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55th out of 309 books
—
451 voters
On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
by
Lisa See (Goodreads Author)
Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world. 82 pho...more
Paperback, 448 pages
Published
August 27th 1996
by Vintage
(first published 1995)
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If you happen to be a member of the See family you will find this fascinating. If you are researching family histories about the Chinese as a growing factor in California culture in the 19th and 20th century, this book will give you material. Not having either of these roles, I found this the most tedious book I have read in the past 20 years. If it weren't the choice of my book club, I could never have gotten through it.
As it was, I scanned the middle 150 pages.
See seemed that she just had to...more
As it was, I scanned the middle 150 pages.
See seemed that she just had to...more
A very entertaining and interesting family story, although I wasn't crazy about the writing style, which occasionally reminded me of The Boxcar Children (which is a fine and dandy writing style when you're writing for elementary school students, but this one was full of whores and opium). I also kept finding myself thinking, "How could she have KNOWN what he was thinking at that moment?" so I think either her family interviews were EXTREMELY in-depth or she speculated about a lot of stuff. I too...more
I love this book because it made me look at the immigration issue in a new way. It's amazing to read many of the political speeches given in the early part of the 20th century about the Chinese and then to realize that many are saying the exact same things about some of the immigrants coming over today. Don't we learn! Immigrants are always looked at as a burden but they have always proven the doubters wrong in the past. This book taught me that lesson. It is not for the squeamish. Some of the t...more
3 likes · like · see review
Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world. 82 photos.
Amazon.com ReviewLisa See, daughter of novelist Carolyn See, brings a novelist's skill to this sprawling ancestral his
Even with access to documents and stories handed down orally and any living people still available, this must have been a huge undertaking to write the story of so many people over such a long time.
The story flows with a mind of its own. It's never boring or tedious but makes so much sense and offers a glimpse of so much time spread out over 100 years. This is difficult to do, I'm sure, when one has facts and stats and letters and stories from family members, ship manifests and a city that burne...more
The story flows with a mind of its own. It's never boring or tedious but makes so much sense and offers a glimpse of so much time spread out over 100 years. This is difficult to do, I'm sure, when one has facts and stats and letters and stories from family members, ship manifests and a city that burne...more
Anyone who does so much research for a book and tells good stories deserves five stars.
This is a remarkable historic and biographical book that not only covers Lisa See’s own family history, but also the Chinese in America. Gold Mountain is the Chinese name for the United States. Having heard stories as a child in Los Angeles Chinatown in her family’s antique business of her family’s past and especially that of her great-great grandfather (Fong See) who emigrated from China to the United State i...more
This is a remarkable historic and biographical book that not only covers Lisa See’s own family history, but also the Chinese in America. Gold Mountain is the Chinese name for the United States. Having heard stories as a child in Los Angeles Chinatown in her family’s antique business of her family’s past and especially that of her great-great grandfather (Fong See) who emigrated from China to the United State i...more
The story of a remarkable man and his descendants, made doubly interesting by the fact that the man was a Chinese immigrant to California in the 1870's. The deck was so stacked against Chinese immigrants then and for the next almost 100 years (immigration almost impossible once the railroad was complete, almost impossible for women to immigrate, illegal to marry a white person, illegal to own property, couldn't become a citizen, etc. etc. etc.) that to survive and even thrive was an amazing achi...more
On Gold Mountain was a non-fiction book about Lisa See's family history. It begins with the story of Fong See's immigration to the United States and his efforts to make himself a success. He opens several stores and marries an American women. The book is interesting in that the story is highly unique and new. However, the prose is difficult to read. One quote on the book's cover said that it was as "readable as any novel" but I don't find this to be true. I was not engaged at all in the story. I...more
A non-fiction family saga about coming to the US from China and the experience of being an immigrant in America. An interesting twist is that the original immigrant marries an American woman; the Chinese husband, American wife and bi-national children all face different types of discrimination. The family also experiences the "rags to riches" story of financial success in their new country, so the overall story is one of hopes and dreams fulfilled in addition to pain and loss.
