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To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond; California; 1910-1963

ePub To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond; California; 1910-1963 by Shirley Ann Wilson Moore in History

Description

Sweet Bamboo is the vivid and absorbing memoir of a Chinese American family who lived in Los Angeles since the first years of the twentieth century. Lovingly recounted by the second daughter; who went on to become the first Asian American reporter for a major American newspaper; this account illuminates the many changes that occurred in the family as members increasingly became integrated into American society. While much of the attention given to Chinese immigrants has focused on the struggles of working class people; this book sheds new light on a different kind of immigrant experience—that of privileged Chinese parents and their children living in relative affluence in a predominantly white neighborhood.The family saga begins in China's Kwangtung Province; in the village of Gum Jook (Sweet Bamboo); about 31 miles south of Canton. It follows Louise Leung Larson's parents through their arranged marriage in 1898; to their arrival in Los Angeles; the birth of three daughters and five sons (named after American presidents); and her father's development of a successful herbalist business. Larson's intimate portrait of her family; her lively depiction of Los Angeles at the turn of the century; and her engaging descriptions of meals eaten; holidays celebrated; school events; visits from relatives; and much more make this a richly textured excursion into the dreams and disappointments of everyday life.The death of the author's mother in 1957 marks the end of an era for the Tom Leung family. An epilogue brings the story to the late 1980s; tracing the intermarriage of the third and fourth generations; and the family's diminishing sense of its Chinese identity. A postscript by the author's daughter; Jane Leung Larson; provides details of the fourth and fifth generations Leungs and recounts Jane's trip to China where she visited her parents' birthplaces and met relatives from both her grandmother's and grandfather's families. Taken together; these keen observations illustrate several generations' adaptation to dual cultures and the formation of a unique Chinese American sensibility.


#3536351 in Books 2000-01-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 1.08 x 6.37 x 9.36l; #File Name: 0520215656245 pages


Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. I am richmondBy Kindle CustomerI am a Richmond girl. I grew up during some of the history that is Richmond to the author you did good0 of 2 people found the following review helpful. PostiiveBy jahyunLiked it because received what I expected. A new book. Also it came really quickly... Around 2-3 days I think;.8 of 9 people found the following review helpful. A well-researched and insightfully written gemBy Jayne MacManusRichmond; California became a World War II boomtown. And almost as quickly as it burst at the seams with shipyard productivity; population surges; and overflowing housing; schools; and day care needs; the boomtown deflated. To a San Francisco-centric mindset; Richmond is no more than a sprawling urban ghetto. But it's a community that deserves more than quick dismissal. As Shirley Ann Wilson Moore writes; "This book examines the history of the African American community in Richmond during the critical transitional years of the first half of the twentieth century. It places the activities of black working-class men and women; regarded by some as unlettered peasants who were spatially and intellectually isolated from larger social currents; at the center of the nation's most profound; transformative events."Published dissertations generally have an awful density about them -- a frustrating compression of stats; dates; and repetitious topic statements. Moore's book is somehow magically void of this while maintaining its scholarly value and dignity. Richly supported by oral histories; the book is unique for telling a community story of California; the American WW2 home front; and the African American experience all at once.Moore's work is an insightful and appropriately succinct package encompassing the exodus of thousands of African Americans from the Jim Crow south to establishment of community; church life; self-sufficiency; war work; blues clubs; prosperity and stability in Richmond -- if not for all; at least for some instead of none. These Richmondites were urban pioneers who laid the basis for the Civil Rights Movement in following generations.

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