On Gold Mountain, Lisa See
On Gold Mountain, Lisa See
2 Rating(s)
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
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On Gold Mountain
The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family

Author: Lisa See

Narrator: Kate Reading

Unabridged: 18 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/01/2011

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women, here is the true story of the one-hundred-year-odyssey of the author’s Chinese-American family, combining years of research with “fascinating family anecdotes, imaginative details, and the historical details of immigrant life” (Amy Tan, bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club).

"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).

About Lisa See

American author, Lisa See, was born in Paris, France, but spent many years in Los Angeles, primarily in the Chinatown District. Her mother, another novelist, wrote her autobiography which also includes interesting insights into her daughter's life. Lisa See graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a B.A. Degree in 1979.

See had various writing jobs such as a correspondent for Publisher's Weekly on the West Coast and has written articles for Self, Vogue, and More magazines. Lisa See is one-eighth Chinese, and she has done various noted projects concerning the Chinese American population. One such project was featured in the Smithsonian. See has also been an avid public speaker. Adding to her diversification, she also serves as a Los Angeles City Commissioner. See is a member of The Trusteeship, an organization whose members are "prominent women of achievement and influence in diverse fields".

Among her works are: Snowflower and the Secret Fan, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Peony in Love, Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, and China Dolls. "These books have been celebrated for their authentic, deeply researched, lyrical stories about Chinese characters and cultures". One newer book is about South Korean women of Jeju Island, called The Island of Sea Women. It was chosen as the March 2019 Barnes and Noble nationwide Book Club book to read.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marcy on August 07, 2013

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 oversea......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on February 13, 2010

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 comp......more

Goodreads review by Book Concierge on February 02, 2023

Subtitle: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of a Chinese-American Family. This is See’s “biography” of her family, starting with her great-great-grandfather, Fong Dun Shung, who immigrated to America (“The Gold Mountain”) in 1861 as an herbalist / healer working for the railroad. He brought with him two o......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen on October 11, 2009

This was my introduction to Lisa See, an affair that is enduring and endearing. My own Los Angeles roots, if you can call the San Fernando Valley "Los Angeles", led me on odyssey through familiar places with a whole new perspective. I read it by accident, it being on my daughter's reading list for a......more

Goodreads review by Julia on January 06, 2010

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 uniqu......more

Quotes

"Astonishing ... A comprehensive and exhaustively researched account of a Chinese-American family ... that juggles such explosive elements as race, class, tradition, prejudice, poverty, and great wealth in new and relatively unexpected combinations." —The Los Angeles Times

“Terrific stuff…. The See family’s adventures would be incredible if On Gold Mountain were fiction.” —The New York Times Book Review

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