This book was a surprise. Originally, I was looking for one of Lisa See's novels. When my local library did not have it on the shelf, this non-fiction caught my eye. Not a big non-fiction reader, I thought this would be a good diversion, and it really was. See writes engagingly and is boldly honest about her great-grandfather Fong See and his descendants. She highlights the ingenuity and courage he demonstrates when coming to America, but she also notes his evasiveness (with immigration and, lat...more
This is the history of the Chinese side of the family of author Lisa See. Through research and talking to relatives, she has been able to trace back the beginnings of her family in America, when her great grandfather arrived from China when he was still in his teens, and pretty much uneducated. Despite the lack of education, he had ambition; he worked hard and became a successful businessman. He married a Caucasian woman, which was almost unheard of in those days. They fought prejudice and discr...more
Jan 30, 2010
Heather
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
chinese american history, california history, biography
Shelves:
biography-memoir
I read this to get some background on Lisa See after reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and learning the See is descended from a Chinese American family. I think she does an interesting job of presenting the melding of Chinese and American influences in her family. She also does a competent job of providing a historical context of the Chinese experience in the Western States. I think that See does a fine job of telling the story of Fong See's family but then the narrative turns slightly chop...more
This is an AMAZING book and such a delightful read. A book that is hard to put down and each page reveals another layer to this incredible and unusual sojourn. The story of a Caucasian woman who married a Chinese man at a time when it was unthinkable and how that union grew as well as other members of the family related to their "new country". It begins with her husband's journey to this country over 100 years ago. Opened my eyes in many ways to the travail put upon immigrants and those not "whi...more
Although it took me forever to get through this book, I found it a fascinating read and something that I'll never forget. It is heartbreaking how awful Chinese immigrants were treated in the last 100 years in America. I think it is a national disgrace. And it was still going on in the '50's and '60's! What an eye-opener this family history is. Well done Lisa See.
This was my first introduction to Lisa See's writing, and although the book was exhaustively researched, it was a bit of a slog to get through. It felt a bit static and emotionally removed from its subject(s), and while I certainly understand that Ms. See was not around during the time period she writes about, that distance lent the same dryness to the text as that of a history textbook. Her prose lacks poetry. She seems very pragmatic/factual, rather than overly descriptive, which makes it diff...more
This author of popular fiction undertook an in-depth study of her own family's history, chronicling their journey to the States in the 19th century. A few places throughout where she could have chosen story arc over comprehensive information, but overall very engrossing.
I'm a big, big fan of Lisa See but have so far been unable to complete this book (although I'm really far enough in to say I've read it). The story of Lisa's past is a riveting at times and boring as all get out at others. Although I love stories about China, I guess I'm more drawn to it when it's the country the novel takes place in rather than a history of who comes from there. About three quarters of the way through this book reading it became a struggle I was no longer willing to engage in a...more
I have read almost all of Lisa See's books, so it only made sense for me to read about the true story concerning the past generations in her family tree. Gold Mountain, the west coast in America, was supposedly filled with gold, and that truth/rumor drew multitudes of people from America and overseas to the west. So many Chinese men came, leaving their wives and family back in small Chinese villages, hoping to make a fortune. In order to survive, the Chinese were hired to do the backbreaking wor...more
On Gold Mountain is the history of the See family and like most histories it is most interesting to the one telling it. For me, this book club choice was boring with a capital B. Approximately 400 pages of family history from Lisa See's great great grandfathers immigration to work on the transcontinetal railroad to her latest sojourn to the small Chinese town of Dimato to meet her great grandfathers and great uncles third and fourth family relatives from their concubines left in China. Make your...more
1 like · like · see review
Loved it. A sweeping historical account of Chinese immigrants to the United States. The author profiles her family through 100 years or so starting when her great grandfather comes to the US and forges a livelihood for himself. It ends up sustaining his family in different forms for generations to come and becoming a well known 100 year old business in LA. Lisa See the author, descends from the great grandfather's American family. It was very common back then for men to have wives and concubines...more
