The most extraordinary family you’ve never heard of.
Born to Chinese immigrant parents, the Moy siblings grew up in an America that questioned their citizenship and denied their equality. Sophisticated and self-consciously modern, they challenged limitations and stereotypes in the United States and sought new opportunities in China’s tumultuous republic. Sometimes the risks they took paid off, but their occasional recklessness also led to infidelity, divorce, bankruptcy, and worse. Those in China faced pressure to collaborate with Japanese occupiers, making choices that had serious consequences for their siblings in the United States.
Charlotte Brooks’s gripping tale follows the family back and forth across the Pacific and through two world wars, China’s Nationalist and Communist revolutions, and the Cold War—events that the siblings and their spouses helped shape. The Moys’ incredible story offers a kaleidoscopic view of an entire generation’s struggle for acceptance and belonging.
Charlotte Brooks is Professor of History at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is author of American Exodus, Between Mao and McCarthy, and Alien Neighbors, Foreign Friends.
"Charlotte Brooks has written an incredible history that defies genres. She uses the biography of one nearly forgotten family to deepen our understanding of the first generation of Chinese Americans. Sometimes literally caught between the United States and China, American and Chinese identities and nationalities, the Moy siblings weathered the many injustices of racial discrimination in the United States and the tumult of war in China. The story spans generations and borders and seamlessly integrates the captivating personal lives of the Moys into the larger worlds of New York and China that they helped to transform."—Erika Lee, author of The Making of Asian America: A History
"The Moys of New York and Shanghai is an extraordinary family saga of the twentieth century. Six middle-class Chinese American siblings defied stereotypes but in different ways—in business and in politics, on both sides of the Pacific, and on both sides of World War II and the Chinese revolution. Brooks brings this family to life with an engaging narrative based on deep research in Chinese- and English-language sources. This is Chinese American history never before told."—Mae Ngai, author of The Chinese Question: The Gold Rushes and Global Politics
“Meticulously researched, well-written, and illuminating. Brooks's use of archival collections, oral histories, interviews, Chinese-language newspapers and magazines, and other pertinent sources all contribute to her unique ability to tell histories that few others can. Brooks is one of the best historians of the transpacific Chinese American experience."—K. Scott Wong, author of Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War
392 pp.6 x 9Illus: one 8-page and one 16-page insert; with 40 b/w images
9780520409552$29.95|£25.00Hardcover
Mar 2026