China Dolls

Michelle Yu and Blossom Kan

Young professional women have to work hard to get ahead in New York City. When you're Chinese with classic petite Asian looks, it adds another element of difficulty. M.J. Wynn, Alex Kwan, and Lin Cho are close friends and are very different. They are in their later 20's and working hard in their professions. M.J. is a sports reviewer. Alex is a lawyer. Lin is a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch.

At the Chinese New Year Lin's mother takes the three women to a Chinese fortune teller to learn what is ahead of them for the next year. Each are told changes are coming in their lives that will lead them to their deepest wishes.

M.J. works for a small sporting magazine publisher. She knows her stuff. She dresses casually and lives the same way. Her dream is to be the first Asian woman on ESPN. She wants to move from writing to on screen reporting. She makes a tape and starts handing it around. The guys in her office and Jagger from Sporting News down the hall tease her, help her, and push her. Then Kevin returns to her life. M.J. hadn't seen him since high school when the golden god had broken up with her. They accidentally meet again. Maybe old dreams do come true after all.

Alex is a hard working, no nonsense lawyer. She is the voice of reason of the three women. She had fallen in love in college with a guy who had been her best college friend throughout school. He then returned to San Francisco and his clinging girlfriend. After that Alex learns to depend on herself. She doesn't take risks except the calculated ones her work demands. She knows her "successful" life is stagnating. It would be nice to meet someone - someone who she could share her life. Lin finally convinces Alex to try speed dating. What the heck - what would it hurt?

Lin is the romantic. She takes high flying risks for her clients all the time, usually making them money. She had been in a serious relationship with Stephen for many years, but broke it off about a year earlier because he was unexciting. She wanted romance and was a sucker for it. Stephen was perfect in her mother's eyes, who keeps inviting him to family get togethers. Lin, meanwhile, has this new partner at Merrill Lynch, Drew, who seems perfect for her in her eyes. Now she has to convince Drew and her mother that she's right.

China Dolls is fun, amusing Chinese American chick lit. These three women fit right in with Sophie Kinsella's characters. Michelle Yu and Blossom Kan probably grew up in this culture, so are able to portray it extremely well (write what you know...). Yu is a sports reporter and Kan is a lawyer, so they also understand how a Chinese woman has to interest with the corporate culture of their professions, bringing those aspects into this book.

The reader is given a glimpse into New York City's Chinese culture in China Dolls. These women are not only pressured in their jobs but by their families. The families expect them to excel in all areas of their lives and should also be getting married and producing good Chinese grandbabies. Then there are their foods - red bean puffs, sticky rice with chicken wrapped in bamboo leaves, coconut butter toast and bubble tea. I've had bubble tea, but other than that I obviously go to the wrong Chinese restaurants - I've missed the others. Throughout the book Yu and Kan show their love of their cultural food in little ways, attracting the reader's attention almost without noticing.

M.J., Alex, and Lin are caught up in chick lit east meets west. And it works well. Enjoy China Dolls.

Notice:  Suggestive dialogue or situations