Four Treasures of the Sky: The compelling debut about identity and belonging in the 1880s American West

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A surreal and sprawling story…Historical fiction that lays bare the human tragedy behind the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act. But when she ventures into the market, it is here where she is kidnapped and sent to america to work in a brothel. It is relentlessly grim, readers should know, but I don’t think that’s a reason to knock significant stars off your review, as I’ve seen others do. I have heard tales of immortals who descend from the sky, of dragons that turn into wardens who turn into human forms. The resonance and immediacy of these barbarous 19th-century events are testament to Zhang’s storytelling powers, and should stand as a warning to all of us.

What you must practice is creating art without a destination or plan in mind, relying only on your discipline and training and good spirit.It's also a story about identity, about the way our names haunt and defines us, a story about reclaiming your story and about how far we are willing to go for the sake of survival. Daiyu does find a romantic outlet in the later half of the novel but it is thwarted simply because he believes she is a man.

When the boy’s family disapproves of the match and disguises another girl as their son’s one true love on his wedding day, Lin Daiyu falls terribly ill and dies. My reason for picking it up was to learn more about the Chinese Exclusion Act, but what kept me reading was this layered story that tugged at my heart start to finish! For that I will mark this overall four stars, because it is very sad, and there is minimal emotional payoff for any optimistic readers. Daiyu always resented being named after a tragic heroine of Chinese literature (Lin Daiyu from Cao Xueqin's classic 18th-century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber), fearing that it would be ominous.From the story of Dream of the Red Chamber, one of China’s four great classic novels, Lin Daiyu is a poet who fell in love with a boy above her in the pyramid of social hierarchy.

It’s a stunning portrayal of historical events, brought to us through Daiyu, a character whose story broke my heart and a character that I won’t soon forget.Daiyu/Feng] would become someone who did not bend to the will of fate and the stories she was named after. and i am so grateful for JTZs father for wanting such a story, because i had no idea how much i wanted it, too.