The Resilient Self

"The Resilient Self examines how immigration creates gendered work and family contexts for middle-class Taiwanese American women. Gu's fresh perspective positions these women as social agents and producers of knowledge, not simply as recipients of social forces."

~Eliza Noh, California State University, Fullerton

"An interesting, clearly written book that articulates how sociocultural factors shape women's individual voices, self development, and lived experiences. It adds novel information and hidden knowledge about this particular group of migrants from Taiwan."

~Esther Ngan-ling Chow, editor of Transforming Gender and Development in East Asia

"A study of middle-class, educated Taiwanese women and their efforts to redefine their lives after immigration as dependent spouses initially unable, by the terms of their visas, to work outside the home."

~Chronicle of Higher Education

"[The book] empathize[s] with these women's experiences and to celebrate their adaptation to and acceptance of their new lives and circumstances. Readers seeking these kinds of narratives and microstudy data will be the best served by The Resilient Self."

~Journal of Asian Studies

“The Resilient Self contains many fascinating vignettes about the experiences of Taiwanese immigrant women in the United States. It also highlights the effect immigration can have on the mental health of women..Its theoretical framing…holds promise for future work in migration studies.” 

~Gender & Society