Tag: Janie Chang

Janie Chang—The Porcelain Moon

Uncle Louis is sent with Theo and Pauline from Shanghai by the Deng family to start an antique business in Paris. He plans to arrange his son, Theo’s marriage and set him up in the business so he can return to China. But Theo manages to delay the arranged marriage first by further education, then finally by working as an interpreter for the British during WW1. When Pauline learns her uncle’s first wife is arranging her marriage, she is desperate to find her cousin to help her convince her uncle not to send her back to China. She rushes to Noyelles where Theo has been working with Chinese labourers but is distressed and fearful by what she discovers.

Every Janie Chang book I’ve read has been a five out of five. This one delves into a neglected part of World War1’s history that I had never read about which is seen through the eyes of its main characters—Theo and Pauline Deng and their friend Henri Liu, a Chinese journalist.

Janie Chang’s — The Library of Legends *****

With the invasion of the Japanese into China in 1937, students at Minghua University leave their campus and escape on foot inland. Each student carries an original volume of the Library of Legends — a 500 year old collection of Chinese myths. Among them is Lian who learns from a letter that her mother is headed to Shanghai, but it is safer for her to stay with her professors and students. They walk mostly at night to avoid being spotted by enemy aircraft and while she walks, Shao and Sparrow befriend her. When they start out, it seems like a adventure, but soon they encounter starving refugees, Japanese bomber planes and death.

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Janie Chang’s — Dragon Springs Road *****

When the Fong’s estate near Shanghai is sold and the Yangs arrive, Jialing’s mother disappears and Jialing becomes a bond servant to the new family. Through her friendship with the spirit fox and Anjuin, the Yangs oldest daughter, she survives. A group of teachers rent a section of the estate and Jialing is given an opportunity to go to school. But even with her education and perfect English no one will employ her because she is zazhong— half Chinese, half Eurasian. How will she survive once the Yangs move to Shanghai leaving her behind?

Janie Chang’s — Three souls *****

While Leiyin observes her own funeral, she is confused as to why she cannot enter into the afterlife. Her two other souls join her on a journey back in time to solve her dilemma. In spite of her unwanted marriage and domineering father, it is her own actions that she must make amends for before she can enter the afterlife.