A Tiger’s Heart

Since I like to read books set in modern-day China, I picked up A Tiger’s Heart: The Story of a Modern Chinese Woman, an engrossing memoir by Aisling Juanjuan Shen.  She is not kidding when she says that she had already lived a few lifetimes by the time she reached her mid-20s.  She goes from dirt-poor villager to college student, teacher, secretary, and translator, moving around as the better-paying jobs take her, and finally leaving China altogether for the U.S. She is determined not to stay locked into the meager existence of a rice farmer.

She struggles emotionally to overcome her troubled childhood with parents who are hard on her and seem to have only enough love to give to her younger sister.  One of the best aspects of the book is the description of Shen’s complex and evolving relationships with her mother and sister.

Her numerous liaisons with men take up a lot of space in the book, part of her rocky road to eventual success and security.  She is not above using her relationships with men as a way into higher-paying jobs, a disturbing dimension to this story. Shen struggles with self-worth as it relates to cultural perceptions of women.  For all the men she takes up with, love is relatively elusive for her, although she is lucky enough to find it a couple of times.

The book is aptly titled:  Shen has a brazenly tough spirit.  I recommend her account for readers who enjoy memoirs and are interested in recent Chinese history and society. 

-Elizabeth