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The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America
Author(s): Mae Ngai (Author)
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Publication Date: 15 Sept. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 0618651160
- ISBN-13: 9780618651160
Book Description
If youre Irish American or African American or Eastern European Jewish American, theres a rich literature to give you a sense of your familys arrival-in-America story. Until now, that hasnt been the case for Chinese Americans.From noted historian Mae Ngai, The Lucky Ones uncovers the three-generational saga of the Tape family. Its a sweeping story centered on patriarch Jeu Dips (Joseph Tapes) self-invention as an immigration broker in postgold rush, racially explosive San Francisco, and the extraordinary rise it enables. Ngais portrayal of the Tapes as the first of a brand-new social typemiddle-class Chinese Americans, with touring cars, hunting dogs, and society weddings to broadcast itwill astonish.Again and again, Tape family history illuminates American history. Seven-year-old Mamie Tape attempts to integrate California schools, resulting in the landmark 1885 Tape v. Hurley. The familys intimate involvement in the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair reveals how the Chinese American culture brokers essentially invented Chinatownand so Chinese culturefor American audiences. Finally, Mae Ngai reveals aspectstimely, haunting, and hopefulof the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience for all Americans.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Mae Ngai’s Impossible Subjects won the AHA Littleton-Griswold Prize and the OAH Frederick Jackson Turner award for best first book on any topic in American history. Ngai is a professor of history at Columbia University.
