In this dramatic memoir of early-twentieth century immigration, author Li Keng Wong shares her family?s journey from rural China to a new life in California.In 1933, seven-year-old Li Keng?s life chan
In this dramatic memoir of early-twentieth century immigration, author Li Keng Wong shares her family?s journey from rural China to a new life in California.
In 1933, seven-year-old Li Keng?s life changed forever. Her father decided to bring his family from a small village in southern China to California. Getting to America was not easy. Getting past America?s strict anti-Chinese immigration laws was even more difficult. Any misstep could mean deportation and disgrace for their family.
Life in America during the Great Depression brought many exciting surprises as well as a few disappointments. Hunger, poverty, police raids, frequent moves, and the occasional sting of racism were a part of everyday life, but slowly Li Keng and her family found stability and a true home in ?Gold Mountain.?
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?This memoir clearly shows the hardships, sacrifices, and eventual successes of the Chinese families who came to America during the Depression?. Photographs of the family when they are older show prosperous and happy people and leave readers with a sense of the richness of the immigrant experience.?
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?The vivid cultural details?are fascinating, whether Wong is describing her mother?s traditional wedding or the family?s first apartment in California, where her father coped with the Depression by running a gambling business in the family?s front room. The plain words leave room for readers to imagine their own emotional responses.?
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