CHINATOWN, U.S.A.: a state of mind, a world within a world, a
neighborhood that exists in more cities than you might imagine.
Every day, Americans find something different in Chinatown's narrow
lanes and overflowing markets, tasting exotic delicacies from a
world apart or bartering for a trinket on the street -- all without
ever leaving the country. It's a place that's foreign yet familiar,
by now quite well known on the Western cultural radar, but
splitting the difference still gives many visitors to Chinatown the
sense, above all, that things are not what they seem -- something
everyone in popular culture, from Charlie Chan to Jack Nicholson,
has been telling us for decades. And it's true that few visitors
realize just how much goes on beneath the surface of this vibrant
microcosm, a place with its own deeply felt history and stories of
national cultural significance.But Chinatown is not a place that
needs solving; it's a place that needs a more specific telling. In
American Chinatown, acclaimed travel writer Bonnie Tsui takes an
affectionate and attentive look at the neighborhood that has
bewitched her since childhood, when she eagerly awaited her
grandfather's return from the fortune-cookie factory. Tsui visits
the country's four most famous Chinatowns -- San Francisco (the
oldest), New York (the biggest), Los Angeles (the film icon),
Honolulu (the crossroads) -- and makes her final, fascinating stop
in Las Vegas (the newest; this Chinatown began as a mall); in her
explorations, she focuses on the remarkable experiences of ordinary
people, everyone from first-to fifth-generation Chinese Americans.
American Chinatown breaks down the enigma of Chinatown by offering
narrative glimpses: intriguing characters who reveal the realities
and the unexpected details of Chinatown life that American
audiences haven't heard. There are beauty queens, celebrity chefs,
immigrant garment workers; there are high school kids who are
changing inner-city life in San Francisco, Chinese extras who
played key roles in 1940s Hollywood, new arrivals who go straight
to dealer school in Las Vegas hoping to find their fortunes in
their own vision of gold mountain. Tsui's investigations run
everywhere, from mom-and-pop fortune-cookie factories to the mall,
leaving no stone unturned.By interweaving her personal impressions
with the experiences of those living in these unique communities,
Tsui beautifully captures their vivid stories, giving readers a
deeper look into what Chinatown means to its inhabitants, what each
community takes on from its American home, and what their
experience means to America at large. For anyone who has ever
wandered through Chinatown and wondered what it was all about, and
for Americans wanting to understand the changing face of their own
country, American Chinatown is an all-access pass.
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