The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America - Expanded paperback Edition

by Mae M. Ngai

"The Lucky Ones" uncovers the story of the Tape family in post-gold rush, racially explosive San Francisco. Mae Ngai paints a fascinating picture of how the role of immigration broker allowed patriarch Jeu Dip (Joseph Tape) to both protest and profit from discrimination, and of the Tapes as the first of a new social type--middle-class Chinese Americans.

Tape family history illuminates American history. Seven-year-old Mamie attempts to integrate California schools, resulting in the landmark 1885 case "Tape v. Hurley." The family's intimate involvement in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair reveals how Chinese American brokers essentially invented Chinatown, and so Chinese culture, for American audiences. Finally, "The Lucky Ones" reveals aspects--timely, haunting, and hopeful--of the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience for all Americans.

This expanded edition features a new preface and a selection of historical documents from the Chinese exclusion era that forms the backdrop to the Tape family's story.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China, American History, School, Unfinished

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Mae Ngai is a professor of Asian American Studies and History at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Nghi Ly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mae Ngai's "The Lucky Ones" describes the formation of Chinese America, especially focusing on the life of Jeu Dip, a Chinese immigrant who came to America for a new beginning. This book is set in San Francisco, California during the late 1800s, when immigrants began pouring in from all over the world in search of new opportunities and freedom. Living in the midst of a new form of discrimination, Jeu Dip and his family must try to live a normal, Americanized life while dodging the anti-Chinese and immigration laws. Although Jeu Dip worked his way up the social ladder, he and his family still must face the harsh reality of racism, living in the US as Chinese immigrants. This book describes with great detail another form of discrimination, which allows us to see what it really was like to be living as an immigrant in America during the 1800s. This book left a lasting impression.

The most memorable detail in this book to me so far is when the author quoted William Babcock, a company director who often observed the nature of Chinese laborers, "If you will look at their hands and feet and neck you will see them as clean and neat-looking people as you ever saw in the world. They are different from the lower white classes." I feel that this is the most memorable quote so far because it gave a point of view from a white person. Babcock praised and credited the Chinese laborers for what they are instead of criticizing them for being different racially. He also gave us a visual representation of the typical Chinese laborer. This quote is so memorable because the information given in this book are by a Chinese author who also grew up as "a daughter of immigrants", therefore the point of view from a non-asian person is quite prominent. It can be inferred that the author spent a great deal of time researching on the subject, because the information is incredibly detailed!

Ultimately, the story of one man's life as a Chinese immigrant during this time period demonstrates the hardships of exclusion and prejudice such as being accused of involvement in illegal business and restriction from certain rights. It all adds up to a tale of human discrimination, a path leading us back in time to a period when racial equality was only a dream. "The Lucky Ones" allows us to experience the difficulties of being an outsider in America a hundred years ago.

I felt that this book started out strong with how and when Jeu Dip (Joseph Tape) arrived in America. I found it quite interesting at first because it talked about this man's journey, past, how he met his wife in America, and the reasons why he immigrated. However, as I go further into the book, it became less about Jeu Dip, and more about politics. I appreciate the large amount of details because it gave you an opportunity to have a more realistic view of whatever subject it revolved around (politics, economy, society); however sometimes it was way too much. I became bored at certain points of the book, sometimes I would even forget the point of a certain part by the time I finish reading all facts because they are long! Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you love history. If you're not into history, I wouldn't recommend it because 80% of the book is facts, facts, facts!

Like I've said many times, this book has A LOT of facts. I felt like I was reading a history textbook at certain times. Although the details made it boring, I did learn a lot! I've learned things from this book that I did not learned in my history classes! I was able to dig deep into American society during the 1800s, I didn't realize how badly the Chinese immigrants were treated until I read this book. I knew that immigrants were looked down upon, accepted low wages, and were isolated; however I didn't know that violence was involved, that their homes and shops were trashed, etc. Not only did I learn more about American history, but more about my own family history reading this book!

This book made me feel more connected to my own family history because my parents also immigrated to the US for similar reasons as Jeu Dip. This was actually the whole reason why I chose this book in the beginning, I wanted to read something that I can somewhat relate to. Of course my parents came to America during a different time, therefore they did not experience the same difficulties and hardships. I wanted to find out how American society changed to accept immigrants and that connection to my own family.

