They say that an unhappy childhood is a writer's capital. Mah spoke at UC Davis on Wednesday night, the first in a series of women writers invited by the Women's Resources and Research Center to raise money for the Davis Community Clinic's Teen Outreach Program.
China is a country filled with stories of displaced families, poverty and death.
First, she wrote it. That in itself is an accomplishment, considering her upbringing. I felt worthless and ugly and hoped only to go unnoticed. Second, her family was immensely rich and occupied a powerful position in society first in Shanghai, later in Hong Kong. After Mah won a writing contest at age 14 she summoned the nerve to ask her father to send her to a university.