New from Here

Bowen is Knox’s older brother. From the beginning of the novel, he is focused on his academic success. He is upset when he comes to the US and realizes that the school he is attending is not ranked well and does not offer the classes he wants to take. He is also upset when he messes up the interview he goes on for his father and when he is the slowest on the track team. Eventually, Bowen reveals that the reason he tries to never make any mistakes is because he believes perfection is what gets the attention of his parents, who are often focused on Knox and his troubles.

Bowen faces the most racism of the three kids in the US. He looks like an Asian person, unlike Knox, and he has difficulties making friends in the US. When his track coach becomes sick, his teammates blame Bowen because he is from China, and they assume he gave their coach COVID-19. Unlike Knox who wants to stand up to bullies, Bowen wants to ignore them because he knows he will have to continue facing them each day. Bowen’s character demonstrates the degree to which racism was directed toward Asian people during the pandemic. 

Lea is the youngest of the three Wei-Evans children. She was very popular and social in Hong Kong, and she expects that same popularity when she gets to the US. When she does arrive, she has difficulty making friends, and she sits on the friends bench at school, but no one comes to play with her. Eventually she makes friends, but her character demonstrates the difficulties immigrants and children in a new school often face.

Julie is of Chinese descent, but she grew up in the US after her parents moved to there. She represents the racism that occurred in the past against Asian people in the US, as well as how things have both changed and have stayed the same. People used to make fun of her name, and because of that, she changed her name from Wei Wei to Julie. She hopes her children will not have to face the same struggles in the US. Once she gets to the US, however, she realizes that racism still exists.

Julie also represents the difficult time many adults had during the COVID-19 pandemic. When she first comes to the US with the children, they are doing remote learning from their Hong Kong schools and Julie is working from home. She must manage her household while she works, and help teach her children concepts they cannot learn on their own. Things start to break down and her troubles are intensified when her employer fires her because she cannot leave her children in the US to go on a business trip to a foreign country. 

Andrew is Julie’s husband and the children’s’ father, who stays behind in Hong Kong for his job. He demonstrates the difficult times that some employed people had during the pandemic. His employer in Hong Kong had to furlough many employees because of the economic downturn. Andrew keeps his job but his salary is cut, forcing him to find a smaller place to live. While Andrew understands his own difficulties, he demonstrates a lack of understanding for what his wife is going through. He is surprised when Julie tells Knox that if something goes on his permanent academic record, he could end up in jail. He becomes furious when Julie leaves the kids at home while she goes to New York for a job interview. This shows that while he cares deeply about his family, he does not understand the difficulty of parenting alone during the pandemic.

When Knox gets sick, Andrew comes right away to the US, illustrating how much he values family. This value is further shown when he decides to stay with the family, even though he does not have a job. He decides family is worth the risk of leaving his job to find another, and Knox is shown to value his father in return, as all he really wants is for his father to come to the US.

Knox’s grandparents represent his ties to the past. When the kids first come to the US, they do not know of the struggles their grandparents faced when they lived there. Eventually they learn that while the two were doctors in China, they were only able to get jobs in restaurants in the US. Furthermore, Lao Lao and Lao Ye lost their jobs in the US, and they lived with Julie in their car before they finally found a small apartment. During this time, Julie also got free lunches at school because of her family’s lack of financial resources. Knox internalizes all of this, surprised that they were unhoused, but uses the word, “we.” This use of the word, “we,” shows that he sees himself as part of a long family line. Lao Lao and Lao Ye demonstrate the difficulties facing immigrants, regardless of the time period as they struggled to find opportunities in a new country.