The name of the book refers to Wong being the fifth child born to immigrant parents from China.

Published in 1950, the book became a best-seller, especially in the aftermath of the lifting of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943.

Journalist Neely Tucker writing for the Library of Congress blog about the book in 2021, wrote that "the book has settled into the national narrative as a lasting portrait of Chinese American life at the midcentury – stilted, sometimes perceptive, sometimes shading the truth in favor of an up-by-the-bootstraps narrative.

"[2][3] In a scathing review about the book in 1979, Patricia Lin Blinde wrote that the book "in no way adds anything in terms of real knowledge where the general public's picture of Chinese people is concerned" and "what Wong does is essentially to 'repeat' the white world's articulations and expectations as to what Chineseness is or not.

[5][2][3][6] In 1976, PBS made a half-hour special for public television based on Fifth Chinese Daughter, called Jade Snow, in which Wong was portrayed by actress Freda Foh Shen and Wong's father portrayed by actor James Hong.