In her memoir Beautiful Country, Qian Julie Wang tells her story of immigrating from China to Brooklyn at seven years old. The story spans roughly five years and is told from the perspective of young Qian Julie, who struggles along with her parents to survive and adapt to life in New York City as undocumented immigrants. Her parents consistently tell her that “whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here.” ‘America’ in Mandarin is ‘Mei Guo,’ which translates to ‘Beautiful Country.’ However, readers see through young Qian Julie’s eyes that life in the US if you are undocumented is anything but beautiful.