a Chinese American. Her short stories and nov-
els explore acculturation, assimilation, and “out-
siderness,” even as she tries to write simply about
what it means to be an American: “My project, like
everybody’s, was to define myself as an Ameri-
can, to define myself irrespective of my parents”
(PBS interview). Keeping with her multicultural
style, Jen published a sequel to Typical American
called MONA IN THE PROMISED LAND (1996), nar-
rated by Ralph Chang’s daughter as she converts
to Judaism. In 1999 she published WHO’S IRISH?, a
collection of previously published and newly writ-
ten short fiction. Her third novel, The LOVE WIFE
(2004), is a shifting first-person narrative about
second-generation Chinese-American Carnegie
Wong and his family.
Jen’s novels have been short-listed for the Na-
tional Book Critics’ Circle Award, and routinely
named by national newspapers on “Best Books of
the Year” lists. The short story “Birthmates” from
Who’s Irish? appeared in John Updike’s Best Amer-
ican Short Stories of the Century. Jen acknowledges
the influence of Asian-American writers who be-
came popular in the 1970s and 1980s, but makes
clear that she had to fight against the “script” of
Asian-American experience popularized by MAX-
INE HONG KINGSTON, FRANK CHIN, and AMY TAN.
The labelling of these authors as “Asian American”
writers who write novels about “Asian American”
experience disturbs Jen, who points out that her
fiction encompasses many themes that are not
necessarily, not entirely, Asian American. For ex-
ample, her fiction commonly deals with abandon-
ment, adoption, motherhood, sexuality, greed,
religion, infidelity, and a host of other topics that
have more to do with being human than with
being American or Asian American. In an article
written for Time Asia, Jen describes identity, eth-
nicity, nationality, and race as individually chosen
rather than genetically determined, and more fluid
than constant:
“Does identity consist of a host of daily prac-
tices that change and can be changed, some
with great difficulty and some on a whim? It
does seem so to me. Call me American: I came
home from China [on a family trip] convincedthat we are made by culture, but that, everyday,
consciously or unconsciously, we make our
culture too.”Bibliography
Fedderson, R.C. “From Story to Novel and Back
Again: Gish Jen’s Developing Art of Short Fiction.”
In Creative and Critical Approaches to the Short
Story, edited by Noel Harold Kaylor, Jr., 349–58.
Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellon, 1997.
Jen, Gish. “Racial Profiling: Does Nature or Nurture
Decide Who You Are?” Time Asia: The Asian Jour-
ney Home 18–23 August 2003. Available online.
URL: http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/jour-
ney/china_gish_jen.html. Accessed September 28,
2006.
———. Interview with Bill Moyers. Becoming Ameri-
can: The Chinese Experience: A Bill Moyers Special.
Public Broadcasting Services. FFH Home Video,
2003.
Lee, Don. “About Gish Jen.” Ploughshares 26, no. 2
(2000): 217–222.
Lee, Rachel C. “Gish Jen.” In Words Matter: Conversa-
tions with Asian American Writers, edited by King-
Kok Cheung, 215–232. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 2000.
Matsukawa, Yuko. “MELUS Interview: Gish Jen.”
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Satz, Martha. “Writing About the Things That Are
Dangerous.” Southwest Review 78, no. 1 (1993):
132–140.
Amy Lillian ManningJhabvala, Ruth Prawer (1927– )
Screenwriter and novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
was born to Polish parents Marcus and Eleanora
Prawer on May 7, 1927, in Cologne, Germany. The
family immigrated to Britain in 1939, where she
switched from her segregated Jewish education
in German to English at the age of 12. Ten years
later she acquired British citizenship. She pursued
the study of English literature and received her
master’s degree in 1951 from London University.
Around the same time, she married Cyrus Jhab-136 Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer