Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor

by Anna Qu Narrated by Catherine Ho

Overview

A young girl forced to work in a Queens sweatshop calls child services on her mother in this powerful debut memoir about labor and self-worth that traces a Chinese immigrant's journey to an American future.

As a teen, Anna Qu is sent by her mother to work in her family's garment factory in Queens. At home, she is treated as a maid and suffers punishment for doing her homework at night. Her mother wants to teach her a lesson: she is Chinese, not American, and such is their tough path in their new country. But instead of acquiescing, Qu alerts the Office of Children and Family Services, an act with consequences that impact the rest of her life.

Nearly twenty years later, estranged from her mother and working at a Manhattan start-up, Qu requests her OCFS report. When it arrives, key details are wrong. Faced with this false narrative, and on the brink of losing her job as the once-shiny start-up collapses, Qu looks once more at her life's truths, from abandonment to an abusive family to seeking dignity and meaning in work.

Traveling from Wenzhou to Xi'an to New York, Made in China is a fierce memoir unafraid to ask thorny questions about trauma and survival in immigrant families, the meaning of work, and the costs of immigration.

Editorial Reviews

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

The hardships of the author’s early life in China continued when she was sent to New York City as a teen to work in her family’s sweatshop. Catherine Ho’s narration captures the author’s relentless conflict—with her Chinese family’s authoritarian and misogynist ways, with her status as an unwanted child, and within herself regarding whether she could separate herself from this family dynamic. Though Ho’s tone is grim and hardened, these features keep the focus on the author’s ultimate rejection of her tortured attachment to the ideal, wished-for mother she never had. Though this gripping memoir could not be more personal, it brings attention more broadly to the conflicts that current immigrants face when reconciling their families of origin with the hazards and opportunities of American culture. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

★ 05/24/2021

Qu rewrites the bootstrap narrative of immigrants building a better life for their children in her grim and entrancing debut. Her “path to the American dream” amounts to a devastating story of abuse and abandonment, beginning in 1985 Wenzhou, China, when her mother left her as a toddler with her grandparents “to start a new life” in America. Her disappointment “steeped like tea, growing dark and bitter” until her mother came back for her in 1991. While she was away, Qu’s mother “ behind her country manners” and married (and had two children with) the owner of the Queens sweatshop where she worked. When Qu arrived in America, she learned English and excelled at school, but was forced to work in the sweatshop under the watch of her mother, whose “fury ran so deep, every word dripped with resentment and venom.” She eventually reported her parents to authorities, and with the help of child services, was able to come to a “truce” with her mother. Even in revisiting her harrowing memories, Qu writes from a place of empathy, transcending pain to embrace hope: “Sacrifice is in every generation of our family. I am no exception.” This marks the arrival of a promising new voice. Agent: Duvall Osteen, Aragi. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

Nominated for the 2022 Catalyst Award for Best Memoir
A Library Journal Title to Watch

"The immigrant child longs to be understood and unload her truths, while simultaneously being tasked with preserving her parents’ humanity . . . The struggle . . . seems to be holding all of these conflicting emotions at once. To shield the parent while escaping her. To forgive abuse without excusing it. To be grateful for their sacrifice and still say, I needed more than you gave me. Qu . . . honor[s] these complexities, tell[s] us we were not meant to swallow our pain and survive in this world without support systems . . . Love, although never overt, is not absent." —Chanel Miller, The New York Times Book Review

"Qu’s debut memoir untangles the knots of her complicated, traumatic past as she learns the truth about her own history and reckons with the hopes and constraints of the immigrant experience." —Time

"The book is a modern, insightful look at the often impossible situations immigrants must often do to survive." —Zibby Owens, Good Morning America

"This candid, heartbreaking story centers on an uncommon immigrant narrative featuring a complicated mother-daughter relationship intermingled with the dark side of the pursuit of opportunity in America." —Oprah Daily

"Qu's indelible account of her lonesome childhood should gain her everything she lacked then—confidants, witnesses and fans—who will cheer when she finally reconnects with a long-lost beloved." —Jenny Shank, Star Tribune

"A skillful and emotive excavation of a traumatic childhood split between China and the United States." —Jonathan Chatwin, South China Morning Post

"There are no easy answers here, and that’s what makes this memoir so absorbing." —Elayna Trucker, Napa Valley Register

"A heartbreaking reflection of the ripple effects of immigration." —Katherine Ouellette, WBUR

"Harrowing . . . Revelatory." —Tobias Carroll, InsideHook

"Made in China is a fierce, provocative look at the sacrifices made by immigrants in a new country, and the sacrifices they pass down to the next generation. It's a story of family and trauma, resilience and collapse, and Qu is dazzling as she dismantles the mythologies surrounding the immigrant work ethic, making clear that a person's humanity should never be connected with how 'productive' they are." —Kristin Iversen, Refinery29

"A harrowing memoir about the indifference we show toward children, especially those who emigrate to the United States." —Evette Dionne, Bitch

