{"id":2,"date":"2022-11-10T05:13:06","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T05:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/34.228.142.88\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2024-12-04T06:47:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T11:47:16","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/sample-page\/","title":{"rendered":"MOTT STREET"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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*PEN\/Open Book Award Finalist \u2022 CALA Best Nonfiction Book Award<\/strong> \u2022 TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2023<\/strong> \u2022 San Francisco Chronicle Best Nonfiction \u2022 Kirkus Reviews<\/strong> Best Nonfiction \u2022<\/strong> Library Journal Best Memoir & Biography 2024 ALA Notable Book*<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Book Prize and a New York Public Library Cullman fellow, comes a sweeping narrative history of the Chinese Exclusion Act through an intimate portrayal of one family\u2019s epic journey to lay down roots in America<\/strong>

As the only child of a single mother in Queens, Ava Chin found her family history was shrouded in mystery. She had never met her father, and her grandparents\u2019 stories didn\u2019t match the history she read at school. Mott Street<\/em> traces Chin\u2019s quest to understand her Chinese American family\u2019s story. Over decades of painstaking research, she finds not only her father but also the building where generations of both sides of her family lived.

Breaking the silence surrounding her family\u2019s past meant first confronting the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882\u2014the first federal law to restrict immigration by race and nationality, barring Chinese immigrants from citizenship for six decades. Chin traces the story of the pioneering family members who emigrated from the Pearl River Delta, crossing an ocean to make their way in the American West of the mid-nineteenth century. She tells of their backbreaking work on the transcontinental railroad and of the brutal racism of frontier towns, then follows their paths to New York City.

In New York\u2019s Chinatown she discovers a single building on Mott Street where so many of her ancestors would live, establish businesses, begin families, and craft new identities. Breaking the family silence, she follows ancestors who became merchants, \u201cpaper son\u201d refugees, activists, and heads of the Chinese tong, and pieces together how they bore and resisted the weight of the Exclusion laws. She finds exclusion is not simply a political condition but also a deeply personal one.

Gorgeously written, deeply researched, and tremendously resonant, Mott Street<\/em> uncovers a legacy of exclusion and resilience that speaks to the American experience, past and present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Alice and Rose, Cantonese Opera, NYC’s Chinatown, 1933<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PRAISE for MOTT STREET<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA deeply empathetic and important book, one that renders visible the hidden achievements and sufferings of her family members\u2014and insists that the wounding history of exclusion be seen clearly as well.\u201d \u2014Julia Flynn Siler, Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn expansive family history encompassing perilous journeys, sensational crimes and social change . . . Sensitive, ambitious, well-reported . . . It has a great deal to say about the Chinese experience in this country: the perilous journeys here, the racism that forced many into menial railroad and laundry jobs, and the draconian Chinese exclusion laws that for six decades (1882-1943) halted most legal immigration and blocked Chinese people from citizenship. The story has a certain pageantry. It flexes to absorb world wars, cholera epidemics, the San Francisco earthquake (the loss of official documents in flattened buildings was a boon to many Chinese immigrants), sensational crimes, foot binding and the rise of urban tongs . . . She and her vibrant family have come so far, but a lot of the old bruises are still right there on the surface.\u201d \u2014Dwight Garner, The New York Times<\/em> Book Review<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChin probes the plight of four generations of her ancestors with the tenacity of a historian, the fine brush of an accomplished artist, and the sensitivity of one who openly communicates with the dead . . . guided by curiosity and courage . . . one of the unexpected gifts is that we hear Chin\u2019s voice throughout . . . in her spine-tingling interactions with the spirits of those who have passed . . . magic.\u201d \u2014Megan Vered, Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBravura . . . Chin writes with a Proustian flourish about scrumptious foodscapes, and her new book\u2014a valentine to four generations of her Asian American ancestors\u2014plays to her strengths . . . Evocative . . . melding of different voices\u2014a kind of free indirect style\u2014works without drawing undue attention to itself as a composite form. There\u2019s an immediacy to Chin\u2019s description . . . [her ancestors] voices have been lovingly preserved in these pages.\u201d \u2014Rhoda Feng, The Washington Post<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe book shines a harsh and unforgiving light on this country\u2019s legacy of racist policies, exemplified by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which banned Chinese immigration for over 60 years and denied Chinese American residents the right to become U.S. citizens . . . an important read for those interested in learning about the origins of some of today\u2019s most hard-line immigration policy proposals in America.\u201d \u2014Leland Cheuk, San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA remarkable story . . . Mott Street<\/em> is the focal point of an extraordinary tale of an extended family that throws itself into making life in America work.\u201d \u2014Gavin Newsham, <\/strong>New York Post<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStunning . . . Deeply researched and superbly told, this sweeping saga is sure to become required reading for those seeking to understand America\u2019s past and present. Readers will be rapt.\u201d \u2014Publishers Weekly <\/em>(starred review)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAva Chin accomplishes an astonishing feat: by tracing five generations of her own Chinese American ancestors, she also traces the story of Chinese exclusion, illuminating an often-ignored part of our national past. Mott Street <\/em>is a vibrant and moving family story, but it\u2019s also essential reading for understanding not just Chinese American history, but American<\/em> history\u2014and the American present.\u201d <\/em>\u2014<\/strong><\/em>Celeste Ng, #1 bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts<\/em> <\/strong><\/em>and Little Fires Everywhere<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAva Chin\u2019s quest to learn the story of her family uncovers another story: the American government\u2019s almost century-long discriminatory treatment of Chinese immigrants and their children\u2014a shameful episode in our history, and one that should be more widely known. Anti-Asian racism did not begin with Covid. Mott Street<\/em> is written with feeling, with anger, and compassion. It\u2019s a book from the heart. \u2014<\/em><\/strong><\/em>Louis Menand, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Free World<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>

