Who's Irish? Gish Jen Biography

Lillian “Gish” Jen is a second generation Chinese-American, her parents immigrating from China in the 1940’s and moving to Long Island, New York where she was raised in the Jewish community of Scarsdale. Growing up with 4 siblings (3 brothers and 1 sister), Gish was the only one to not pursue a career in business or medicine. Entering Harvard University as a pre-med or pre-law major, she changed her mind and ended up graduating with a BA in English, attending Stanford Business School for only one year thereafter, where she ended up dropping out to attend the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she earned her Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) in fiction. Over the course of her writing career, Gish has written five novels: Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, Tiger Writing, World and Town, and The Love Wife. Of these five novels, four of them are fiction, her only non-fiction novel being her most recent, Tiger Writing. This book, published in March 2013, is about the differences in eastern and western culture, and how they have a large effect on both art and literature. Even though this piece of literature is non-fiction, all of her novels tend to focus or incorporate the same subject- Chinese American families. Her novel Mona in the Promised Land is about a Chinese American adolescent converting to Judaism, and the struggles she faces when doing so. The Love Wife is about yet another Chinese American family with interracial parents along with biological and adopted children, and tells the story of when another child is adopted into the family, that child just happening to be Chinese, and how she adjusts to life in the Carnegie family. World and Town is her novel published in 2010 that tells the story of a Chinese American widow and how she, along with a family of Cambodian immigrants, faces adversity when it comes to adjusting to the American lifestyle, putting emphasis on immigration, religion, and globalization, while also touching on the major effects of 9/11. Typical American is her first published novel, being published in 1991 and most directly reflecting her family’s struggles when it comes to moving to America. This novel highlights one Chinese immigrants journey from China to his successful adjustment to life in America, becoming a millionaire after moving to this new and very foreign country.  Now living in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two children, Gish continues to write short stories, such as the one we are presenting, Who’s Irish?, along with many others. She has had a large influence on Chinese American writing, having many of her short stories featured in “The Best American Short Stories” as well as receiving many awards for her work in fiction.