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

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For the ruse to work, the transformation must take place under the skin, in all the corners of myself that I have not yet even come to understand. Daiyu is also dragged into the sex trade and this form of abuse is focused on in the beginning half of the book. Heinous acts against Chinese immigrants when white men took the law in their own hands are at the center of this novel. But when she is kidnapped and forced across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Jenny Tinghui Zhang is a fresh and necessary voice, with a powerful prose subverting the idea of novels of the Wild West and delivering a wonderful and dynamic heroine for us to follow and root for.

Superbly and imaginatively written, the narrative follows a young Chinese woman in the late 1800s who is kidnapped and brought to the US. A surreal and sprawling story…Historical fiction that lays bare the human tragedy behind the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act. In the time it takes for me to approach, grab the fish farthest from her, and sprint away, the woman would barely be able to rise to her feet. It’s one your emotions will force you to hold on to as Zhang’s poetic prose unravels a story of reclamation—even though there’s no justice, no closure, no happiness at the end. She recognizes what she sees in all the urchins who dare slide into the fish market, and before I can look away, she is in front of me, body heaving.Four Treasures of the Sky tells the story of Daiyu, who is brought to America against her will and forced to hide who she is even as she grows into her true self. with a *superb* supporting cast of characters), as she comes of age under devastating circumstances. With unforgettable characters, resiliency, and poetic lyricism, Jenny Tinghui Zhang takes her readers on an unforgettable adventure. You are best going into this with a little information as possible but it is certainly an eye opener. All of which is happening during a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place restricting immigration from China to the United States.

The prides and prejudices of the Old West blaze to life in Zhang’s propulsive, fable-like novel…Zhang skillfully embellishes her novel with Chinese characters, suggesting that language is our most potent weapon against oppression. Similar read to A Thousand Splendid Suns - if you enjoyed that you will quickly get engrossed in the heart-breaking tale. The protagonists of all the books that I read going forward are at a disadvantage: I will be comparing them to Lin Daiyu and her indelible spirit for years to come…This novel will stay with you long after you finish reading it. The story definitely doesn't shy away from violence and sensitive topics, including sexual assault, so if you are triggered and/or would prefer not to read about these topics, you should take that into consideration. To say Four Treasures of the Sky is unflinching doesn’t do justice to the miraculous way in which Jenny Tinghui Zhang paints a neglected chapter in American history with sharp and devastating brushstrokes.

She is inhabited by a tragic ghost with the same name, while she inhabits a series of false names--Feng, Peony, and Jacob--each one demanding that she disguise the self that her loving parents named Daiyu. The inkstone asks for destruction before creation,’ Daiyu tells us, ‘ You must first destroy yourself, grind yourself into a paste, before becoming a work of art. Her personal struggles are shadowed by sexual violence and the ongoing threat of sexual assault for much of the book, as well as the specter of the Chinese exclusion act and increasing anti-Chinese sentiment and violence. Her troubles begin with her name; Daiyu’s eponym is Lin Daiyu, a tragic figure of legend who dies spitting blood after the family of her beloved tricks him into marrying someone else.

Lots of description about violence towards Chinese in the 19th century US without much context or some elaboration about the reasons. The spirit acts as a materialisation of what our heroine believed was only her, of what she believed was now only hers to suffer through: the cruel fate married to this name. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Zhang’s transporting story of perseverance in the face of shocking injustice resonates across cultures, and also feels sadly relevant to today’s world. It is here that the ‘timely’ historical fiction interspersed with Chinese mythology makes space for magical realism when Daiyu’s namesake appears as a ghost.But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Jenny is a prose editor at Adroit Journal and has written nonfiction for The Cut, Bustle, Huffington Post, and HelloGiggles; her fiction has appeared in Ninth Letter, Passages North, CALYX, The Rumpus, and more.

But this is just the beginning of a journey that sends her across an ocean to San Francisco and the lawless American west.In the story, Lin Daiyu is orphaned and when, due to trickery, she witnesses her love marry another woman she dies, and her frequent visitations during times of difficulty become a reminder to the real Daiyu to be strong and not allow herself to be destroyed. A historical signpost on a road in Idaho denoting a vigilante hanging was the inspiration for this magnificent novel. Before being sold to a madam who steps through a crowd of men “like wind cutting through hanging sheets,” Daiyu crouches among a collection of naked, frightened girls who remind her of visiting the fish market in Zhifu: “I and many others walked around each vendor, gazing hungrily at the fish, minds already racing forward to what it would taste like, how long it would take to scale, whether or not the meat was good, whether the eyeballs would pop in our mouths, how buttery the brain would taste, how soft the bones would be, soft enough to break between our teeth and leave in a wet pile on the table. When disaster strikes and she is kidnapped, she is dispatched to San Francisco and into a new world of suffering and growth. Daiyu, a young Chinese girl endures losses she doesn’t understand, is forced to leave her home in Zhifu, China in 1882 to stay safe and survive.