ABSTRACT
Elizabeth Lowell's Jade Island and Katherine Stone's Pearl Moon mark a departure from romances that centralize white protagonists; these novels feature romantic relationships between white heroes and mixed-race Asian heroines. Jade Island and Pearl Moon are essentially narratives of progress, in which the Chinese community may offer security at the expense of freedom, but the British or American community (and corporation) has the ability to offer more satisfactory versions of both. The object of transformation in Jade Island is, primarily, the mixed-race heroine, Lianne Blakely. She serves as a vehicle for the larger transformation of the workplace; she is converted to a new set of values—including the integration of work and family life—and the corporation she represents follows suit. Pearl Moon, set in Hong Kong, explores the development of two romantic couples: James Drake and Allison Whitaker, and Sam Coulter and Maylene Kwan. These four characters become relevant to one another through a complex web of relationships.
