Tenement Talk: Beautiful Country

Enjoy a free virtual Tenement Talk with Qian Julie Wang, author of Beautiful Country: A Memoir of an Undocumented Childhood in conversation with journalist and New York Times Book Review editor Elisabeth Egan, live-streamed from the museum’s recreated 20th-century garment factory.

In Beautiful Country, Wang shares a poignant and necessary memoir of her experiences as an undocumented child in 1990s. Tracing her life from second grade to middle school, from Zhong Gui, China to Brooklyn, Wang gives us intimate memories of her early years living on the margins. As she writes, “The Chinese refer to being undocumented colloquially as ‘hei’: being in the dark, being blacked out. And aptly so, because we spent those years shrouded in darkness while wrestling with hope and dignity.” As her parents work jobs in factories, including a garment factory, Qian Julie navigates school, the diversity of Chinese New Yorkers, and her family’s immigration status. In 2016, she was inspired to write her story, resulting in this unique memoir of her perspectives over time.