"A deeply honest rendering of domestic conflict . . . Made in China is dynamic, a subversive and yet inherently personal piece of work . . . In this memoir, Qu doesn’t conform to labels. She rips off the tags others have created for her and creates her own." —Valerie Wu, Asia Pacific Arts

"Anna’s story shares a similar arc to the likes of Educated and The Glass Castle—memoirs with heroines who overcome seemingly insurmountable disadvantages through education and sheer will." —Yoojin Na, BOMB

"Unravels larger assumptions about immigration, labor, and trauma at both the personal and collective level, demonstrating how many seemingly disparate elements of our lives are deeply connected . . . It is a clear-eyed look at a reality that many in the United States would otherwise look away from . . . Remarkable." —Julia Shiota, Ploughshares

"Anna Qu has a tough story to tell, and she tells it with graceful candor . . . Made in China isn’t always an easy read, but it will make you examine the intricacies of mother-daughter love and the indelible influence of intergenerational trauma." —Megan Vered, The Rumpus

"Qu rewrites the bootstrap narrative of immigrants building a better life for their children in her grim and entrancing debut . . . Even in revisiting her harrowing memories, Qu writes from a place of empathy, transcending pain to embrace hope . . .  This marks the arrival of a promising new voice." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A nuanced examination of complicated ripple effects of intergenerational emigration. A powerful memoir of finding self-worth." —Library Journal

"Gripping . . . Well written . . . Brilliantly insightful." —Kirkus Reviews

"Poignant . . . Vividly narrated and psychologically perceptive, Qu’s story uses family trauma to find perspective on immigration and perhaps even America itself." —Booklist

"Anna masterfully evokes her childhood with a power and grace that speak of an experience that no one should ever have to endure. This moving and unforgettable memoir needs to be read by everyone." —Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy

Library Journal

07/01/2021

In her debut memoir, Qu (nonfiction editor, Kweli journal), who was born in Wenzhou, China, and raised in Queens, NY, tries to make sense of a fraught childhood with a critical and withholding mother. Qu's father died not long after she was born, and her mother soon emigrated to the United States in search of opportunity. Qu was raised in Wenzhou by her grandparents until the age of seven, when her mother brought her to New York. She describes the family's changed dynamics after her mother marries and has two more children with a Taiwanese man who owns a New York sweatshop. The family only speaks Mandarin, a language Qu doesn't understand. She is treated like a servant and made to care for her two younger half-siblings, clean, and cook. Struggling to get along with her mother in her teen years, she is sent to China to live with strangers and, upon returning to New York, is made to work long hours in her stepfather's garment factory. Qu's high school guidance counselor alerts authorities, on the author's behalf, to notify them of her parents' violation of child labor laws. This leads to Qu's eventual estrangement from her family. VERDICT A nuanced examination of complicated ripple effects of intergenerational emigration. A powerful memoir of finding self-worth.—Barrie Olmstead, Lewiston P.L., ID

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

The hardships of the author’s early life in China continued when she was sent to New York City as a teen to work in her family’s sweatshop. Catherine Ho’s narration captures the author’s relentless conflict—with her Chinese family’s authoritarian and misogynist ways, with her status as an unwanted child, and within herself regarding whether she could separate herself from this family dynamic. Though Ho’s tone is grim and hardened, these features keep the focus on the author’s ultimate rejection of her tortured attachment to the ideal, wished-for mother she never had. Though this gripping memoir could not be more personal, it brings attention more broadly to the conflicts that current immigrants face when reconciling their families of origin with the hazards and opportunities of American culture. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2021-06-23
A grim yet gripping memoir of an unhappy, nearly loveless childhood and the author’s determined escape to a better adulthood.

Born in Wenzhou, China, Qu remained with her grandparents after her father died—whether of illness or in an auto accident, she was never sure—and her mother moved to New York. There, her mother “worked hard, caught the eye of the owner of the sweatshop she worked in, remarried, and had two kids. Not only had she succeeded in making her American dream come true, she had also managed to bring her 7-year-old daughter with her. It was an achievement worth celebrating.” When she moved in with her new family, the parents showered her half siblings with attention, food, and gifts—but not the author. Still a child, she was put to work in that sweatshop, toiling under the eye of her stepfather for 40 or 50 hours per week; at home, she was banished to the basement. Finally, her mother sent her back to China only to allow her to return to live not as the “outsider” of before but now as a clear “intruder.” Qu describes her mother with steely words: “She wore a fitted red suit with kitten heels,” for instance, “her hair pulled back from her face in a neat way that made her opinion a fact.” Eventually, the author filed a complaint with child protective services and was met with indifference. “The system I turned to is ineffective, neglectful, and careless,” she writes. “I was wrong to call them, wrong to think they stood for justice and the safety of children, wrong to be naïve, wrong to be so idealistic.” Later, Qu left for college, working diligently in both school and as a restaurant server and retail salesperson, earning grudging respect—but still not love—from her mother. The book is well written and sometimes brilliantly insightful, but it’s also saturated with seething resentment that, while thoroughly understandable, may turn some readers away.

A simultaneously powerful and depressing latter-day Dickensian story sure to elicit sympathy from readers.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173368577
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/03/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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