Summary

“The Princess of Nebraska” begins with Sasha and Boshen in a McDonald’s in downtown Chicago; Sasha is pregnant by Boshen’s former lover in China, Yang, and has asked Boshen to help her get from Nebraska, where she attends school, to Chicago for an abortion. Boshen is in the US because his work in gay rights activism and AIDS awareness put him on the radar of the “secret police,” but his continued love for Yang causes him to pressure Sasha to continue the pregnancy, in the hope that a child will convince Yang to immigrate (71).

A flashback communicates the beginning of Boshen and Yang’s relationship. Yang was a “Nan Dan,” a boy trained to play female roles for the Peking Opera, but was expelled from the opera when he was discovered with a “male lover”; Boshen followed Yang after...