Michael Luo and Jill Lepore discuss “Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America”

Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, tens of thousands of Chinese migrated to a distant land they called Gum Shan-–Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed these arrivals. Strangers in the Land tells the story of what happened next and into modern times, revealing anew the complications of our multiracial democracy.

Drawing on archives from across the country and written with a New Yorker writer’s style and sweep, Michael Luo’s work is revelatory and unforgettable, an essential American story. Strangers in the Land follows the Chinese from their early gold-rush years to modern times; as their numbers grew, horrific episodes of racial terror erupted. At the book’s heart is a shameful chapter of American history: the brutal driving out of Chinese residents from towns across the American West. Luo documents the terror’s victims, the resultant activism, and the resilience of communities that persisted in the face of bigotry and persecution. Only in 1965 did America’s gates swing open to people like Luo’s parents, immigrants from Taiwan. Today there are more than twenty-two million people of Asian descent in the United States and yet the “stranger” label remains, says Luo, who will present this history with illustrations before a discussion with the acclaimed American historian and fellow New Yorker writer Jill Lepore.