Best-selling author decries racism, xenophobia after Larchmont book club event experience

Qian Julie Wang attended a Larchmont luncheon to promote her best-selling memoir about hardships she experienced growing up as an undocumented Chinese immigrant.

In a series of viral social media posts, Wang said she didn't expect that the event, occurring Dec. 10, would leave her with the same feelings of being targeted by racism and xenophobia.

Wang, a New York attorney who recently published her first book, "Beautiful Country," revealed disturbing details that unfolded at the Woman's Club of Larchmont book program alongside two authors at the Orienta Beach Club in Mamaroneck. Her account has sparked conversations about what authors of color endure at book events.

Her book, which reached third on the New York Times' nonfiction best-sellers list, recounts moving from China at 7 years old and living undocumented for five years in New York. It's received acclaim from the Times and National Public Radio. On Wednesday, Barack Obama included it as one of his favorite books of 2021.

“I just felt like I was that little girl again,” Wang, who went on to attend Yale Law School, told the Journal News/lohud. “Like that little girl who was called illegal, who was treated like (expletive). And like she didn’t matter.”

At the $60-a-plate luncheon, Wang experienced a series of incidents that would leave her in tears, recalling what other authors of color warned her about when speaking in front of primarily white audiences. The dining room event had more than 100 people in attendance.

Wang said that multiple times, the moderator mispronounced her name (phonetically spelled on her website, “Chien Joolee Wong”); she was questioned about how she received her education (she and one author both went to Yale, but only she was questioned); and her speech was interrupted by dessert service that attendees said wasn't experienced by the other authors, both of whom are white.

In a statement Monday, the Woman's Club said it was unfortunate that Wang felt mistreated at the event.

The Journal News/lohud interviewed six people in attendance, and reviewed video recordings of the event.

After the main event, Wang said the affronts continued during book signings afterward. Wang said attendees told her their manicurist was Asian and that their sons dated Asian women.

At the end, Wang said, a woman asked her what “illegals” griped about. She questioned why Wang is always complaining about America, and Wang should instead feel lucky to be in the country.

“My speech was about how America made me feel small, erased. My book was about how America made me feel small, erased,” Wang tweeted after the event. “And today, America prevailed yet again.”

Wang’s tweet thread received over 9,000 retweets and 45,000 likes as of Dec. 16. Another 17,000 liked her Instagram post.

On Twitter, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, a writer and photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden, responded that authors, especially women, of color deserve better. 

"I recognized similar situations, where Black authors/creatives still have to justify our presence in a space, even when our work already spoke enough on our behalf to bring us into those spaces," Åkerström, who is Nigerian American, said in an email.

Alexander Chee, a Korean American author who identifies as queer, can recount instances at literary festivals or readings that Wang described. 

"It's usually a scenario where I'm being treated differently than the white writers and the straight writers," he said. "I had to do all these things to get their attention, their invitation. And now that I'm there, I'm doing the event, they're holding it against me."

On Monday, Dorothy Rainier, president of the Woman’s Club of Larchmont, said in a statement that Wang gave a very moving and warmly received talk. Wang received more questions than the other two authors, Rainier added.  

“It is unfortunate that Ms. Wang felt mistreated at our meeting, as evidenced by her social media messages,” Rainier said, expressing regret for the moderator mispronouncing her name and Wang feeling waiters intruded on her speech. If anyone in attendance said anything inappropriate to Wang, Rainier added, the Woman’s Club “would certainly disapprove."

“Ms. Wang’s message was an important one, and we all benefited from hearing her moving story,” Rainier said.

The Woman's Club wasn’t available for follow-up questions from the Journal News/lohud.

Wang's publicist booked her for the event after being invited by Andersons Larchmont, an independent bookstore in the village. In an Instagram story, the store apologized to Wang and said it didn’t host the event but sold books there.

Jennifer Siegel, the store’s book buyer who read an advanced copy of “Beautiful Country,” supported Wang.

“We believe everything she said,” Siegel said. “We have no doubt.”

In an email, Paulina Bren, one of the two other authors, said she didn't know about the incidents, as she left early. The other author, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro, declined to comment for this story.

"I will say I am utterly appalled by what she had to endure on that signing line," Bren wrote.

Others inside the Orienta room described a series of uncomfortable comments and questions directed to Wang.

“As an Asian American person, it was a horrifying experience,” said Kim Snyder, a New Rochelle resident who attended the event with her partner after reading Wang’s book.

Snyder recalled racism she experienced growing up half Chinese in a white Pennsylvania community. She said she and Wang were among the only people of color in the room besides the waiters.

“The insane irony is she was talking about this very thing up there," Snyder said regarding Wang's memoir. "About being dismissed, about being invisible, and her journey to writing this story.”

Laurie Camiel attended Wang’s speech with her sister Barbara Gottlieb, Wang’s mother-in-law. When Wang went to speak, she was introduced in relation to Gottlieb, a Larchmont resident who isn't a Woman's Club member, and not for her accolades.

Camiel, an event planner for over 30 years, saw a disorganized luncheon, but she also questioned the treatment toward people of color at such events.

“It’s just exactly we’re talking about today,” she said, pointing to racial justice protests. “In so many ways, we’re still having the same conversation.”

On Saturday, the day after the event, Wang attended the opening of Yu and Me Books, New York's first Asian American woman-owned café and bookstore, in Manhattan’s Chinatown. 

The shop is across the street from the Columbus Park playground Wang played in as a child. She took the F subway train from Brooklyn to school in Chinatown.

She signed the shop's stock of her memoir. The store welcomed her, something she wished she had experienced growing up.

“It was really energizing,” she said. "And it was beautiful.”

Eduardo Cuevas covers diversity, equity and inclusion in Westchester and Rockland counties. He can be reached at EMCuevas1@lohud.com and followed on Twitter @eduardomcuevas.