The Good Chinese Daughter: Growing Up in China and in America

“The Good Chinese Daughter: Growing up in China and in America,” is an inspiring memoir of a successful woman, mother and author, looking for unconditional love from her mother who almost “aborted” her. After her mother divorced her first husband, she kept reminding her daughter that she might not have been born. Elizabeth, born in Shanghai, was traumatized as a child as she watched the cruelty and brutality of the Imperial Japanese army in Manila, The Philippines. It was there she learned to deal with the fact that the man she called “Dad” was her stepfather. Her mother, a socialite, spent little time with her daughter who was reared by her beloved amah, Ah Woo. Elizabeth, the “good” Chinese daughter - obedient, loyal and gracious, true to her Chinese tradition and Catholic upbringing - dreamed of closer relationship with her mother and stepfather. Caught between two worlds - her Chinese upbringing and adjusting to life in the U.S. when the family moved to California, she searched for her true self and personal identity in the shadow of her strong-willed, dominant mother. In spite of the inevitable tensions that marked the relationship, she served as her mother’s right hand, helping to raise her five younger siblings and to manage the household. All of us search, at one time or another in our lives, for the assurance of love and acceptance from loved ones, whether parents, spouse, children or friends. As Elizabeth raised her own family in the U.S. which includes two sons and their spouses, seven grandchildren and a husband of great renown in the field of bioengineering, she kept looking for the something that was “missing” in her life. Finally she found it in Christian Meditation - the peace that serves to bridge the gap between her mother and herself and other relationships in her life. During her Mom’s waning years, they came to something of a reconciliation. Elizabeth found peace and a deeper integration of her life experiences through contemplative prayer - a form of communion with the transcendent taking place in total silence and stillness.