Jade Snow herself is somehow lost in the shuffle-we see odd and not altogether attractive fragments that never coalesce into a whole person. What follows is somehow incomplete and unassimilated: family activities, changes in the Chinese-American community and a visit to the People's Republic arouse moments of remarkable perception but also long stretches of undigested events. The first part is narrated like Fifth Chinese Daughter in the third person the death of Jade Snow's father effects a clear psychological break indicated by a switch to the first person. The sequel, which takes Jade Snow Wong and her husband through four children, a satisfying joint career and extensive travels, shows only intermittent flashes of the old charm. Fifth Chinese Daughter-still in print after 25 years-was a deceptively simple memoir of childhood and adolescence in San Francisco's Chinatown during the '30's and '40's.
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