Bury My Bones in America: A Chinese Family in California - Cloth

Bury My Bones in America: The Saga of a Chinese Family in California 1852 - 1996 From San Francisco to the Sierra Gold Mines by Lani Ah Tye Farkas. This is an astounding and detailed account of the travails and triumphs of a Chinese man, Yee Ah Tye, during the California Gold Rush. It sheds light on the struggles of an early immigrant determined to embrace his adopted country despite racial prejudice and harsh exclusionary laws. The author, who is Yee's great-granddaughter, tells a fascinating tale of the extraordinary fortitude of the early Chinese in California.

Intertwined in the family history are accounts of one of America's first Chinese temples, the Chinese gold miners of LaPorte, railroad builders, early San Francisco Chinatown, tong wars, diplomats, survivors of the 1906 earthquake, Chinese customs in America, gambling and opium dens in Salinas Chinatown, and the gradual integration of the Chinese into American society. "The Ah Tye story provides valuable insights into the Chinese American historical experience. Hopefully it will inspire the publication of other such histories and fill in the numerous gaps that still exist in this field today, thus leading to deeper understanding of Chinese American historical development." - HIM MARK LAI, Asian American Studies Department, San Francisco State University.163 pages, 8-1/2 x 11 inches, Cloth