My Rating: 4.5 stars
Janie Chang's latest novel is a beautifully written story about a little-known piece of history: the hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers brought to Europe during the Great War. These contracted workers — part of the Chinese Labor Corps (CLC) — didn't fight in the war directly, yet they were crucial in keeping the "machinery of war" running through their efforts in maintaining and rebuilding equipment such as tanks and weaponry, clearing out trenches, loading provisions onto boats to ship out to soldiers, etc. — even after the war, they played important roles in helping to clean up the battlefields and, in many instances, restore land that was taken during the war to its original use. Oftentimes, they were also tasked with doing soul-destroying work such as clearing out decomposing corpses of humans and animals. The commanding officers overseeing these workers were usually non-Chinese military personnel and misunderstandings were common due to lack of access to translators — many of the workers were either treated poorly or subject to harsh working conditions, especially the ones from the peasant class who were largely uneducated and illiterate, with little to no understanding of the local language and culture, so they couldn't relay their grievances or fight for their rights. What's worse is that, later on, the contributions of these workers were largely wiped from the history books, with very little information about their efforts available even now. Chang did a great job bringing this obscure history to light, with research that was both meticulous as well as intricate. The author's note that detailed some of this research definitely should not be missed!
As far as the narrative goes, the story alternates between the two main female protagonists: Camille, a Frenchwoman from an aristocratic family fallen on hard times, who tries desperately to escape from an abusive marriage; and Pauline, the illegitimate daughter of a traditional Chinese family who is sent to France with her uncle and cousin to take care of the family's antiques store — two women who live very different lives, yet whose paths end up intersecting in a tremendous way. I loved nearly all the characters in this story, but without a doubt, I resonated with Pauline the most. In a culture where losing face was worse than death and being unfilial was an unforgivable sin subject to grave condemnation, Pauline's life had already been predetermined for her, and as a daughter (especially an illegitimate one), the only choice she had was to obey. But yet, those circumstances didn't stop her from trying to rise above her fate, which in itself, was hugely admirable. Though my own family background is quite different from Pauline's, the cultural obligations and conventions that she was bound by were more than familiar to me — which is why I couldn't help rooting for her character more than Camille's, even though overall, I was deeply invested in both women's stories.
This was my first historical fiction novel of 2023 and I'm so glad I got to start off with a book I loved, especially with this particular genre being one of my absolute favorites. I had actually read Janie Chang's previous novel The Library of Legends back when it came out and while I appreciated the obscure history depicted in that story as well, I felt it leaned too much into the fantasy and romance elements at the expense of the historical portion. This newest work, The Porcelain Moon, is in an entirely different vein in my opinion, as it focused more on the historical and cultural elements and balanced both in a way that flowed seamlessly.
Janie Chang has two backlist titles that I'm interested in but haven't read yet — I'm hoping I will get a chance to read them some time soon. What has me most excited though, is hearing that she is co-authoring a new book with Kate Quinn (one of my favorite historical fiction authors), which is scheduled for publication later this year (in the Fall) — I can't wait to read it!!
Received ARC from William Morrow via NetGalley.
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