by Bo Wang
First published 2026
In 1834, Afong Moy arrives in New York as human cargo, sold by her mother in Canton to merchants who exhibit her as a curiosity. Americans pay to stare at her bound feet and foreign customs while she sits on display like an artifact. She accumulates names as she moves between owners: Little Sparrow from her mother, Julia from a captain's wife, China from fellow exhibits at P.T. Barnum's museum. Each person who controls her gives her a different identity, but her real name disappears into history. The story follows her journey from the trading ports of Canton through the spectacle of Barnum's American Museum to the bustling streets of Gold Rush San Francisco. As she passes from hand to hand, she endures the weight of being seen as an object rather than a person. Only when she reaches San Francisco's Chinatown does she begin to reclaim her own voice and story, finally seeing herself through her own eyes rather than the gaze of others.
Genres: drama, american-fiction, historical-fiction, social-issues, biographical-fiction, asian-american
Vibes: empowering, haunting, intimate, poignant, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, overcoming-objectification, reclaiming-identity
Setting: Canton, New York, San Francisco, Chinatown, American Museum
Period: 1834, 19th century, Gold Rush era
384 pages · Hardcover · HarperVia
Content warnings: abuse, racism, sexism, trafficking