On Gold Mountain The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family [Paperback]

In 1867, Lisa See's great-great-grandfather arrived in America, where he prescribed herbal remedies to immigrant laborers who were treated little better than slaves. His son Fong See later built a mercantile empire and married a Caucasian woman, in spite of laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Lisa herself grew up playing in her family's antiques store in Los Angeles's Chinatown, listening to stories of missionaries and prostitutes, movie stars and Chinese baseball teams.
With these stories and her own years of research, Lisa See chronicles the one-hundred-year-odyssey of her Chinese-American family, a history that encompasses racism, romance, secret marriages, entrepreneurial genius, and much more, as two distinctly different cultures meet in a new world.  

Lovingly rendered. . . . A vivid tableau of a family and an era. --People

Terrific stuff. . . . The See family's adventures would be incredible if On Gold Mountain were fiction. --The New York Times Book Review

Weaves together fascinating family anecdotes, imaginative details, and the historical details of immigrant life. . . . Enviably entertaining. --Amy Tan

Astonishing. . . . as engagingly readable as any novel. . . . comprehensive and exhaustively researched. --Los Angeles Times Book Review

Lisa See is theNew York Timesbestselling author ofShanghai Girls, Peony in Love, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Flower Net(an Edgar Award nominee),The InteriorandDragon Bones.She wrote the libretto for the Los Angeles Opera adaptation of On Gold Mountain and served as curator for the Autry Museum of Western Heritage’s exhibitOn Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience,also featured at the Smithsonian Institute. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.The questions, topics for discussion, and suggested reading that follow are designed to help l“m