When she was a girl, Lisa See spent summers in the cool, dark recesses
of her family's antiques store in Los Angeles's Chinatown. There, her
grand-mother and great-aunt told her intriguing, colorful stories about
their family's past - stories of missionaries, concubines, tong wars,
glamorous nightclubs, and the determined struggle to triumph over racist
laws and discrimination. They spoke of how Lisa's
great-great-grandfather emigrated from his Chinese village to the United
States; how his son followed him, married a Caucasian woman, and despite
great odds, went on to become one of the most prominent Chinese on "Gold
Mountain" (the Chinese name for the United States). As an adult, See
spent five years collecting the details of her family's remarkable
history. She interviewed nearly one hundred relatives - both Chinese and
Caucasian, rich and poor - and pored over documents at the National
Archives, the immigration office, and in countless attics, basements,
and closets for the intimate nuances of her ancestors' lives.
