Tuesday, November 11 | 5:30 – 6:30 PM ET | Museum of Chinese in America
On Tuesday, November 11, join USCET, the Serica Initiative, and the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) for a book launch for Bad Bad Girl, the latest semi-autobiographical novel by Gish Jen. The book traces the remarkable life of Jen’s mother, who was born into a wealthy Shanghai family in 1925, educated in Catholic schools, and later built a new life in the United States. Jen’s poetic prose explores gender, migration, and cultural identity across generations. With its blend of humor and poignancy, Bad Bad Girl offers a unique lens on 20th-century history and the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. This engagement promises a rich conversation about memory, heritage, and the intertwined narratives of China and America.
Please join us in-person from 5:30 – 6:30 PM ET at the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), located at 215 Centre Street, New York, NY. The event will feature a reading and a fireside chat with Gish Jen in conversation with Qian Julie Wang. A book signing will be held following the program.
Biographies
Gish Jen is the author of Bad Bad Girl. Her work has been included in The Best American Short Stories five times, including in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. A fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Gish has received NEA, Guggenheim, and Radcliffe fellowships, a Lannan Literary Award, and a five-year Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award. Her short work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and many anthologies; she has taught at Harvard University, NYU Shanghai, and other universities. Bad Bad Girl is her tenth book.
Moderator
Qian Julie Wang is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood, which was a Today Show Read With Jenna pick and named a best book of 2021 by the New York Times, President Obama, NPR, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and more. A graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College, Qian Julie is managing partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a firm dedicated to advancing educational civil rights for marginalized populations. Her writing has been published in major publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more, and she has appeared on the TODAY Show, NBC, PBS, and NPR, among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.