On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family (Paperback)
"As engagingly readable as any novel." —Los Angeles Times Book Review
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.
See’s family history encompasses secret marriages, entrepreneurial genius, romance, racism, and much more, as two distinctly different cultures meet in a new world in this “lovingly rendered…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