Sojourners to Joke Sings: Tales of Chinatown & Beyondis a transgenerational, genre-blending work of family memoir, historical recovery, and cultural witness. The lives of Chinese American ancestors and descendants unfold across centuries, centering on San Francisco's Chinatown from the 1800s to the 1970s. From tales of coffin stowaways and shrimping villages to the 1939 World's Fair and years serving as a fiery public school counselor, the narrative threads together personal, political, and cultural elements.
At its core, this is a reclamation of stories often erased or ignored in dominant historical narratives: seafaring ancestors tied to the Ming dynasty and Zheng He's treasure ships; immigration before the Gold Rush; the brutal realities of racism, opium dens, Tongs, and exclusion laws; the fight to escape indenture and gendered exploitation; and the hard-won pride of Chinese Americans who stayed, became citizens, and remade home in diaspora.
Rooted in the vivid recollections of L K Lennie Lee and expanded by her son, Ron Lee, and descendants, this book blends oral history, myth, and archival research to reclaim erased narratives and honor the lives of 'Joke Sings'- those who survived and forged belonging across oceans and generations.
