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A review by attytheresa
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See
5.0
It told the story of the Chinese in America through the eyes of one family.
Thus the author summarizes exactly what she accomplished with this amazing book, in the epilogue added to the 2012 reissue I just read. It's her family history that she tells, based on copious research and oral histories. I found it nearly impossible to put down, stretching out breaks from work and staying up way too late just to read more of this story of Chinese immigration in California.
'Gold Mountain' is the Chinese name for the United States. See's great-great-grandfather, Fong Dun Shung, with his 2 eldest sons, left his very small impoverished village in Southern China (directly north of Hong Kong and near Canton now Guangzhou) in 1866 to come to the Gold Mountain in search of work and money. He was an herbalist and worked on the building of the transcontinental railroad but as an herbalist/healer rather than a laborer, the work his sons took. After the railroad was completed, he opened a store in Sacramento selling herbs and tinctures. A few years later, Fong See, See's great-grandfather and Fong Dun Shung's Number 4 son, emigrated and established the family roots first in Sacramento and then in Los Angeles. Fong See was 14 years old and is 97 when he dies in LA, leaving a large prosperous Chinese American family behind.
This may be a memoir or a biography of an immigrant family from the time they arrived to the end of the 20th Century, but it is also a serious history of Chinese immigration in the US, and California in particular. There is so much here I never knew: Exclusion Law, anti-miscegenation laws, extreme immigration limits and restrictions on Chinese, all persisting until mid-20th century and to some extent later (state laws). The story of Old Chinatown vs. New Chinatown in LA, the incredible story of how Fong See and other immigrants worked around these laws and restrictions to own businesses, bring family and especially wives from China, buy property, and especially marry caucasians is utterly engrossing.
Also told is the story of the inevitable conflict between desires of the immigrant generation to have their children remain steeped in the chinese traditions, culture, and behavior and their children born in America, and desperately wanting to assimilate. See also does not neglect the story of the family that remained in or returned to China. We see some of the history of China play before our eyes, including the impact on Chinese Americans when Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek and the borders of China were closed tight. While writing and researching the book, See went to the village of her family, Dimtao, meeting with cousins and extended family there, and collecting yet more oral histories and information to fill in some of the gaps. When See returned, some of the elders in her family actually opened up and confirmed information never before discussed.
See's special storytelling gift is evident here, her first published book: the ability to keep out western judgment while telling a compelling story. It's not as perfected as in her later historical fiction, but it is very evident. While occasionally a tad episodic in the middle, those moments are few as the story of See's family on Gold Mountain totally engrossed me.
There are photos, maps, a family tree (which I consulted frequently), and an extensive bibliography and list of sources. First published in 1995, it was reissued in 2012 with some updated material based on new information and photos that Lisa See has acquired since its first publication, as the process of learning a family's history never ends.
Thus the author summarizes exactly what she accomplished with this amazing book, in the epilogue added to the 2012 reissue I just read. It's her family history that she tells, based on copious research and oral histories. I found it nearly impossible to put down, stretching out breaks from work and staying up way too late just to read more of this story of Chinese immigration in California.
'Gold Mountain' is the Chinese name for the United States. See's great-great-grandfather, Fong Dun Shung, with his 2 eldest sons, left his very small impoverished village in Southern China (directly north of Hong Kong and near Canton now Guangzhou) in 1866 to come to the Gold Mountain in search of work and money. He was an herbalist and worked on the building of the transcontinental railroad but as an herbalist/healer rather than a laborer, the work his sons took. After the railroad was completed, he opened a store in Sacramento selling herbs and tinctures. A few years later, Fong See, See's great-grandfather and Fong Dun Shung's Number 4 son, emigrated and established the family roots first in Sacramento and then in Los Angeles. Fong See was 14 years old and is 97 when he dies in LA, leaving a large prosperous Chinese American family behind.
This may be a memoir or a biography of an immigrant family from the time they arrived to the end of the 20th Century, but it is also a serious history of Chinese immigration in the US, and California in particular. There is so much here I never knew: Exclusion Law, anti-miscegenation laws, extreme immigration limits and restrictions on Chinese, all persisting until mid-20th century and to some extent later (state laws). The story of Old Chinatown vs. New Chinatown in LA, the incredible story of how Fong See and other immigrants worked around these laws and restrictions to own businesses, bring family and especially wives from China, buy property, and especially marry caucasians is utterly engrossing.
Also told is the story of the inevitable conflict between desires of the immigrant generation to have their children remain steeped in the chinese traditions, culture, and behavior and their children born in America, and desperately wanting to assimilate. See also does not neglect the story of the family that remained in or returned to China. We see some of the history of China play before our eyes, including the impact on Chinese Americans when Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek and the borders of China were closed tight. While writing and researching the book, See went to the village of her family, Dimtao, meeting with cousins and extended family there, and collecting yet more oral histories and information to fill in some of the gaps. When See returned, some of the elders in her family actually opened up and confirmed information never before discussed.
See's special storytelling gift is evident here, her first published book: the ability to keep out western judgment while telling a compelling story. It's not as perfected as in her later historical fiction, but it is very evident. While occasionally a tad episodic in the middle, those moments are few as the story of See's family on Gold Mountain totally engrossed me.
There are photos, maps, a family tree (which I consulted frequently), and an extensive bibliography and list of sources. First published in 1995, it was reissued in 2012 with some updated material based on new information and photos that Lisa See has acquired since its first publication, as the process of learning a family's history never ends.