[Bookventures Book Club · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lucky Ones is essentially a historical account of the Chinese Americans in California. The book features one family in particular, the Tapes of Russell Street in San Francisco who were among the first middle class Chinese American families in that area. If you are not familiar with the history of California, Chinese labours came to this state firstly during the gold rush in the 1840’s as a cheap, abundant source of labour. However when the gold rush era panned out, large numbers began to come into the state around the 1860’s to work on the transcontinental railroad. The fact that their labour was cheap angered the Occidental population and led to discriminatory laws against the Chinese well into the turn of the twentieth century. It is under this climate that the Tapes, Joseph and Mary lived in California.

Ngai has done a great job telling the story of this family. It is not so much analysis as it is a narration of the family's life, their battle against segregation in education and how they retained or in some instances assimilated there culture with that of America. The author used mostly family photos and official documentation to reconstruct their lives, the former can be found throughout the book.

At 304 pages, this book is not a light read and may be mostly suited to history buffs like myself yet the content of the book gives you a story not just about this family but about Chinese (and Japanese) Americans during the late eighteenth and nineteenth century and more importantly the development and growth of one of the most populated states in America, California.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this book, but know that any review I write won't match up to the "The Wall Street Journal's" review. You can find it here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001....

[Catalina · Rating 4 out of 5]

i actually really loved this book shout out to my mae ngai for being a fabulous smart woman who is not boring

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A history totally devoid of human interest, vivid setting, or substantive analysis. The story of Chinese immigrants to America has plenty of potential that has often been recognized in other books, but this read like a jr. high social studies report. The Tape family isn't cast as representative of the Chinese immigrant experience, but neither are they given any qualities that might explain why their story might be worth telling.
And it doesn't seem to be; this is marriage after marriage, journey after journey, start-up business after start-up business; not, to be sure, inaccurate or contrived, just boring.
I don't like history done this way.

[Moses · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a lot of problems with the way this book was written. I think Ngai really chose the wrong project with The Lucky Ones. She clearly did her research, but it's also clear that there was not enough material available to write an entire 230 page biography of the Tape family. Ngai could have written a good, fairly long essay with the material she had, or perhaps a fictionalized novel, but her final product feels neither historically robust or engaging.
Some of the information Ngai includes is factual and properly cited, but thoroughly boring (e.g. listing out the names and addresses of all the neighbors). Sometimes, when she lacks data on the Tape family themselves, she takes information about other Chinese-Americans and projects it onto them, which has the effect of flattening out Chinese-American identity by assuming that Chinese-American experiences are identical and thus interchangeable. The reasoning can get quite circular: Ngai asserts, based on the experience of other Chinese servants that "Jeu Dip's chores would have been typical of those of domestic servants in American upper- and middle-class homes in the mid-nineteenth century" (11). She projects the typical servant duties onto him, then proceeds to say that the duties he was assigned were typical.
Ngai tries really hard to develop her characters in the book, often without much clear evidence to support this. She often makes value judgments about characters (Frank is "spoiled," among other things), without explaining how she comes to those conclusions, and then uses those value judgments to make assumptions about how the characters would have responded to or felt about certain things. Her attempts to get at the internal worlds of her characters are always highly speculative, yet she continues attempting. So much of what Ngai says is hedged with "maybe," "perhaps," "likely," "probably would have," etc. that the book often seems to lack any real historical information, instead coming mostly from Ngai's imagination. Of course, it's important for historians to be cautious about claims they cannot prove, but when everything the author says comes off as purely speculative, it is perhaps a sign that they either need to do more research or take on a less ambitious project.
Overall, a disappointing and uninteresting book with enough real substance to fill an essay one-fifth of its length.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story of Joseph and Mary Tape (to use their American names) and their family is one that we rarely hear: how the Chinese came to America and became part of our country's melting pot. We've all heard about coolie labor during the gold rush and the building of the railroad, or those Chinese prostitutes, but what about the others? The vast majority that weren't either, but wanted to have what Euro-Americans had? The Tapes may not have been unique, but their story does illustrate this chapter in our history quite nicely.

