NPR radio’s (Morning Edition Saturday) Scott Simon speaks
1/11/2020 with author Meng Jin about her debut novel Little Gods, about a
17-year-old whose journey to China reveals the life of her mother, a former
physicist who died in America. Author was born in China and immigrated to US at
age 5. Now lives in San Francisco.
INTERVIEWER SCOTT SIMON: “You
observe, at one point, people born in China who spend most of their lives
outside of China begin to carry themselves differently.”
AUTHOR MENG JIN: “I have observed
that. I mean, I've observed it when I go back to China. Often people will ask
me, oh, are you Japanese? Do you live in Hong Kong? Are you from Hong Kong? And
more often now they guess that I am raised in America because that's more and
more common now.”
INTERVIEWER SCOTT SIMON: “I guess
the Overseas Chinese, is the term I've heard, have - just carry themselves
differently after a while?”
AUTHOR MENG JIN: “Well, I think
that, you know, place changes you. You know, every person constructs him or
herself from the materials that are available to them. And if your context is
largely American because you've spent much of your life in America, then it's
going to change the way you see yourself. But also, it's going to change the
way you hold yourself and the way other people see you.”
