In Conversation: Authors May-lee Chai and Belinda Tang

On November 2nd, we had the privilege to hear AAPI authors May-lee Chai and Belinda Huijuan Tang discuss their work and background. May-lee Chai’s collection of short stories, Useful Phrases for Immigrants, won the American Book Award. Her latest collection of short stories, Tomorrow in Shanghai: Stories, deftly explores cultural complexities in China and the Chinese diaspora in America through a series of short stories that take the reader to rural China, middle America, France, and even a future Chinese colony on Mars. Belinda H. Tang’s debut novel A Map for the Missing follows the story of a Chinese-born American assistant professor who returns to his home village after receiving news that his father is missing and tackles the meaning of family and home against the historical backdrop of post-Cultural Revolution China. Included below is the full conversation between the two authors. We hope you enjoy their illuminating conversation as much as we did!