Long but spellbinding true story of a Chinese immigrant to the US in the 19th century told by his great granddaughter. The patriarch works on the railroad that was being built from California east to Utah where the eastern tracks were joined with the western to create the first cross country railroad. Too smart to be just coolie labor, he becomes a merchant fairly quickly, then soon expands his business to sveral shops and factories. Along the way, he and succeeding generations marry white Ameri...more
A revelation. See's great-grandfather (or is it her grandfather?) rises from selling trinkets in Sacramento to the good life selling antiques bought cheaply off desperate countrymen in China during the turbulent years of the twenties and thirties. But it's the background of the brutal discrimination, slaughter, and complete segregation of Chinese Americans, even rich ones, in the U.S. from the mid-1800's all the way until the 1950's that makes this book so powerful. And she tells that story thro...more
I learned more than what I was taught in school about the stigma of 'China-men' and the tenacity it took to overcome racism in this country and the terrors of being born in the lower class' of China. Most settings were in Los Angeles, CA; Sacramento, CA and Portland OR; all places I have lived and never gave a second thought about the Chinese culture that surrounded me. I will look closer in the future. Long book, some items regarding the family and who became what in life were presented more li...more
I met the author, Lisa See, at EncycloMedia this week! She is a lovely person, and we had a nice chat. I told her about the underground Chinatown project I did for Celebrate Oklahoma Voices this summer. She's going to take a look at it. She knew of other underground Chinatowns, but not the one in Oklahoma City. I have LOVED the three books of hers I've read so far--Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I have On Gold Mountain on reserve at the public library and must...more
I gave this book only three stars because it very much sags toward the end. The story of her great-grandfather and his father in America make it worth reading. The later generations cover so many people it gets a bit boring. I always thought See was full Chinese, but she's only 1/16 Chinese. I'll forgiver her for that slight deception because I really like her books. That one sixteenth was good stock, made up for people who succeeded in a land stacked against them. Why do the people already in A...more
As with all of Lisa's See's work, her research is impeccable. It gave a very detailed look into her family's background, along with the overarching historical events of the time. I think I liked reading the details because her Asian influence resonated with me, but I wonder if other people would be as interested in this book. The last chapter also seemed confusing to me because it consisted of a lot of extended relatives' names being tossed around and updates on their lives. The version I read (...more
This book was good, but not great. It taught me lot about the lives and problems of the Chinese people who came to the West Coast, originally to build the railroads and then to stay in the US and become part of the fabric of California and the US. there were some interesting people in Lisa See's family and their stoy needed to be recorded. Many reviewers found this book boring......I never felt it was at all boring, but it also did not soar. the characters were intersting but not fascinating...j...more
Fascinating, tedious, personal, so thoroughly researched I can hardly believe she worked on this family/American history only a few years. I learned so much American/Chinese American history, saw so many parallels to current discrimination towards immigrants. Being a big fan of other Lisa See books, i loved seeing the kernels of some of her stories, especially Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy. this is definitely worth the considerable investment of time to read, especially for those interested i...more
I just finished this and it was completely captivating. Lisa See is at the top of my list of favorite authors (ok, so its a long list and the entire list is the top of the list, but still) and reading her account of her family's history and trek to the United States is amazing, it really puts a clear and fine point on the Chinese-American experience, from building the railroad to the red scare (and beyond!)
A few of the chapters read like they were transcribed straight from audio tapes - real str...more
A few of the chapters read like they were transcribed straight from audio tapes - real str...more
This was a wonderful book about one of California's historical families. I had seen a picture of Fong See & his wife Letticie at the Autry Museum and wondered about such an odd pairing. A Chinese man & a white woman marrying at the turn of the last century was highly unusual to say the least. I was fascinated not because their actions were unusual (because their family problems & joys were very much like everyone else's), but because of the authors desire to explain to herself &...more
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Lisa See is a Chinese-American author. Her books include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), Dragon Bones, and On Gold Mountain. She was named the 2001 National Woman of the Year, by the Organization of Chinese American Women. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Jan 30, 2013 07:02pm
Jan 30, 2013 08:21pm