But leaving Taiwan meant leaving schoolmates and friends behind. Chang said most of her mother's classmates eventually came to the U.S.
"As soon as they arrived, the narrow gate would clang shut behind them," she said. "No guidepost remained to guide them."
In a question-and-answer session following her reading, Chang said she encountered some difficulties in trying to get her work published. She said many American book publishers want Asian-American writers to include elements of the "exotic," while her book focuses on her mother's flight from China and the 1950s suburban lives of her mother and three of her friends as they adapted to the United States.
"Oh, is this book going to have a lot of rituals? I love rituals!" Chang recalled one publisher saying.
"What does this woman mean?" Chang thought. "Does she think my mother is going to be carried around in a sedan-chair?"
Chang, 29, said she got the idea for the book while attending Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism in the spring of 1995.
Last night's event was sponsored by the Asian-American Association (AAA), the Chinese Students Association and the Taiwanese Cultural Society.