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Love Letters
from Janey

This book describes how Janey achieves a fulfilling career with the help of mentors and Richard, her significant other. She’s a laboratory assistant for a Nobel Prize winner at Stanford, becomes a California-state certified microbiologist, conducts independent research in immunology at the University of Oregon medical school, and earns her Ed.D. She also receives the highest technical award at Bell Laboratories while raising three sons, participating in multiple community volunteer programs. In her free time, she’ss a skier, sailor,chef, and wife of an equally active husband.

Love Letters From Janey book

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What's inside the book.

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“Love Letters from Janey” is the life story of Janey Young, an engaged Asian American senior at Stanford University in 1960, who wants to have a career after she’s married. Her fiancé, Richard Cheu, is a graduate student at the University of Oregon. She seeks to reconcile a vision of her future which conflicts with cultural, societal, and family pressures to accept the “natural role” of an educated married woman.

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"Author, historian, deacon, and hospice chaplain Richard Cheu has written “Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Practical and Spiritual Guide’’. His recent book “Love Letters From Janey: 50 Years of Breaking Barriers Together” features the 167 letters from his wife. This tribute honors their 50 year love story: A testament to their love and passionate support for each other to succeed despite the discrimination they battled.

His sixty-five oral histories that address the effects of America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 on 20th century Chinese Americans are archived at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Richard is an economist who created the economic plan transforming Taiwan into a modern economy, a neurophysiologist who received a U.S. Patent for inventing a method for improving vision. Richard is also an auxiliary chaplain of the New York fire department. A National Park Service volunteer history interpreter, he’s given 90 talks onboard Amtrak trains."

Love From Our Readers

Read reviews from our worldwide readers

Beautiful!

“This is a beautiful way to chronicle challenges, evolutions, life and love. We should all be writing letters like these. This old fashioned way of communicating love is a beautiful practice for modern relationships.”

Dr. Brenda Wade TV Expert, Author, Founder of Modern Love and Relationship Trainings

A Pleasure!

“A pleasure to read, this book is a love letter to the long lost creative skill of letter writing. Taking readers on a decades-long journey into the heart and soul of two extremely talented people via the handwritten letters from Janey to Richard, it reveals their love and commitment to each other and their insights into the challenges faced by Chinese-Americans.”

William Belford Former Chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York

Excellent read!

"Janey Cheu was a lady with spunk, determination, and the ability to care about herself and those around her. She moved between Chinese and American cultures at a time when there was a large divide between them. She honored both cultures, got an education, married and raised a family, and was not afraid to take a leading role in her work environment. It is because of women like her that our world has evolved to the point that it has. This is an excellent read and I highly recommend it."

Bonnie Cehovet Writer/Editor

Wholesome and heartwarming

“A very wholesome and heartwarming read that puts us in the shoes of a Chinese American couple in 1960s San Francisco Chinatown. Definitely a unique story that many can relate to from that time and beyond as we follow the couple as they learn to navigate the real world of love, school, work, and family.”

Kimberly Szeto Programs Coordinator, Chinese Historical Society of America

A true love story

“By keeping all the letters he received from Janey, Richard proved that he deeply cared for his wife. A true love story for a husband, a lover, a friend, and a family member. Highly recommended for people who want to learn what true love is.”

Nancy Yu Law Director, Chinatown History & Culture Association

Insightful, finely tuned, and exquisitely written

“Sharing a profound love and understanding is an extraordinary experience at any age, Richard Cheu’s sensitive compilation of love letters from his remarkable wife, Janey Young Cheu, describes 55 years of her intimate experience at the Stanford University “finishing school” in the 1960s, traversing her stellar professional career as a microbiologist and Ed.D, while raising three sons and passionately supporting her husband. This insightful, finely tuned, and exquisitely written collection chronicles the life of this superbly talented yet unassuming Chinese American woman as she overcomes societal discrimination and family limitations. This assemblage portrays her deep humanity and genuine sensitivity to her family, her culture, and the many facets of her complex world she lovingly embraced.”

Nancy Blieden Ph.D., Psychoanalyst, American Psychoanalytic Association

    Love Letters From Janey

    Available on Amazon & in your local bookstore