Last Night at the Telegraph Club
To celebrate Pride month, I’m recommending one of my favorite books, Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. Not only is the writing emotional, haunting, and touching, but Lo seamlessly weaves together Chinese American and queer history in an incredible example of intersectionality. In the author’s own words, many spaces throughout history “often did not allow both [being queer and of Asian descent] to coexist.” The protagonist Lily Hu’s story provides a much-needed bridge between these two spheres, which even today often experience division and conflict.
Set in San Francisco, in 1954, against the backdrop of the end of WWII and the Korean War, Lily and her family must deal with both the McCarthy Era and Red Scare hysteria affecting their daily lives. Like many Chinese American families (and other suspected “Communist sympathizers”) at the time, they confront the threats of losing their jobs, resources including social support, and even their very right to live in the United States. Lo doesn’t shy away from including examples, both real and fictional, of naturalized citizens being forcibly deported back to China, despite their immense contributions to their adopted country. Fast forward seven decades, and we’re still experiencing the fallout of such pervasive xenophobia and unfounded fears.
Telegraph Club also provides plenty of historical queer events, including the Stoumen v. Reilly case (1951) where the Supreme Court of California ruled that “homosexuals” had the right to use bars and other public spaces as meeting places. Unfortunately, this didn’t stop the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) from continuing to raid queer establishments searching for “sexual deviants”, turning what should have been safe spaces into places of fear and secrecy. Even the titular Telegraph Club must worry about its clientele being dragged out and arrested with no warning or provocation. And yet, Lo provides an undercurrent of hope with examples of real, queer Chinese American women leading proud and accomplished lives, such as Crystal Jang, Merle Woo, and Dr. Margaret Chung (many of whom I learned about for the first time through this book).
One other thing I really appreciated about Telegraph Club is that it portrays the experiences of “a category of Chinese immigrant rarely depicted in popular culture” - educated children of upper-class families who came to the US to study at American universities (Lily’s father and mother work at the same hospital as a doctor and RN, respectively), rather than as laborers. This is the history of my own family. My parents both received their bachelor’s degrees from one of China’s premier universities and then moved to the United States so that my father could earn his Ph.D. at Oklahoma State University. This was true for pretty much all the Chinese kids I grew up with, too, so I identified with Lily’s family more strongly than the typical depictions of Chinese parents owning restaurants or laundromats. I think it’s important to dismantle the stereotype that all older Asian American generations are uneducated and only qualified to work in the service industry.
All in all, I found Last Night at the Telegraph Club to be a wonderful celebration of two all-American identities as well as a reminder of the importance of intersectionality. Even today, we need more representation and awareness of queer people of color as most of the leading research has been based on cis-gendered White Americans. Similarly, many outreach programs are more accessible to wealthier White folks. Queer people of color have been part of this country’s history since its founding and should be recognized as an integral, lasting part of our culture.
*Note: If this review encouraged you to consider reading this wonderful book, please borrow it from a local library, support a local Black/Queer bookstore, or, if you must buy it online, consider ordering from bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores.