Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America

From New Yorker writer Michael Luo comes a masterful narrative history of the Chinese in America that traces the sorrowful theme of exclusion and documents their more than century-long struggle to belong. A TIME MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK A NEW YORK TIMES NONFICTION BOOK TO READ THIS SPRING 'A story about aspiration and belonging that is as universal as it is profound.'--Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing 'A gift to anyone interested in American history. I couldn't stop turning pages.'--Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown 'What history should be--richly detailed, authoritative, and compelling.'--David Grann, author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon Strangers in the Land tells the story of a people who, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan­--Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed these Chinese arrivals, but, as their numbers grew, horrific episodes of racial terror erupted on