There are two main problems with this book, however. The author became interested in the Tape's saga after hearing about Tape v. Hurley, a court case in which the Tapes sued to get access to American public education for their daughter. Given that starting point, one would think that there would be more about the case in the book. Instead, it's buried inside, with little real discussion and/or analysis. I felt a little as though I were some 50 years in our future, reading a biography of the Brown family in which Brown v. Board of Education was dispensed with in a few pages.

The other problem is the over reliance on "perhaps" and other suppositions. If you don't know, fine. But sentences that start "Yet it must have been awkward..." and "What did Mary think about..." with nothing to give you a sense that the author has anything concrete to go on are problematic.

In short, an important story ill-served by the author (and editor).

ARC provided by publisher.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I raced through this one. Historian Ngai has a wonderful ability to mix family history with a social history of San Francisco, and later Portland, Oregon, from the 1870s onward, using three generations of a Chinese American family to highlight immigrant experiences, but also social mores of the period, the tribulations of the 1906 earthquake and fire, anti-Chinese sentiment, opportunities for economic success, family ties and family black sheep, the connection between various world's fairs and the importation of Chinese goods across America, and many other topics. The Tape family represents both a microcosm of the Chinese experience and also a perfect petrie dish of assimilation. I highly recommend this to historians interested in immigration, California history, family history, and even the symbolism of See's candy.

[Chris Bull · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be rich is glorious.
Swimming upstream is the fate of any new immigrant and especially to those of colour. Ambition is one thing, but how you achieve "success" is another. The Tape family had the advantage of being early immigrants to California and they took full advantage of their "luck". The only ethical system at work seems to be centered around the family unit. Getting ahead and making "good" business decisions still rings true in much of the U.S. and now in mainland China. I don't know if it builds a stronger society or nation though.
Ngai at times mentions certain photographs in detail, but does not reproduce them in the book(!)

[Cu Van Nghiem · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Amazing glimpse into our Chinese American history in America.

An amazing glimpse to the experience of what it means to be Chinese American in present time from the past hardship and of the relentless survival of the Chinese Americans from the past. Makes me appreciate where we are today and why American is still so easy to point fingers at the immigrants but they themselves are immigrant to this nation.

[Kristin Barney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books is very informative about how one Chinese American family overcame the status that plague most Chinese immigrants.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Nathan Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched and very interesting, this story of the Tape family by a truly great American historian was a surprisingly delightful read.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright- a solid history of the Tape family... had to read it for my American studies course.

[Kate Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forced read for my history class so I can’t say I enjoyed it too much

[Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay reading that I enjoyed well enough for a history class. Provides good insight into the lives of Chinese immigrants during the time period.

[Christina Zawadiwsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lucky Ones by Mae Ngai, on sale by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on September 15, 2010, 304 pages.

Written by a historian (and with ten years of research in the making!), The Lucky Ones none-the-less does not read like a boring tract. The protagonists (primarily the Chinese-American Tape family) come alive on the page, despite the fact that author Mae Ngai had mostly photographs (no diaries) and court records from which to determine their characters. This book is a first, the story of two self-made Chinese-Americans in the mid-to-late 1800's and early 1900's - that is to say, Chinese who came to San Francisco and attempted to Americanize themselves and their families.

Being first generation myself (my parents came to New York City - where I was born - from Ukraine), I understand the peer pressure to become Americanized (although in my case I was intensely immersed in Ukrainian culture, language, arts and cuisine as Ukrainians displaced all over the world strove to keep their cultural identity, which was then being suppressed by the Russians in their own country). But Joseph Tape and Mary Tape perceived themselves as Americans and dressed their children in proper Victorian-wear because of Joseph's enterprising business prosperity, rising from being a servant in San Francisco to having his own business moving Chinese immigrants from their ships to Chinatown in a horse-drawn wagon. Mary Tape was saved from slavery and prostitution upon her arrival in America by the Ladies Protection and Relief Society, where Mary McGladery took an interest in her and taught her not only reading and writing in English but also art and piano playing. Later, during Mary's life with her husband Joseph, she painted voluminously and even became involved in the dark room aspects of photography.

