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Title details for Patriot Number One by Lauren Hilgers - Available

Patriot Number One

American Dreams in Chinatown

by Lauren Hilgers
Angela Lin
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2018 BY
New York Times Critics • Wall Street Journal • Kirkus Reviews
Christian Science Monitor • San Francisco Chronicle

Finalist for the PEN Jacqueline Bograd Weld Biography Award
Shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize
The deeply reported story of one indelible family transplanted from rural China to New York City, forging a life between two worlds
 
In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar—pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch.
In Patriot Number One, Hilgers follows this dauntless family through a world hidden in plain sight: a byzantine network of employment agencies and language schools, of underground asylum brokers and illegal dormitories that Flushing’s Chinese community relies on for survival. As the irrepressibly opinionated Zhuang and the more pragmatic Little Yan pursue legal status and struggle to reunite with their son, we also meet others piecing together a new life in Flushing. Tang, a democracy activist who was caught up in the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, is still dedicated to his cause after more than a decade in exile. Karen, a college graduate whose mother imagined a bold American life for her, works part-time in a nail salon as she attends vocational school, and refuses to look backward.
With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Hilgers captures the joys and indignities of building a life in a new country—and the stubborn allure of the American dream.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 20, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525526513
      • File size: 363902 KB
      • Duration: 12:38:07

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listeners follow the true stories of Zhuang Liehong and his wife, Little Yan, Chinese immigrants who sought asylum in the U.S. following Zhuang's leadership of pro-democracy protests in his Southern Chinese village of Wukan. Narrator Angela Lin's clear, feminine delivery is well paced and comfortable as she describes the political situation that led to the couple's departure from China as well as their struggles to adapt and survive in Flushing, New York. Lin's pronunciation of the Chinese words that are incorporated into the beginnings of each chapter and intermittently throughout the text sounds authentic. Her voicing of male characters tends to sound a bit forced, while the female characters generally sound more realistic. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 8, 2018
      A battle for freedom segues into a struggle for survival in this clear-eyed, humane look at modern immigration. Journalist Hilgers, who lived in Shanghai for six years, spotlights the journey of Zhuang Liehong, who made powerful enemies in the Chinese village of Wukan when he organized protests against corrupt officials. Fearing arrest and dazzled by visions of American freedom and abundance, he and his wife Little Yan left their infant son in 2014 and fled on a tourist visa, ending up in the Chinese immigrant neighborhood of Flushing in New York City. Zhuang and Yan eventually get asylum and working documents, and their scramble for overpriced, overcrowded rooms and low-wage employment (in nail salons, restaurants, and the like) mirrors the experiences of many in New York. Instead of trying to make this an immigration horror story, Hilgers foregrounds the way the husband and wife adjust to their new home: Yan, pragmatically focused on mundane jobs and financial security, grows increasingly exasperated with the dreamer Zhuang’s fizzled business plans and his sense that political activism marks him for greater things. Hilgers’s narrative intercuts between the dramatic rebellion in Wukan and a vibrant portrait of Flushing’s Chinese diaspora built around fine-grained character studies drawn with equal parts empathy and humor. The result is a quintessentially American story of exile and renewal. Agent: Elyse Cheney, Elyse Cheney Literary Associates.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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