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A review by bookswithlee
Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
5.0
At the start I was uncertain how I was going to feel about this book, but I’m glad I kept with it because it truly swept me away
Set in the late 1800s this book follows a young girl who is kidnapped from China and smuggled to America where she is forced to adopts many different personas as a way to survive. All of which is happening during a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place restricting immigration from China to the United States.
This story not only brings to light many parts of American history that is often left out of history books, but it also demonstrates that discrimination and prejudice against Asian American individuals is not just something that begin in current time - It is rooted in the very foundation of this country’s history
From the lyrical fairytale like writing to the historically accurate past treatment of Asian, and in this case, Chinese Americans during an unforgivable time in US history, this is a book everyone should read.
Four Treasures of the sky gives a voice to those whose story has been taken away- rewritten and revised. Even deeper it illustrates that the past is destined to be repeated when left buried and hidden away.
Although heartbreaking, I really enjoyed this book!
CW/TW: rape, sexual assault, racism, xenophobia, trafficking, racial slurs, murder, death, torture, confinement
Set in the late 1800s this book follows a young girl who is kidnapped from China and smuggled to America where she is forced to adopts many different personas as a way to survive. All of which is happening during a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place restricting immigration from China to the United States.
This story not only brings to light many parts of American history that is often left out of history books, but it also demonstrates that discrimination and prejudice against Asian American individuals is not just something that begin in current time - It is rooted in the very foundation of this country’s history
From the lyrical fairytale like writing to the historically accurate past treatment of Asian, and in this case, Chinese Americans during an unforgivable time in US history, this is a book everyone should read.
Four Treasures of the sky gives a voice to those whose story has been taken away- rewritten and revised. Even deeper it illustrates that the past is destined to be repeated when left buried and hidden away.
Although heartbreaking, I really enjoyed this book!
CW/TW: rape, sexual assault, racism, xenophobia, trafficking, racial slurs, murder, death, torture, confinement