Bitter Melon: Inside America's Last Rural Chinese Town

by Jeff Gillenkirk, James Motlow

At the turn of the century, the Sacramento Delta was home to thousands of Chinese immigrants. By day, laborers engaged in the back-breaking work of building the levees and harvesting crops. After work, many of them returned to the bustling, safe town of Locke. Locke, with its single-family homes, stores, saloons, restaurants, boarding houses, school, five gambling dens, and two brothels was the only village in the United States built and inhabited exclusively by Chinese. Bitter Inside America's Last Rural Chinese Town is a collection of moving oral histories and stunning historical photographs (all printed in duotone), offers an unforgettable glimpse into this unique and vibrant community, and in doing so contributes significantly to our understanding of immigrant experience in California.

Genres: History

144 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Jeff Gillenkirk's work has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Mother Jones magazine and dozens of other publications. He is the author of the novels Home, Away and Pursuit of Darkness.

Reviews

[Richard]

The book is a compilation of interviews of people who lived the hardest of lives via labor and poor wages. Other Chinese often had more brutal existences at the hands of racist abusers than the folks of Locke. Clearly the abandonment of the town is a good thing for the offspring of those who endured hardships .. as their lives were clearly able to become better.

The book written originally 35 years ago failed to integrate a little more of the life of all Californian Chinese following their hopes for gold mining, building railways and creating various Chinatowns - I guess I wish it was a bit more about the Chinese in California or the west while interweaving the one town central to the theme.

Certainly interesting..

[JoAnn]

Maybe more of a 3.5 but I gave it a 4 because I enjoy reading histories and this was about a place that I've lived near almost my entire life and never knew about until very recently, Locke(e), CA. After visiting an exhibit in Sacramento (https://www.californiamuseum.org/gold...), I learned more about how the Chinese who immigrated to America, "Gold Mountain", contributed to the Railroad (which I knew already), but also the building of levee systems and the agricultural labor force in the Delta regions of California.

[Camille HR]

Having visited Locke and other Delta towns - I was interested in learning about the history of the Chinese in this area. The book mainly contains interviews and photos from the mid-1970's with residents who have probably all passed away. Read this before Shawna Yang Ryan's "Locke 1928" to get the backstory.

[Cindy]

We drive through Locke on our way to the cabin on the Delta...thus my interest in "Bitter Melon." It's the history of Locke from the building of the town to current times. It's a charming place that oozes memories of a time long ago.

[Mia]

In the early fall of 2025, I saw a newly released documentary about the Chinese women of Locke, California, the only Chinese city in the United States. There are sections of American cities called “Chinatown”, but this was a separate city in the Sacramento Delta, built by Chinese as a refuge for the mostly poor workers who tended the factory farms of the Delta. I visited the town long ago and found this book in the library.
The book was written forty years ago, and most of the old men and women who tell their own stories in this beautifully photographed book are long gone, but the book is a treasure. Each person (often speaking through a translator) describes this or her experiences living in Locke. Most tell stories of hardship and deprivation seasoned with the fatalism that they might not have survived war-ravaged China had they or their ancestors not fled China. They take pride in the children they raised, educated and freed from the necessity of farm labor. They are candid about Locke, a place where Chinese farm workers and Chinese from San Francisco could come on the weekends for fun, relaxation and maybe gambling, drinking and prostitution. Everybody seems to agree the prostitutes in Locke were white ladies. Most of the residents lived by the belief in “live and let live”. Many of the men would never be able to marry because they were too poor and their own immigration documents were questionable. Those who were children in Locke tell of growing up in a time of segregation and describe the changes after World War II.
All in all, a wonderful story.

[Mei]

An intro with how the author came to create this book, some historical context and a timeline, mostly verbatim interviews of folks who lived and worked in Locke, CA. Not the best format or writing, but certainly gives respect to each person and his or her lived experience of immigration, exploitation, and community resilience.

[Zack]

A little bit clunky writing but certainly respectful of the interview subjects and interesting. If there's a better book about Locke I certainly haven't found it. Would love it if the author and translators did some kind of follow up now that it's been so long. Locke is still around, tho it's changed quite a bit.

[Renee]

Interesting interviews with residents of a small Chinese town near Sac. Wish I had visited when I lived near there!