Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories (8 page)

AFTER THE
publication of
Tales from Gold Mountain
in 1989, I found I had more New World folk tales to tell, and they have emerged in this collection as ghost stories, a popular narrative form in China. As with the first collection, I wanted to dramatize the history of the Chinese in North America and create a New World mythology where immigrant stories can be told and retold.

Although I invented all these stories, they are tales much like the ones early Chinese immigrants told one another in bachelor halls or shared with their children and grandchildren during family banquets. Those tales described the very real occupations and immigration laws that the early Chinese experienced when they first came to North America. They also contained suspense and surprise, as well as elements of heartfelt folk culture that would remind Chinese Americans and Chinese Canadians of their ancestors.

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