The Lucky Ones: One Family and the Extraordinary Invention of Chinese America
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If you’re Irish American or African American or Eastern European Jewish American, there’s a rich literature to give you a sense of your family’s arrival-in-America story. Until now, that hasn’t been the case for Chinese Americans. From noted historian Mae Ngai, The Lucky Ones uncovers the three-generational saga of the Tape family. It’s a sweeping story centered on patriarch Jeu Dip’s (Joseph Tape’s) self-invention as an immigration broker in post–gold rush, racially explosive San Francisco, and the extraordinary rise it enables. Ngai’s portrayal of the Tapes as the first of a brand-new social type—middle-class Chinese Americans, with touring cars, hunting dogs, and society weddings to broadcast it—will 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 family’s intimate involvement in the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair reveals how the Chinese American culture brokers essentially invented Chinatown—and so Chinese culture—for American audiences. Finally, Mae Ngai reveals aspects—timely, haunting, and hopeful—of the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience for all Americans. The New York Times - Anderson Tepper …[a] fresh portrait of Chinese immigrants, America and the past century…Ngai…has chosen to write what she calls a "middle-class" history, and while the Tapes' achievements are hard-won and impressive, they remain tinged with a sense of loss. What is the cost of success, the price of this family's "luck"? Where do they ultimately belong? These are questions Ngai only hints at. But while her imagination strains from time to time, trying to flesh out the picture she has wrested from family photographs, official records and various news clippings, this material still yields an absorbing story.
Author's NoteTape Family TreeMapsPart I Strivings: (1864-1883)1 The Lucky One 32 The First Rescue 143 Joseph and Mary 24Part II School Days: (1884-1894)4 "That Chinese Girl" 435 Chinatown's Frontier 58Part III Native Sons And Daughters: (1895-1904)6 Suburban Squire 717 Two Marriages 838 The Chinese Village 95Part IV The Interpreter Class: (1905-1917)9 Blood and Fire 11910 In Pursuit of Smugglers 13511 Modern Life 15012 The Trial 16113 "Sailors Should Go Ashore" 173Part V Reinventions: (1917-1950)14 The New Daughter-in-Law 18915 Loss 20116 Service 207Epilogue 223Glossary of Chinese Names 231Acknowledgments 233Notes 235Index 277
