Hua, Vanessa

"On the eve of China's Cultural Revolution and her sixteenth birthday, Mei dreams of becoming a model revolutionary. When the Communist Party recruits girls for a mysterious duty in the capital, she seizes the opportunity to escape her impoverished village. It is only when Mei arrives at the Chairman's opulent residence--a forbidden city unto itself--that she learns that the girls' job is to dance with the Party elites. Ambitious and whip-smart, Mei makes a beeline toward the Chairman. Mei gradually separates from the other recruits to become the Chairman's confidante--and paramour. As he fends off political rivals, Mei faces down schemers from the dance troupe who will stop at nothing to take her place, as well as the Chairman's imperious wife, who has schemes of her own. When the Chairman finally gives Mei a political mission, she seizes it with fervor, but the brutality of this latest stage of the revolution makes her begin to doubt all the certainties she has held so dear. Forbidden City is an epic yet intimate portrayal of one of the world's most powerful and least understood leaders during the most turbulent period of modern Chinese history"--Provided by publisher.

Scarlett Chen is far from her native China, when she gets shipped off to America in order to give birth on American soil. The father wants every advantage for his son and U.S. citizenship will give him that. But when a new sonogram reveals the unexpected, Scarlett runs away to San Francisco's Chinatown with a stowaway, desperately trying to build her own future.

Scarlett Chen used to work in a factory in her native China, where she fell in love with Boss Yeung. Now, Scarlett is in America, pregnant with Boss Yeung's son--Boss Yeung is overjoyed to finally have a son, even though Scarlett is not his wife--which if born on American soil will become an American citizen and open up new doors for him and his family. Scarlett goes to a secret maternity home in Los Angeles where she meets Daisy, a teenager and fellow unwed mother. When Scarlett gets an ultrasound and finds out something shocking, she hijacks a van, and she and Daisy go on a cross-country trip to escape.