The Wangs vs. the World

The Wangs vs. the World (2016), a comic novel by Chinese-American author Jade Chang, follows California businessman Charles Wang—an immigrant from China via Taiwan—as he responds to the 2008 financial crash and his own bankruptcy by gathering his family in a quixotic attempt to take them back to China to reclaim their ancestral lands. Chang’ first novel, The Wangs vs. the World was hailed by critics as a “jam-packed, high-energy debut” (Kirkus Reviews).

The novel begins by introducing each of Charles’s children as they learn about his bankruptcy.

His eldest daughter, Saina, has bigger problems. A disgraced former art-world darling, she has retreated to a farmhouse in upstate New York. As we meet her, her ex-boyfriend, an artistic luminary named Grayson, has tracked her down, looking to reconnect after his dumping her. They are found in bed by Saina’s current boyfriend, Leo, who dumps her on the spot. Shortly after, Grayson receives a phone call from his current girlfriend, Sabrina, and he leaves as well.



Next, we meet the Wangs’ eldest son, Andrew, a student at Arizona State. He has just told his girlfriend, Emma, he won’t sleep with her because he doesn’t want to lose his virginity with someone he doesn’t love. She, too, storms out. He is about to follow her when he receives a phone call from his sister Grace. She is distraught about their father’s bankruptcy. Andrew explains that it is worse than she realizes: each child has lost a trust fund worth $7 million dollars.

Grace—at boarding school—concludes that their father is testing them. Meanwhile, her headmistress tries to take back her laptop, which hasn’t been paid for. Grace is in the midst of downloading her style blog content when Charles arrives with his wife, Barbara. Charles throws $75 at the headmistress and bolts with the laptop, which only confirms Grace’s suspicion that his bankruptcy is a performance.

Charles rents a U-Haul and burgles one of his own (former) warehouses. He plans to deliver a large cosmetics order in person and take payment in cash. He receives a call from his lawyers, who tell him that another Charles Wang has already laid claim to the family’s ancestral land. They’re looking into the mystery now.



A flashback explains how Charles came to lose everything. Certain that cosmetics for Asians was soon to be a booming industry, he had borrowed not only against his business but also against his personal assets in order to raise enough money to start a new cosmetics business. When the credit crunch hit, the bank called in the loan: since the new business was not yet profitable, Charles lost everything. He reflects that he made a basic error of judgment, and that, at root, he was lead astray by pride: he had been unwilling to look weak or cautious in front of the white bankers who loaned him the money.

Andrew attends an economics lecture about the credit crisis. The professor blames a Chinese mathematician for spreading the idea that financial risk could be managed mathematically. The professor’s tone is racist and Andrew loses his temper, announcing his family’s bankruptcy before storming out of the lecture hall.

Saina makes up with Leo. When she returns home, she finds an art critic, Billy al-Alani waiting for her. Billy wants an interview. Saina knows that if she refuses, Billy will drag her name through the dirt once more, but she refuses anyway.



Charles and the other Wangs arrive in Andrew’s dorm room while he is in the midst of masturbating. Later, at the cheap motel where they are spending the night, Andrew explains to his sister Grace that he is still a virgin. She confesses that she is not, and he lashes out in anger and humiliation.

Meanwhile, Barbara overhears Charles talking to his lawyers and realizes that his plan is to reclaim his Chinese patrimony. They fight.

At the next stop, Andrew spots a notice for an open-mic comedy night and persuades his mother to watch him perform. His routine—based on satirizing Asian stereotypes—falls flat and Andrew once again feels humiliated.



Next, the Wangs visit Charles’s friend Nash in Louisiana. He invites them to a backcountry wedding, where everyone drinks a lot of bourbon. Charles and Andrew fight, and Andrew storms off. Another guest at the wedding, Dorrie, picks Andrew up and takes him to a cabaret in New Orleans. Waking up in her bed, he decides to abandon his virginity. He announces to his family that he is staying in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, Saina receives a phone call. Her assets have been frozen.

When they reach Alabama, Charles discovers that his truckload of cosmetics has melted in the heat. He writes his customers a check for a refund (which he knows will bounce) and drives away. Barbara thinks about leaving him—but she knows she won’t because she loves him. Her musing is interrupted by the car’s engine giving up. The car spins off the road. Thinking that she is going to die, Grace has a revelation: style is the most superficial of the world’s beauties. No one is hurt, but the family is stranded in North Carolina.



In the meantime, Andrew realizes he has made a mistake. He leaves Dorrie and wanders aimlessly through the French Quarter. Coming across another open-mic night, he decides to improvise a new routine. His new material—drawn from his life—is a hit.

The family finally reaches Saina’s house. They are introduced to Leo and surprised to find Saina happy despite a venomous article that has just been published by Billy al-Alani.

That night, Charles learns that an imposter has taken his Chinese lands. No one can stop him from leaving. In Beijing, Charles finds that China is not as he imagined it—his childhood memories are largely of Taiwan. He finds the family’s land and feels connected to it. He buries a fragment of bone from his father’s body and urinates on the soil—but then he spots a billboard announcing that city apartments are soon to be built here.



Saina learns that Leo has a child. Hurt that he kept this information from her, she asks him to leave. At this moment, the siblings receive an email learning that Charles in the hospital in Beijing.

All three hurry to China (Barbara’s passport is expired). Charles has had a small stroke—the condition that killed his own father. He explains that he tracked down the old family friend who had been impersonating him and fought him. He sends the children out to get dinner. While they are eating, they receive word that they are needed at the hospital at once.

When they arrive, Barbara is at Charles’ bedside. Charles has had another stroke. From Charles’s point of view, we follow his reflections on his family’s history. He can hardly speak, but he manages to explain what he wants his children to understand: “Daddy discovered America.”