Christina Chiu: The Trials of an Asian-American Fashion Designer

“As a young woman and a child of immigrants, Amy Wong discovers that she will do anything to have and to create exquisite things. But after she falls in love with the celebrated and demanding fashion mogul Jeff Jones, marriage and motherhood threaten to snuff out her radiant gifts as a designer.”  Excerpt from Beauty

Acclaimed novelist and fashion designer Christina Chiu delivers yet another heart-wrenching novel, using her work to explore often taboo themes such as sexuality, passion, and life through the perspective of an Asian American woman. The new novel, Beauty, features a young Asian-American woman facing the trials of life, all while handling mounting expectations from her family.

Chiu has successfully written Troublemaker and Other Saints, as well as featured in numerous publications such as Tin House, The New Guard Literary Review, Washington Square, The MacGuffin, and elsewhere. Having studied creative writing at Columbia whilst pursuing her MFA, Chiu has worked in the fashion industry as a shoe designer before choosing to pursue the literary arts. Her novel, Troublemaker, has won the Asian American Literary Award and was chosen for the Alternate Section of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Her experience working in the fashion industry has helped pave the way for the development of her protagonist, Amy Wong, in Beauty.

Declared by The Millions as one of the most anticipated novels of 2020, Beauty combines an intricate plotline, complex characters, and magnetic storytelling to capture the essence of the life of an upcoming Asian-American fashion designer in New York City. Amy Wong seemingly has it all; she is young, ambitious, and beautiful. Behind closed doors, however, she finds that her choices often fall short of her traditional family's expectations when it comes to marriage and motherhood. Beauty follows Amy as she must learn to confront her own limitations to succeed as the designer and person she wants to be.

“With sly wit and a sure hand Chiu embroiders the life of a female fashion designer whose sexuality, ambition and creative vision make the traditional roles of perfect daughter, wife, and mother, let’s say, a challenging fit. Unapologetically honest and compulsively readable.” —Elissa Schappell, author of Blueprint for Building Better Girls, Co-founder of Tin House, and Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair