parts, and the first three come from the various people in her life in the 1830s. Part one is from Little Sparrow’s selfish, unloving mother’s point of view: her disappointment in having a daughter rather than a son, her distant approach to parenting, her self-centered bias. The second part of the book comes from the POV of Margaret, the American ship captain’s wife who takes her new charge (now christened Julia) under her wing. While Margaret sees herself as generous and kind-hearted, she ends up being just as self-centered as the mom was. Then we get Joyce’s POV. China, as she’s now known, ends up as part of a circus, and Joyce is a fellow act, famous for (allegedly) being over 160 years old. While Joyce and China should feel some camaraderie, their relationship remains strained due to misunderstandings and cultural differences.
• Finally getting her own POV. It’s not until the 1850s that we get our titular character’s perspective. She’s now in her late thirties and going by the name Afong Moy. She manages a brothel in San Francisco, and has made quite a success of herself despite the uphill battle she’s faced. By this point, she’s very different from how others painted her. Whereas her mom, Margaret, and Joyce saw her as stupid, ungrateful, or rude—and above all, childlike and innocent—we now see Afong Moy as a woman who always understood those around her and developed strength of character because of it. She saw the weakness and deceit in others, and she learned to go with the flow until it was time to take matters into her own capable hands. She’s nothing like what others thought of her, and is a fair but severe woman by this point.
• Battling racism and sexism. Much of this book tackles the obvious racism Afong Moy faced being one of the only Chinese people in the United States. People saw her as so exotic and strange, as something to jeer at, first in a wealthy woman’s parlor, then in a literal circus. Later, she fought racism through lawsuits while trying to run her business. Then there’s the intersection of sexism. What could women expect to achieve in life beyond marriage and subservience to men? Was there something more avaiable to them? Afong Moy certainly carved her own way in a country that didn’t look kindly on Asian women.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• It didn’t feel like we fully got her story. While I appreciated the narrative choice to mainly look at the Chinese Lady from others’ perspectives, it ultimately left me feeling a bit too detached from her story. The final part, which does focus on her POV, felt like too little, too late. By then she was twenty years older, jaded, and had assumed a new character for herself. I get the point, but still wanted something more intimate by the end, and we never got that.

Audiobook:

The Chinese Lady is narrated by a cast of three voice actors: Jeena Yi, Cassandra Campbell, and Bahni Turpin. Each brings their respective character(s) to life, making them feel distinct and fully developed. This was a well done audiobook!

Final Thoughts

The Chinese Lady is a fascinating account of a notable historical figure who remains shrouded in mystery. This novel highlights that sense of distance and outsiders’ perspectives, both to its merit and at the expense of leaving the titular character forever at arm’s length. This was a great debut, and I will be on the lookout for Bo Wang’s next book.

Special thanks to HarperVia, HarperAudio Adult, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Chinese Lady here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The Chinese Lady by Bo Wang
Audiobook Narrators	Jeena Yi; Cassandra Campbell; Bahni Turpin
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Fiction
Setting	China; New York
Number of Pages	384
Format I Read	Audiobook & Ebook (NetGalley ARCs)
Original Publication Date	September 8, 2026
Publisher	HarperVia

Official Summary

As rich in detail and emotion as Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and Lisa See’s Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, but with an exciting structure that reinvents the genre, Bo Wang’s gorgeous and immersive debut historical novel immortalizes the life of the first Chinese woman to be brought to the United States in the 1800s.

Little Sparrow, Julia, Afong Moy, Madame Moy, The Chinese Lady, were her many names . . . but her true name has been lost to time.

In 1834 Afong Moy was brought to New York by two merchants as a live exhibit. Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses.

As the story moves from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names. Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York. The captain’s wife names her Julia and “graciously” treats her as her own. And when she is shunted off to P.T Barnum, her fellow human exhibitions call her China. Eventually arriving in San Francisco’s Chinatown, she will at long last claim her name and her own story.

Combining archival research and brilliantly imaginative storytelling, Bo Wang masterfully fills in history’s gaps to weave a powerful narrative of survival in the face of hardship, tragedy, and betrayal. Told through the eyes of those around her; mirroring her life as an object on display, until we finally see the world through her own eyes.