Qian Julie Wang (Chinese: 王乾) is a Chinese-American writer and civil rights lawyer.
Early life
Qian Wang was born in Shijiazhuang, China to academic parents.[3] Wang's mother was a professor of mathematics, while Wang's father was a professor of English and critic of the government, which led to the family being persecuted.[4][5] Wang's father fled China to the United States when she was five; Wang and her mother followed two years later in 1994.[4][6] After their temporary visas expired, the Wang family remained in the United States as undocumented immigrants in Brooklyn.[7]
Wang's father enrolled her at P.S. 124 in Chinatown, but few of her classmates and teachers spoke Mandarin Chinese, thus isolating her even within a seemingly familiar community.[8] Unable to speak English or Cantonese, Wang was initially placed in a special-needs classroom, but was returned to mainstream instruction after she was observed teaching herself to read English through picture books.[8] After school, Wang worked alongside her mother in clothing sweatshops and a sushi processing plant.[4]
Wang's early talent for writing was mistaken as plagiarism by an elementary school teacher, prompting her to deliberately hide her abilities throughout much of her primary education.[5] After several years in the US, Wang and her mother emigrated to Canada, in anticipation of better prospects, and her father followed sometime thereafter.[9] Wang returned to the United States to attend Swarthmore College.[9]
Her upbringing in poverty in America is the subject of Wang's breakout memoir Beautiful Country.[5][6]
Career
After graduating from Swarthmore College with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, Wang earned her juris doctor at Yale Law School in 2012.[3][5] She worked as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis and as an appellate litigator within the New York City Law Department before moving to Robins Kaplan, where she was elected to partnership within two years of joining the firm.[10]
Wang declined Robins Kaplan's offer of partnership and currently serves as managing director/partner of Gottlieb & Wang LLP, a law firm focusing on special needs children and civil rights impact litigation. She decided to start writing her memoir, Beautiful Country, in the wake of the 2016 US election of Donald Trump as president of the United States. She had been a naturalized American citizen for six months by this time.[6]
Wang wrote the book on her phone during her commute to her law offices, finishing a first draft in 2019 and publishing in 2021. She is working on a second book inspired by her experiences as an Asian-American working in corporate law.[3][6]
Personal life
Wang chose the Anglicised name "Julie" because of Asian-American puppet "Julie Woo" on The Puzzle Place.[3]
Wang converted to Judaism, founding and leading a Jews of Color group at Manhattan Central Synagogue; on the day her debut memoir was released, Wang delivered a lay sermon to the congregation at Rosh Hashanah services.[11][12] Wang is married.[2] On March 24, 2023, she announced that she was pregnant with her first child and in October 2023, she gave birth to her daughter.[13][14]
See also
References
- ^ Moanaco, Kathryn. "An Interview With Qian Julie Wang". Penguin Random House. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
- ^ a b Reyes, Nina (August 31, 2019). "She Said Yes Every Time He Asked". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Interview: Chinese Immigrants Struggle to Belong in "Beautiful Country" | Authorlink". Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b c Wang, Qian Julie (October 1, 2021). "The Thread That Led Me Back: Author Qian Julie Wang On Defining Her Own Fashion". ELLE. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Reviews: November/December 2021". yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Proudfoot, Jenny (October 7, 2021). "Qian Julie Wang on her undocumented childhood, the salvation of reading and her powerful new memoir". Marie Claire. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ Egan, Elisabeth (September 7, 2021). "New to the American Melting Pot, and Finding Its Taste Bittersweet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b "Qian Julie Wang Details A Life In 'Hei' In Memoir 'Beautiful Country'". NPR.org. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ a b Foroohar, Rana (September 16, 2021). "Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang — fear and prejudice in Chinatown". Financial Times. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ "Author Event with Qian Julie Wang". School of Law - Northeastern University. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "Memoirist Qian Julie Wang Finally Found a Home With Her Fellow Jews of Color". Haaretz. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ Washington, Robin (October 6, 2021). "An immigrant child's trauma in a 'Beautiful Country'". The Forward. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
- ^ "Qian Julie Wang in Instagram". Instagram. March 24, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2023.
- ^ "Qian Julie Wang in Instagram". Instagram. October 5, 2023. Retrieved October 11, 2023.
This page was last edited on 10 February 2024, at 19:18