Not Your China Doll Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards

& other fall updates

Hello, friends. I hope you’re taking some time to slow down, be around people you love, and enjoy the small things in life—especially in the wake of last week’s election and the uncertainty many of us are feeling because of it.

In sunnier news, I’m thrilled to announce that Not Your China Doll has been nominated for this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards in History & Biography! Every year, this honor is bestowed on a mere 20 books in each category, which means NYCD is sitting pretty beside some of 2024’s heavy hitters like Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger, Karen Abbott’s Eden Undone, Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest, and Yuval Noah Harari’s Nexus, just to name a few. 

It’s worth noting, I’m the only Asian American author nominated in the category and the only author writing primarily about an Asian American subject. Round one voting is open now and I’d be grateful for your vote. Cast your ballot for Not Your China Doll here by November 24. 

The end of September and early October saw a whirlwind of activity for the book. Although I’ve been home for a month now, it feels like it was only a few days ago that I was living out of a suitcase and making my way through the Pacific Northwest. Here are a few highlights from my travels.

In September, I flew back to L.A. for the Chinese American Museum’s 28th Annual Historymakers Awards Gala and had the honor of sitting at Anna Wong's table. Here we are posing for a photo-op with L.A.’s Miss Chinatown court, from left to right: Michelle Situ, Anna Wong, me, Emilie Salisbury (my mom), Saerlaith Anying Dunn, and Ashley Yao. At right, each guest went home with an Anna May Wong quarter in these spiffy commemorative boxes.

There is actually a precedent for Gee family members appearing in pictures with Miss Chinatowns. Here my great-grandfather Gee Kee Ward is photographed with the Miss Chinatown queen in the early 1950s. The little girl next to him is my mother, Emilie.

The rest of the gala was spent hobnobbing with these fine folks, each of whom have a personal connection to Anna May Wong. At left: Rachel O’Donnell, Ailsa Chang, Trevor Zhou, Anna Wong, me, and Karie Bible. At right: me and writer friend Aimee Liu.

The next weekend I was off to Lewes, Delaware, for the History Book Festival. It was an honor and a delight getting to talk about Anna May Wong to such engaged readers and to meet so many fellow authors. At left, signing books at HBF headquarters. At right, a classroom visit at Sussex Technical High School.

I channeled my inner Anna May Wong in this retro cheongsam while giving my talk at the Lewes Public Library. Photos courtesy of my plucky author ambassador, Marylinda Maddi, who shepherded me around Lewes for the weekend.

A few days later I boarded a plane for Vancouver, where I did a flurry of events at the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Chinese Museum. Kindred spirit Mila Zuo, whose work focuses on cinematic representations of Asian women, moderated my UBC event, while friend and scholar Mary Chapman moderated at CCM, pictured above. You might recall Mary’s name from the Winnifred Eaton conference I attended two summers ago; she’s currently working on a book about the fascinating Eaton family.

It was especially fitting to speak about Anna May’s life, most of which was lived under the Chinese Exclusion era in the U.S., in the room housing CCM’s exhibition on Canada’s Chinese Exclusion Act. Inspired by the U.S., Canada instituted its own exclusion laws in 1923.

Also on view at the Chinese Canadian Museum

From Vancouver, I was whisked away quite literally on a Helijet helicopter to Victoria, courtesy of the Jade Phoenix Club. The views of Vancouver and the Gulf Islands as we ascended into the clouds were breathtaking. I don’t know if I’ll ever have another travel experience quite like that one!

Charlayne Thornton-Joe, the absolute hostess with the mostess, gave me the ultimate 24-hour tour of Victoria. We started by driving around the island and taking in the beautiful views of the ocean. One of our stops included the oldest Chinese cemetery in Canada, pictured here, where several of Charlayne’s relatives are buried.

Charlayne and a Jade Phoenix volunteer at the books table—all of which sold out by the end of the night!

With nearly 200 people in attendance, the Jade Phoenix Club is the biggest event I’ve done since my book tour began in March. The club only selects one book a year, so it was truly an honor to be their guest for 2024.

Me and the ladies of Jade Phoenix

After Victoria, I hopped on a short flight to Seattle and crisscrossed the state by car for several days. I have to admit, one of the hardest things about being on book tour is remembering to take photos! I did a terrible job of that, so I’ve got nothing to show for my events at Grand Illusion Cinema in Seattle and Western Washington University in Bellingham—though I can report that they were lovely. Thank god my friend Amy Bates snapped this one of me post-screening at Olympia Film Society or I’d be completely empty-handed!

From Olympia, I drove south to Portland, Oregon. What you see here is me forgetting once again to take photos of my event at Broadway Books. That night I reunited with Jyothi Natarajan, who edited my essay “Growing Up in the 626” many years ago for AAWW’s The Margins. She was such a wonderful moderator. I’m sad I didn’t take a picture of the two of us! But I did snap a picture of her Anime Wong tote. Go figure.

Darby Li Po Price gave me an effusive introduction to a packed house at the Portland Chinatown Museum. It felt like we could have kept talking about Anna May Wong for hours. Darby, who is a regular docent at the museum, is also a mixed race Asian like me; it was a pleasure getting to know him and his work in the process of doing this event, including this documentary he directed about mixed race comedians.

The best part of the trip had to be ending in Portland where I got to spend some quality time with my cousin Clare, her young son Isaac, and my aunt Jane. (Clare was very pregnant when this photo was taken and has since given birth to a healthy baby girl!) We went out to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island, picked out our decorative gourds, drank hot apple cider, and stuffed our faces with kettle corn and apple cider donuts. It was glorious!

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Upcoming Events

I’m doing a couple more events before the end of the year and would love to see you at one of them.

This Sunday, November 17, 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET, I’ll be talking about my path to becoming a writer and giving a presentation on Anna May Wong’s life and career for Kyros AI. This virtual event is free and open to the public. Register here.

On Thursday, November 21, 7 pm, I’ll be at Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, New Jersey, co-hosted by OCA-NJ & AAPI-NJ, in conversation with Laura Lee. Learn more here.