The Expatriates

Janice Y. K. Lee is of Korean descent and was born and raised in Hong Kong. She attended Harvard University and lives in New York with her husband and children. The Expatriates is inspired by her knowledge of Hong Kong and its culture, as well as her experiences of motherhood. Her work is critically acclaimed for her observations of human nature and her nuanced portrayals of culture clashes. In interviews, Lee has spoken about her global upbringing and the difficulty of pinning down one single identity: "I myself have trouble telling people where I’m ‘from’ as that has so many layers and meanings, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve appreciated that I have many different perspectives which have helped me to see things from many different angles” (Sarabyn, Kelly. “Interview With Janice Y. K. Lee, Author of The Expatriates.” Book Club Babble, 2016). These angles are apparent in her work, where characters navigate the different lenses of nationality, social class, and ethnicity.

Lee has also spoken about her experiences with motherhood, both positive and negative. While she derives meaning from her role, she has also spoken candidly about the difficulties of parenting a newborn and the radical changes in lifestyle and perspective that mothering demands. While critics are sometimes dismissive of women’s literature, Lee remains a staunch defender of her genre, saying, “Books about domestic life are about life. We don’t have to read about battles or enormous whales to experience the complexity and grandeur of the world we live in” (Sarabyn). Like classic novelists whose work explores family drama and dynamics, she uses the limited scope of the domestic sphere to convey universal truths.