Editing May-lee Chai

{{AAType
|Image=May-lee Chai.jpg
|Home page=http://uncw.edu/writers/facstaff/chai.html
|Type=Person
|Arts=Academic and Education, Academia/Research, Arts, Artists, Asian Heritage Month, Literature, Media, Film, Journalism
}}

May-lee Chai is an award-winning American author of Chinese and Anglo-Irish heritage.

Her novels include ''My Lucky Face'' [http://www.may-leechai.com/my_lucky_face.htm], about a Chinese woman in Nanjing balancing work, family, and a tough new job assignment taking care of a foreign teacher ; ''Dragon Chica'' [http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Chica-May-lee-Chai/dp/1934848484/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432062544&sr=1-1&keywords=dragon+chica], about Cambodian survivors of the Khmer Rouge starting over in Texas and Nebraska;  and its sequel, ''Tiger Girl,''  [http://www.amazon.com/Tiger-Girl-Gemma-May-lee-Chai/dp/1936846454/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1432062578&sr=1-1&keywords=tiger+girl] which won the 2014 APALA Award for Best Young Novel from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. 



Her nonfiction books include the family memoir, ''The Girl from Purple Mountain''[http://www4.wittenberg.edu/news/2001/news07_24.html], which was co-written with her father, the political scientist Winberg Chai. The book, which is narrated in alternating chapters by May-lee and her father, details her grandmother’s decision to be buried alone after helping her family to escape to America after the Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. ''The Girl from Purple Mountain'' was nominated for the National Book Award in nonfiction. 

Chai’s other memoir, ''Hapa Girl'' [http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1906_reg.html], was a 2008 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book and received an Honorable Mention from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. It explores violent reactions towards her mixed-race family in a small Midwestern town in the 1980s. 


Chai also published a short story and essay collection, ''Glamorous Asians''[http://www.may-leechai.com/May_Lee_Chai_Glamorous_Asians.htm]; translated the 1934 autobiography of Chinese author, ''Ba Jin''[https://mayleechai.wordpress.com/the-autobiography-of-ba-jin/];  and and co-authored a book about changes in contemporary Chinese society, ''China A to Z'' [http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301027/china-a-to-z-by-may-lee-chai/]