The Eighth Promise: An American Son’s Tribute to His Toisanese China-Born Mother
WILLIAM POY LEE. Rodale, $23.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-59486-456-8
While
many immigrants are focused on assimilation, Lee’s mother, Poy Jen Lee, came
to America with a different agenda. In 1948, Poy Jen agreed to leave Suey
Wan, her Toisan village in the Pearl River delta of China, to come to
America as the wife of a Toisanese-American man. Before leaving, she made
eight promises to her mother, among them that she’d find good husbands for
her sisters and arrange immigration papers for her mother and brother; teach
her children Chinese and Toisan customs, so they’d know their heritage; keep
clan sisterhood strong; and cook traditional medicinal soups. The eighth
promise bound Poy Jen to the fundamental Toisan ethos, “to live her life in
complete compassion” for all people—her family, her Chun clan sisterhood and
her larger community. In this remarkable memoir, mother and son, in
alternating chapters, tell the story of their life in San Francisco’s
Chinatown from the 1950s to the present. Between American racism and power
struggles in the Chinese community, it’s a tribute to Toisan endurance that
Poy Jen not only held her family together but also brought her children back
to China to fortify their clan connection. Fans of Amy Tan and Maxine Hong
Kingston shouldn’t hesitate to embrace this formidable matriarch and the son
she taught to cook her chi soups.(Feb)