Gish Jen (Chinese: 任碧蓮; Hanyu Pinyin: Rèn Bìlián), born Lillian Jen, named for the actress Lillian Gish, in 1955 in Long Island, New York, is a contemporary Chinese American writer. Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of... Lillian Diana de Guiche (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993), was an Oscar-nominated American actress, better known as Lillian Gish. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Map showing Long Island; to the north is Connecticut and to the west are New York City and New Jersey. ... NY redirects here. ... A Chinese American is an American who is of ethnic Chinese descent. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ...

Several of her short stories have been reprinted in The Best American Short Stories. Her piece "Birthmates", was selected as one of The Best American Short Stories of The Century by John Updike. Her works include three novels, Typical American, Mona in the Promised Land, and The Love Wife. She has also written a collection of short fiction, Who's Irish? prompted by her marriage to an Irish-American. John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932) is an American writer born in Shillington, Pennsylvania. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Irish Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in the west European island nation of Ireland. ...

Her first novel, Typical American, attempts to redefine Americanness as a preoccupation with identity. "As soon as you ask yourself the question, "What does it mean to be Irish-American, Iranian-American, Greek-American, you are American," she has said. Iranian-Americans (sometimes called Persian-Americans) are Americans of Iranian descent, including those who are expatriates in exile or permanent immigrants. ... A Greek American is a citizen of the United States of Greek heritage or descent. ...

Her second novel, Mona in the Promised Land concerns the invention of ethnicity. The Love Wife, her most recent novel, portrays an Asian American family with interracial parents and both biological and adopted children as "the new American family." She asks the question "What is a family?" as a way of asking, "What is a nation?" An Asian American is a person of Asian ancestry or origin who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. ...