2007. Shanghai. High school student Alva feels trapped in her public school—she's considered a foreigner because of her white mom & unknown Asian dad and desperately wants to move to the US to embrace her "Americanness." 1985. Qingdao. Lu Fang feels stuck in his clerk job until he meets a free-spirited American woman, forcing him to confront his past, present, and future.

I thoroughly enjoyed RERW. Lescure's portrayal of the sociocultural nuances around "foreigners," especially white people in a majority-Asian country, strikes a cord that I resonated deeply with as someone who had observed similar sentiments in Taiwan.

The parallels and juxtapositions between Alva and Lu Fang—starry-eyed with their admiration toward everything American—are unique angles I haven't read much in Asian literature. Coupled with the depiction of all the foreigners in RERW, some wealthy & some not, but all share a common trait—they are all middle-class in the US but hide their mediocrity behind their whiteness in China. Reading about the sh*t these expats get away with fills me with anger and reminds me of news & stories I've heard growing up in Taiwan, where I, too, have fallen under the spells of one's whiteness & western background.

Lescure pulls no punches in criticizing both China and the West. China for its blind acceptance of white expats' wrongdoings and its rigid political structure for Chinese citizens. And the West for using their whiteness to continue to take advantage of Chinese/Asian people.

RERW isn't without its flaws. I find myself more interested in Lu Fang's POV, while Alva's narrative sometimes veers whiney and bratty. Of course, this could just be me being an older & grumpy reader