success in finally overcoming anorexia, with which
she was afflicted for eight years beginning at the
age of 13, to the process of writing her book. In-
deed her experience of writing about her eventu-
ally successful battles with anorexia led Liu to a
decade-long career as a coauthor of nonfiction
self-help books. Among her works from that pe-
riod are Codependency Conspiracy, False Love and
Other Romantic Illusions and Success Trap (all with
Dr. Stan J. Katz).
Liu was moved to write her first novel, Face, by
the Tiananmen Square massacre of prodemocracy
students and workers by the Chinese government
in 1989. Liu’s identification with the students
who assembled and died in the square forced her
to examine her personal views as a woman of
mixed heritage. Face reflected the process of that
examination.
The novel centers on the character of Maibelle
Chung, who, much like Liu herself, comes from a
mixed Euro-American and Chinese background
but has only come to examine her Chinese heri-
tage later in life. A series of disturbing nightmares
leads Chung to delve into family secrets covering
three generations. The search for answers leads her
from New York’s Chinatown to imperial China.
The novel addresses themes such as interracial
marriage and the complexities of biracial identity
as well as issues of community and heritage as ex-
perienced by multiracial children.
Liu returns to similar themes in her second
novel, Cloud Mountain, a work that also addresses
interracial marriage. This story, based on the re-
lationship between the author’s grandparents,
Ch’eng-yu Liu and Jennie Ella Trecott, deals with
the overt and violent racism in California under
the antimiscegenation laws. Even after the protag-
onists move to Shanghai, they find that people’s
interactions with them are shaped by sharp preju-
dices against interracial marriages.
Liu’s next novel, Flash House, departs from
these themes somewhat to present a story of love
and survival in India and China during World
War II. At the same time, in telling the story of
a 10-year-old girl, Kamla, who is rescued from a
brothel in New Delhi by an American woman, Liu
further develops her concerns with relationships
and family history.
In addition to her novels, Liu has deployed her
writing talents as an ardent defender of human
rights and civil liberties. A former president of
PEN-USA West, Liu has worked in defense of
imprisoned writers. When the Nigerian novelist
Akinwumi Adesokan was arrested and imprisoned
without charges and was denied communication
with the outside world, Liu led a PEN campaign to
locate his whereabouts. Following the publication
in a Nigerian newspaper of an article written by
Liu on his behalf, Adesokan was released.
Since the terrorist attacks on New York on Sep-
tember 11, 2001, Liu has devoted time to writing
magazine articles that express her concerns over
the imposed patriotism and curbs on personal
liberties that have marked recent U.S. domestic
policy. Liu has stated her opposition to the U.S. Pa-
triot Act, which allows the government to conduct
surveillance on U.S. citizens even in the absence of
probable cause. She has also spoken against the de-
portation and/or detention of individuals without
charge or trial. In opposition to mandatory flag-
waving, Liu argues that the country’s promise can
be found in the courageous and compassionate ex-
ample set by families of 9/11 victims, who visited
civilian victims of the bombing of Afghanistan and
who spoke out against the war in Iraq.
Jeff ShantzLoh, Sandra Tsing (1962– )
A native of Los Angeles, Loh is a writer, composer,
and performance artist who is best known in liter-
ary circles for her satirical essays on life in subur-
ban Southern California—DEPTH TAKES A HOLIDAY:
ESSAYS FROM LESSER LOS ANGELES (1996) and A YEAR
IN VAN NUYS (2001). She has written, performed,
and recorded in a number of media, including
stage, concert, film, television, and radio. Her ver-
satility makes categorization difficult, but Loh has
said she thinks of herself as a humorist and a sto-
ryteller; she favors the monologue. In its varying
genres, her work has captured the attention of a172 Loh, Sandra Tsing