The couple married and lived on the outskirts of San Francisco. At one point they lived on Washington Street, raising their children, and "Mary undoubtedly felt that she and her daughters were secure in this environment, with its rich concentration of white people, Christians, and other people of the artisan and middling classes" and "the children went to the Chinese Primary School a block away and pursued private musical instruction: Mamie played the piano, Emily the violin and Frank the French horn. The older girls also learned embroidery and taxidermy to preserve their father's bird specimens" (Joseph loved hunting and owned hunting hounds). Many Chinese did not deem it important to educate their female children, but Mary and Joseph did, given Mary's example. Later Joseph hired an amah (servant) "to help with the household, a sign of the family's status and prosperity." And when the state of California ruled that Chinese children could only go to Chinese schools, Joseph and Mary sued them on behalf of their daughter Mamie.

The Lucky Ones is an interesting book in which the real-life characters act humanly, the children of Joseph and Mary not always following their parents' wishes. At one point their son Frank becomes a governmental "interpreter," a desired position, but he actually spent his time informing against illegal Chinese to the Immigration Department. In 1806 an earthquake and fire destroyed San Francisco and thus displaced many Chinese and sparked the beginning of a newly-built commercial "tourist" Chinatown.

The story about how the children are raised continues, with Mary acknowledging them as "the same as other Caucasians, but in features." A truly unique topic about the first Chinese-Americans in America, and I highly recommend it as not only a book about discrimination but one of finely-drawn and described noble and independent characters.

Reviewed by Christina Zawadiwsky

Christina Zawadiwsky is Ukrainian-American, born in New York City, has a degree in Fine Arts, and is a poet, artist, journalist and TV producer. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Award, two Wisconsin Arts Boards Awards, a Co-Ordinating Council of Literary Magazines Writers Award, and an Art Futures Award, among other honors. She was the originator and producer of Where The Waters Meet, a local TV series created to facilitate the voices of artists of all genres in the media, for which she won two national and twenty local awards, including a Commitment to Community Television Award. She is also a contributing editor to the annual Pushcart Prize Anthology, the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Wisconsin Library Association, and has published four books of poetry. She currently reviews movies for http://www.movieroomreviews.com, music for http://www.musicroomreviews.com, and books for http://www.bookroomreviews.com.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lucky Ones, by Columbia history professor Mae Ngai, is the intergenerational story of the Chinese-American Tape family. It chronicles their story from the immigration of family founders (Joseph and Mary) through their service in World War II and their "acceptance" as Chinese-Americans.

The Tapes were responsible for many civil rights firsts that many Americans, and many Chinese-Americans, may not be aware of. These include the fact that American-born children of Chinese descent were not allowed to attend public school because they were not considered the equals of their white peers. Joseph and Mary Tape had to sue the San Francisco school district in 1885 to gain access for their children to formal education, resulting in the landmark California Supreme Court case, Hurley v. Tape (1885). This case undoubtedly paved the way for the seminal Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, which upheld the citizenship rights of Ark, a native-born American of Chinese descent, to re-enter the United States despite a Congressional Chinese Exclusion Act that had been passed to prohibit Chinese from entering the country. Incidentally, this case validated the citizenship rights of American-born children of immigrants, no matter their race, nationality, or country of origin, under the 14th Amendment.

The reader will be shocked and appalled at the many injustices that Chinese-Americans had to endure, but Ngai discusses it all with much historical evidence and in a compelling, even-handed manner. We learn that during the 19th and 20th centuries, when there were exclusion laws and prejudice prohibiting Chinese-Americans from schools, professions, homes, and worst of all, the full rights of U.S. citizenship, Chinese-Americans had to occupy a liminal world between East and West, working as interpreters, traders, and couriers, etc. Ngai says that it was this exclusion that created the world of the Chinese-American, for the American-born children of Chinese immigrants often did not speak Chinese or identify with the Far East, but were not accorded the full rights of U.S. citizenship, either. As a result, these Chinese-Americans started their own schools, civic associations, trade associations, and scholastic and fraternal clubs. They also invented the idea of Chinatown, a hyper-exoticized idea of the Orient, in the exaggerated architectural styles and souvenir shops that they built in San Francisco's Chinatown to cater to the tourist trade after the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

Ngai advances the interesting thesis that the fate of Chinese-Americans has always depended on the status of China, no matter how assimilated they are or how many generations they have lived in America. This will be interesting to follow as the United States begins to reckon with the growing might of China in the 21st century -- in trade, education, and more.

