Portrait of a Thief

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses colonization and racism.

Chapter 1 introduces Will Chen, an art history student at Harvard who works at Boston’s Sackler Museum. He just witnessed a group of thieves rob 23 pieces of priceless Chinese art. Investigators suspect him because he recently published an article about Chinese art and Western imperialism. Though he wasn’t involved in the theft, he took advantage of the chaos to pocket a jade tiger worth thousands of dollars. The thieves saw his act and slipped a business card in his pocket while running past. The card says “China Poly” and has an international phone number; “Nice lift” (5) is handwritten on the back.

Chapter 2 introduces Alex Huang, who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown where her family owns a restaurant. She dropped out of MIT to take a coding job with Google in Silicon Valley. She met Will through a dating app while at MIT. They decided they were better off as friends but have stayed close since. Will calls Alex and tells her about the robbery at the Sackler Museum. She hacks into the museum’s security system and deletes the footage of him stealing the jade tiger.