BITTER MELON Stories from the Last Rural Chinese Town in America

Jeff Gillenkirk and James Motlow Introduction by Sucheng Chan

ISBN 10: 0295965002 / ISBN 13: 9780295965000

Published by University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1987

About this Item

An ex-Library copy. Dust jacket is in mylar, library sticker on spine edge, front-end page of text has usual library markings and pouch, otherwise a very nice copy without flaw. 9 X 10" 143 pages. Chinese immigrants built a large part of California. Until the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, they were on their way to becoming one of the largest ethnic groups in the US. Many stayed on to work the Delta farms their labor had created, forming communities within the towns of Walnut Grove, Isleton, Rio Vista, and Courtland. In 1945 when Walnut Grove's Chinatown burned for the second time, they built their own town in the Delta called Locke, the only town in America built and inhabited exclusively by Chinese. In 1971, a young photographer named James Motlow became one of the handful of non-Chinese living in Locke. As Motlow came to know and love his neighbours, he wanted to see their story told. The thirteen oral histories and 58 eloquent b/w photographs are supplemented by historical essays and an overview of Locke's situation today (1987). The result is a window into a fascinating and hidden aspect of American history. With an Afterword, Appendix and Bibliography. **Bundle Up Canada & Save On Postage**.

Seller Inventory # 578427

Bibliographic Details

• Title: BITTER MELON Stories from the Last Rural Chinese Town in America
• Publisher: University of Washington Press, Seattle and London
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0295965002
• ISBN 13: 9780295965000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: James Motlow - photography
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Travel : USA
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

Relates the history and experiences of Chinese Americans living in the rural community of Locke, California

Reviews

YA These oral histories reveal the strong traditional ties of the people who grew up in the all-Chinese town of Locke, Calif. Family values and a work ethic were central to this culture. A historical essay gives a broad overview of the Chinese immigrant experience. Superb photographs of the people and the town complete this first-hand picture of Asians adjusting to life in America in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In their own words, the mostly elderly residents of formerly all-Chinese Locke, Calif., tell their life stories. Situated in the fertile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Locke is the lone survivor of what was once a range of Chinese towns along the West Coast and in the Rocky Mountain statesmost of which were destroyed at various times by Caucasian rioters. The well-researched introduction gives compelling information about Chinese-American history. Many readers will be surprised to learn that not only the West's railroad system, but also much of its agriculture, was made possible through the low-paid labor of Chinese men. Even more shocking, in this year of celebration of the Constitution, is the list of anti-Chinese laws enacted, some of which bear an eerie resemblance to the anti-Jewish ones of Hitler's Germany. Motlow's black-and-white photographs capture his subjects' steadfast dignity as well as the soft light of the delta region.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Locke, California in the Sacramento delta was established in 1915 and remained exclusively a Chinese community into the late 1960s. Thus it was the last rural Chinese town in the United States, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Bitter Melon is its story. Though Sucheng Chan, who wrote the book's introduction, discusses the Chinese in California agriculture in The Bittersweet Soil ( LJ 4/1/87), Bitter Mellon is distinctively oral history. For most academic and larger public libraries. Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.