\u201cAva Chin\u2019s fierce intelligence and gorgeous writing gives us an exciting and essential social history of three generations of Chinese New Yorkers that expands our understanding of American life. This important and much needed work will enrich our common conversation and how we know ourselves.\u201d \u2014Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show<\/em><\/strong>

\u201cMott Street<\/em> should be required reading. Tracing the lineage of her own family, Ava Chin commits to the written record a foundational piece of American history that has been erased for too long. Thoroughly researched and powerfully told, Mott Street<\/em> examines the legacy of Exclusion and what it means\u2014for a nation, for a family, and for a human.\u201d \u2014Qian Julie Wang, New York Times<\/em> Bestselling author of Beautiful Country 
 
<\/em><\/strong>\u201cAva Chin entered a six-story building in New York\u2019s Chinatown and found a portal\u2014one that led not only to both sides of her sprawling and turbulent family history, but to a visceral understanding of the Chinese-American experience in all its glory and pain. Mott Street <\/em>is a masterful distillation of decades of research and storytelling, written with love, sorrow, and rage.\u201d \u2014Janice P. Nimura, New York Times<\/em> Bestselling author of The Doctors Blackwell

<\/em><\/strong>\u201cAva Chin blazes a path through the fictions made necessary by the Chinese Exclusion Act to a gorgeously intimate story of her own family across generations and a powerful indictment of the ways this country\u2019s past xenophobia reverberates in the present. She discovers that many of her ancestors\u2019 histories flow through a single building on Mott Street, a place that simultaneously grounds and unleashes the spirit of their collective story. A beautiful and necessary book.\u201d \u2014Maud Newton, author of Ancestor Trouble<\/em><\/strong>
 
\u201cAva Chin has created a stunning work of genealogy that traces her family\u2019s legacy in America back from present day Mott Street in New York City to the early days of Chinese Exclusion in California. It is a tender and loving portrait of her ancestors, depicting their joys and struggles as they built both the nation\u2019s infrastructure and spaces of resistance and belonging for those excluded from the nation. More than a family history, Mott Street<\/em> is a history of a people\u2019s survival and a history of America.\u200b\u201d \u2014Grace M. Cho, author Tastes Like War<\/em><\/strong>
 
\u201cAva Chin has taken the stories she was told and the hurts that came her way in childhood and transformed them into an historically researched portrayal of two families in a new country that wanted their labor but not their citizenship. Chin reveals the pain that overcomes her as she learns her past but she proceeds by drawing strength from feeling her ancestors all around her in their building in Manhattan\u2019s Mott Street. The essence of this story is a yearning to understand the past and to discover what Chin can make of her glorious yet underusing inheritance in her present life as an author, professor, and parent. Mott Stree<\/em>t is a masterpiece that opens up a unique history into a consideration of what came before that offers inspiration for all readers.\u201d \u2014Alice Elliott Dark, author of Fellowship Point<\/em><\/strong>

\u201cSweeping yet intimate, Mott Street<\/em> is a lyrical, gripping account of survival, resilience and resistance. Through tireless research, Ava Chin uncovers the stories of her family that might have been lost to history. Deeply moving and unforgettable.\u201d \u2014Vanessa Hua, Forbidden City<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*PEN\/Open Book Award Finalist \u2022 CALA Best Nonfiction Book Award \u2022 TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 \u2022 San Francisco Chronicle Best Nonfiction \u2022 Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction \u2022 Library Journal Best Memoir & Biography 2024 ALA Notable Book* From the winner of the M.F.K. Fisher Book Prize and a New York Public Library Cullman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avachin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}