[Della · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to FirstReads and the publisher for providing an advanced reading copy!

The Lucky Ones is a narrative of the life of the Tapes, a Chinese American family that initially set foot in San Francisco and then settled in Berkeley, CA. Although there were many Chinese that immigrated to San Francisco in the late 1800s, what made the story of the Tape family unique was: (1) their desire to fully integrate themselves into American culture and society, and being amongst the first Chinese Americans to fight for equal rights as any other American-born citizen (at least for secondary education), and (2) their middle-class status, due in part to the lucrative family business of brokering/ticketing passage from China, and the social status of possessing the desirable governmental job as interpreters. What makes this second point even more striking is that their wealth and social status is ultimately derived from their ‘exploitation’ of Chinese immigrants.

From the outset, the author-historian points out that this is not the typical story of Chinese immigrants to California. Despite the focus on the story of the Tapes, the contrast to other immigrants gives you an idea of what the general experience for the typical Chinese immigrant was like. Overall, it is quite remarkable for the author-historian to put together a timeline like this without any diaries, journals, or other written references to go by other than documentation on photographs and albums.

This book wasn’t a very enjoyable read. Much of the narrative was surprisingly boring. There isn’t much of a voice to the writing, and it resembled more of a straightforward re-telling of a factual timeline of events. It’s unclear whether this was a purposeful decision in order to maintain a neutral point of view of history, or that this voiceless writing was a natural consequence of the limitation of primary information on the intimate thoughts of the Tape family members. In the few instances that the author-historian does try to offer some guesses about what was going on the minds of the Tape family members, I felt that it was done quite poorly. Overall, I found no compelling reason to care about the outcome of the family.

This is a good read for those that are not looking to feel connected to the people in a historical narrative, and are instead interested in the factual aspects of their lives.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC received from the Goodreads First Reads program.

The story of the Tape family is not one to read if you're looking to learn more about the experience of the typical Chinese immigrant or Chinese-American family during the exclusion era. Unless you're looking for a family that proves to be the exception to the rule.

This history of Joseph Tape and his family spans about 100 years, from the 1860s to the 1960s. Tape and his family carved out a name and role for themselves as culture brokers--the link between recently-arrived Chinese immigrants and mainstream (aka white) American culture. The Tapes lived a fairly typical middle-class life, unlike most Chinese-Americans of the late 1800s. They owned a house outside of San Francisco's Chinatown (very unusual), and engaged in typical Euro-American recreational pursuits like hunting (Joseph) and painting (his wife Mary). The Tapes also fought the California school system trying to enroll their eldest daughter Mamie in school.

Personally, I found this an interesting book because it's NOT about the typical poor immigrant experience. This is new territory--Chinese-Americans during the late 19th century and early 20th century as part of the middle class. It's interesting to read about the way the Tapes assimilated, but still retained aspects of their ancestral culture.

I'd recommend this book to those who are already pretty familiar with Californian history, especially as it relates to Chinese immigration. This book serves to illustrate an example of a family of "lucky ones" who leveraged their position to obtain money, power, and about as much acceptance as one could get where racist policies were law.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading a ton about Chinese immigration. This book was intriguing and valuable as it followed one atypical Bay area family over three generations. The Tape family were far more prosperous than most Chinese immigrants of the 1800's. In a sense they were among the first self-identified Chinese-Americans and their life history helped establish the possibility of that ethnicity. (The American born daughter was the plaintiff in the landmark case petitioning for public school education for Chinese. The son was the first Chinese American to serve on a jury.)Despite some hype, and the cool cover, this book isn't a novel, but it is intriguing for it's specificity and I appreciated the reality check of the complexity of the Tape's story. They faced discrimination, but they did assimilate and they did prosper. Much of their financial security was the result of anti-Chinese discrimination and their role as immigration brokers. The second generation son was intimately involved in upholding draconian laws excluding Chinese and seems to have taken part in cheating and extorting Chinese immigrants. I found this book full of interesting information and very valuable for upsetting some of the stereotypes other, more general, histories promulgated.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book about Chinese immigration. The book is centered around Joseph Tape, whose Chinese name was Jeu Dip. He comes to San Francisco alone at the age of 12. The story relays his struggle to find a job and make a life for himself here in America. He marries another Chinese immigrant, Mary McGladery, in 1875 and they raise their family in the San Francisco area. The book deals with the trials and triumphs that the family faces in establishing themselves in the Chinese American culture.

