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A review by karnaconverse
Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming by Ava Chin
4.0
A deep dive into ancestry as affected by—and as a result of—the Chinese Exclusion Act
Ava Chin, a fifth-generation Chinese American New Yorker, was raised by a single mother and her grandparents. She grew up with a variety of family stories but knew nothing about her father's side of the family. When she begins searching for her paternal ancestry, she also discovers the history of a six-floor tenement building and unravels the intricate relationships formed between its tenants. This unraveling includes stories about an 1860s-era railroad worker, an interracial marriage, a paper son, Angel Island detainees, Hong Kongers, Hakka, and the Chinese Tong—and all which she discusses in context of the nearly six decades the Chinese Exclusion Act was enforced (1882-1943).
I appreciate that Chin included a family tree in her opening pages and, had I been reading Mott Street in print form, I would have referred to it often. Unfortunately, the graphic does not reproduce well in Kindle form. She introduces readers to a lot of people—sometimes by name, sometimes by familial relationship—and I often found it difficult to remember the branches of each family tree.
At its core, however, is the overarching theme of "otherness" and the questioning of who is an American and who is not. She notes the effect of the Chinese Exclusion Act—from 1880 to 1920, the Chinese American population dropped by twenty-five percent while the U.S. population more than doubled—and offers personal commentary about how questions like "Where are you from? No, where are you really from?" are divisive and threatening.
Ava Chin, a fifth-generation Chinese American New Yorker, was raised by a single mother and her grandparents. She grew up with a variety of family stories but knew nothing about her father's side of the family. When she begins searching for her paternal ancestry, she also discovers the history of a six-floor tenement building and unravels the intricate relationships formed between its tenants. This unraveling includes stories about an 1860s-era railroad worker, an interracial marriage, a paper son, Angel Island detainees, Hong Kongers, Hakka, and the Chinese Tong—and all which she discusses in context of the nearly six decades the Chinese Exclusion Act was enforced (1882-1943).
I appreciate that Chin included a family tree in her opening pages and, had I been reading Mott Street in print form, I would have referred to it often. Unfortunately, the graphic does not reproduce well in Kindle form. She introduces readers to a lot of people—sometimes by name, sometimes by familial relationship—and I often found it difficult to remember the branches of each family tree.
At its core, however, is the overarching theme of "otherness" and the questioning of who is an American and who is not. She notes the effect of the Chinese Exclusion Act—from 1880 to 1920, the Chinese American population dropped by twenty-five percent while the U.S. population more than doubled—and offers personal commentary about how questions like "Where are you from? No, where are you really from?" are divisive and threatening.