In 1834, a Chinese woman named Afong Moy arrived in America as both a prized guest and an advertisement for a merchant firm--a promotional curiosity with bound feet and a celebrity used to peddle exotic wares from the East. This first biography of Afong Moy explores how she shaped Americans' impressions of China, while living as a stranger in a foreign land. Ms. Davis strives mightily to tell Afong Moy's own story using the documents available, triangulating not only from what was said but also from the silences. That so much remains unknown in "The Chinese Lady" doesn't reflect poorly on Ms. Davis as a historian. Rather it confirms Ms. Davis's assertion that "in mid-nineteenth-century America, the life of an Asian, and of a woman even when that woman lived an extraordinary life was destined to obscurity." - The Wall Street Journal