On Gold Mountain

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family is a nonfiction memoir and historical account by American writer and novelist Lisa See. Published in 1995, the book—presented in six parts—tells the story of See’s family over the course of 100 years. See recounts the lives of six generations from 1867 to the present, spanning from China to the United States. On Gold Mountain is See’s first book, and it has informed many of her subsequent works of fiction and nonfiction that concentrate on immigrants and Chinese-Americans.

On Gold Mountain begins with Fong See, the author’s great-grandfather. Fong leaves China and comes to the United States. In China, the United States is referred to as the “Gold Mountain” since it is believed to be a place where hard-working Chinese immigrants can quickly and easily become rich. See acknowledges that this is not the case for many immigrants, but that successful businessman Fong was one of the lucky ones who prospered.

Fong is 14 years old when he arrives in America in the 1870s. He is searching for his negligent father who left China for America and had only very sporadic contact with his relatives back home. Although he fails to reconnect with his father, Fong takes over the family business, selling herbal remedies to other Chinese immigrants in Chinatown. While his father had no head for business, Fong proves to be a very capable businessman and soon makes selling herbal medicine profitable.



Eventually, using the profit from his herbal business, Fong opens a lingerie store that caters to prostitutes in Los Angeles. It is through his work at the store that he meets Letticie Pruett (called “Ticie” in the book), a young orphaned woman from Oregon. Penniless and with no family on the West Coast, Ticie is desperate for a job to save her from a life of prostitution and applies for a job in Fong’s lingerie store to avoid living on the street. Although it is highly unusual for a white woman to work for a Chinese boss, Fong hires Ticie, who quickly becomes invaluable to his operation.

Ticie teachers the illiterate Fong to read in English. She also helps him move away from selling lingerie to dealing in Chinese imports and antiques. Fong’s pivot to importing curios from China coincides with a burgeoning interest in Asian antiques and decor among the white tastemakers of Greater Los Angeles. His new endeavor gives Fong the unique opportunity to make business contacts among influential white people in America, as well as influential businessmen in China.

Most of the Chinese immigrants in America are treated as slave labor and have little power or authority in America. However, Fong quickly gains respect as a businessman and becomes one of the most powerful people in Chinatown. He also achieves recognition back in China as the “Gold Mountain See,” a kind of ambassador between Chinese people living in America and in their home country.



Meanwhile, Fong and Ticie decide to start a family. Since interracial marriage is illegal at this time under California law, the couple cannot marry. Instead, they enter into a legally binding contract. Ticie gives birth to five children, but eventually Fong, at 64 years old, divorces her after one of his Chinese business partners offers to engage Fong to his 16-year-old daughter. After the divorce, Ticie eventually has a nervous breakdown and falls apart.

The second half of On Gold Mountain relates the experiences of the seven children produced by Fong’s second marriage to the Chinese woman. These included Anna May Wong, the ground-breaking Chinese-American actress who starred in both silent and sound films during the early days of Hollywood.

See follows the descendants of Fong’s second family through the 1920s, the Great Depression, World War II, and post-World War II. The challenges faced by Chinese-Americans change over the years, but themes of connecting across cultures extend throughout the entire story. See ends the book by recounting the short-lived marriage of her own parents, Richard See and Carolyn Laws, another mixed-race couple.



Following her parent’s divorce, See decides to delve into her family’s history. She takes a trip to visit China in search of Fong’s past. She visits important places from his personal history and tries to reconstruct what his life must have been like at the end of the 19th century.

See spent five years compiling the detailed history of her family to write her memoir, collectively interviewing over 100 Chinese and Caucasian relatives. She writes that “you can’t learn about living unless you live. You can’t live unless you take a chance; and your living is limited by the chances you take.” See admits that her family has a complicated history, and she wrote On Gold Mountain as a way of exploring her past and her place in her family and culture. She explores the similar issues faced by all three generations of the See family—from the difficulty of reconciling to different cultures to the gap that exists for many immigrants between the American Dream and the reality that they experience in their new country. This fertile ground informs all of See’s subsequent novels, which explore similar characters and ideas as her first foray into writing professionally.

Fellow American writer Amy Tan, who also writes about Chinese-American immigrants and penned the bestseller The Joy Luck Club, states that “On Gold Mountain weaves together fascinating family anecdotes, imaginative storytelling, and historical details of immigrant life over the last one-hundred years. Lisa See looks at what’s in her bones and re-creates an enviably entertaining family history.”