Open the Gate
If You Could See the Sun
By Ann Liang
6 Oct, 2023
Doing the WFC's Homework
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Ann Liang’s 2022 If You Could See the Sun is a stand-alone modern fantasy novel.
Sun Yan — Alice Sun in America — was born in China, raised in the United States, then returned with her homesick parents to China. Her successive dislocations have made sure that she’s an outsider everywhere. Sun is Chinese to Americans and American to the Chinese.
Sun stands out in a different way at the prestigious Airington International Boarding School. She is the only scholarship student in a student body otherwise made up of the children of the rich. Maintaining her scholarship demands top marks. Even so, her scholarship only covers half the 350,000 RMB1. Sun’s education places an onerous financial burden on her parents.
Her parents’ oblique suggestions that she consider other schools, including one back in the US, hint at the unpleasant truth. They cannot afford to keep sending Sun to Airington.
Fate hands Sun the means to earn her tuition, at the trifling cost of her soul.