History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
“Art belongs to the creator,” Will said, his voice soft, “not the conqueror. No matter what the law says, or what treaties are signed. For too long, museums have held on to art that isn’t theirs to keep, bought more because they know they can.”
Portrait of a Thief is the Chinese-American diaspora art heist that I never knew I needed.
To be truthful, the heists in this novel are secondary. Li’s debut novel is really an exploration of the impact of colonisation and the melancholic experience of diaspora.
There are elements of Ocean’s Eleven and the Fast and Furious franchise within the story and I appreciated Li’s nods to classic action movies but at its core, Portrait of a Thief is about a group of immigrant kids in their twenties each struggling with the burden of living up to their parents’ expectations and the responsibility of having to support their family. I’m half Filipino on my mother’s side and I found myself really relating to the emotions and struggles that the characters in the novel deal with, including feeling disconnected from your roots but at the same very protective over them.
As Li highlights, being the child of immigrant means taking responsibility for your family. You carry the heavy weight of all the hopes and dreams of your lineage, which is something we see particularly in the character of Alex. Li describes Alex as being confused about “how to be the daughter she was supposed to be, her parents’ American Dream. How to untagle parts of her that were Chinese and the parts of her that were American, how both so often felt like neither“, which really hit me. For me, there’s a lot to relate to in this novel and Li explores the complexity of identity and the history of colonial rule with such eloquence that I did get misty-eyed a few times. I mean, Daniel’s dad, anyone? The sibling rivalry between Will and Irene? I could go on!
I’ve seen people complain that the novel was underwhelming. If you go in expecting an action-packed story, you will probably be disappointed. This isn’t a heist novel. It’s a novel about the immigrant experience. Yes, there are heists as the characters attempt to reclaim art that the West stole and there are occasional fun moments – Irene is a badass – but the heists are very muted and devoid of typical thrill and tension. While Li’s cast is a group of reckless college students who have a lot to lose rather than seasoned criminals, it would have been great to see more Ocean’s Eleven flair. However, I get what Li was going for with the heist plot even if it did feel a bit flimsy and not fully fleshed out at times.
Nonetheless, this is a stunning debut. It’s so heartfelt. Li’s writing is beautifully atmospheric and she truly captured what it feels like to be in your twenties when you’re trying to figure out who you want to be, with the added struggle of lack of belonging both in the West and your parents’ home country and needing to do whatever you can to assimilate and survive.
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