I especially liked this book because of my interest in family history and genealogy and also, because I have been to San Francisco's Chinatown, which is frequently mentioned in the book.

Thank you Goodreads First Reads and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the gift of this great book.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of how this family adapted to American life from the 1860s to the 1950s is remarkable and unexpected. While the story doesn't flow as easily as a memoir or narrative fiction, I appreciate that adherence to stick to the facts. The author compensates for unknowns by filling in the gaps with historical data, such as (loosely quoted) "Perhaps Joseph did ___ as many other ___ did during this period of time..." The obviously meticulous research subtly poses serious questions about politics and psychology. It made me really think about human nature. I also learned a lot of things I didn't know from that period of history. Overall, this is a great read for lovers of history and anthropology. I received an Advanced Readers copy through Goodreads First Reads.

[John Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very readable and informative presentation of generally unknown aspects of a landmark case (Tape vs. Hurley) in San Francisco in the late 1890s regarding exclusion of a Chinese girl, Mamie Tape, from public schools. Ngai searched archives and unearthed information that gives a more detailed understanding of Mamie's parents and their 'privileged' status as middle class Chinese who both helped and exploited laborer class Chinese immigrants. Her father and brother benefited as middle men (interpreters and transportation brokers) between the laborer Chinese and the Immigration authorities. In this role, her brother was able to exploit the situation and extort bribes and help smuggle immigrants into the country.

[Marie Hew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A neat chronicle of a middle class Chinese American family during the exclusion era. However, the topic that drew me to this book, Tape v. Hurley gets only a short chapter. The major theme of this piece is to shine a light into the middle class, Chinese American Tape family. The Tapes dealt with many of the same issues that contemporary Chinese Americans face in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

It's very refreshing to read new scholarship on exclusion era Chinese American beyond the sad and stale story of exploitation of bachelor laborers and women forced into prostitution.

Pretty slim volume for a book that spans a hundred plus years. I guess the author was really limited with her research materials.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting. The author follows a Chinese-born family from the first immigration of the parents - separate immigrants who did not meet until they were both already ensconced in San Francisco - through several generations. She uses their history as a jumping off point to explore the history of Chinese immigration on the West Coast. The difference in this case is that the family that she follows successfully navigated the waters of a very hostile environment (this was the the time of Chinese exclusion) by making a place for themselves by dealing with other Chinese immigrants as go-betweens in a variety of positions and became quite successful both financially and socially.

[Chalida · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked learning about the historical context of the Chinese Exclusion era esp. the scenes of SF Chinatown and Berkeley in their early days. Tried imagining my great grandfather in the mix. While I understand the author's limitations in research--no written records of the Tape family-- I would have preferred this to read as historical fiction only to make the story a bit more exciting. I feel that the lack of documents made me have to trust the author to much to fill in blanks the best she could and since I was doing that already, I would have preferred an all out great story. But the St. Louis world fair section was definitely interesting.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ngai weaves her extensive historical research of a Chinese American family into the fabric of the changing social landscape from the mid-nineteenth century all the way to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. I especially love the description of China Villages at several international expositions in the U.S, focusing on the role of Chinese American as "cultural" brokers between the Chinese working class and upper class whites. Most valuable is that Ngai explores the immersion of a Chinese American middle class well before the Asian American professionals who emigrated to the U.S. after the liberalization of immigration laws in the 1960s.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story used as a framework from which to examine the experience of Chinese-Americans, as well as to think about the nature of the middle class. Ngai does a good job with what she has, but this book suffers from a lack of available sources. Certain things rely on conjecture, and Ngai ascribes personality traits to various members of the Tape family that could have been better supported by quotes. Still, a thoughtful study of an underexamined subject.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ngai does a good job with outlining the history of Chinese immigrants in general and focuses on three generations of the Tape family. With limited documentation, the author had to rely on assumptions and there were a lot of “perhaps he did such-and-such” or “he might have…” At times the writing leaned a little too academic for me. I would have liked perhaps a bit shorter book with the characters highlighted rather than straying a tad off-topic to overly detailed events of the time.