"Her just released novel, "Bad Bad Girl, " takes as its starting point the early life of a character based on her late mother, Loo Shu-hsin, and follows her through a thorny and complicated journey pursuing higher education in America, meeting Jen's father, and building a life and family. Jen explores her mother's upbringing in a wealthy Shanghainese family at a time when being born a girl came with certain expectations and firm limits."
"Jen imagines her mother seeing every word of the novel as it's written, telling the story of her life. "Bad bad girl!" Jen writes as part of their imagined back and forth. "You should not write anything!" "I had such a difficult relationship with my mother, and I could actually talk to her about it on the page in a way that I never could in real life," Jen said. "Even in my imagination, she remains frustrating,"
Gish Jen revisits family history after her mother's 2020 death, reimagining Loo Shu-hsin's early life. The story traces Loo's upbringing in a wealthy Shanghainese household where being female brought strict expectations and limits. The narrative follows her pursuit of higher education in America, meeting Jen's father, and building a family, with lasting effects on the next generation. An imagined, ongoing dialogue between mother and daughter runs throughout, allowing candid confrontation of unresolved tensions. The portrayal blends personal memory with reimagined events, enabling emotional reckoning and a nuanced exploration of filial love and frustration.
#mother-daughter-relationship #chinese-american-experience #immigration-and-education #gender-and-family-expectations
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