Shanghai Girls and On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

Read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and then seriously consider reading On Gold Mountain, also by See.  On Gold Mountain is See's biography of her great-great-grandfather and his descendants in the United States.  Fong See arrived in the U.S. - the Gold Mountain - from  a remote Cantonese town about 1871.  He went to Sacramento and became a merchant.  He also had two wives in the U.S. and perhaps another two in China.  From his two U.S. wives, he sired 12 children.  His first family went by the surname of See.  His second used the surname Fong.  The family later moved to Los Angeles and founded a business empire that supported three generations of Sees and Fongs.  It is the story of Chinese immigrants to the west coast and their contributions to the American melting pot.

Shanghai Girls tells the story of two sisters, Pearl and Mai, who are betrothed by their father to the sons of two merchant sons in the U.S.  Instead of boarding the steamship with their future husbands, they run away. Sneaking back home, they rejoin their mother and must immediately flee to escape invading Japanese forces.  The sisters eventually make their way to the U.S., where they enter the country by claiming to be the wives of the two merchants.  Joining the husbands they have only met once, they make a life in L.A.'s Chinatown.

Pearl and Mai demonstrate a stronger than usual sisterly bond, remaining together, and living in the same household, for most of their lives.  Their adventures are full of danger, fear, and occasional violence, but they way they bamboozle the Angel Island inspectors is precious - if not for the serious reasons they must extend their stay.  See's prose is spare and to the point, contrasting with the unwillingness of the Chinese to discuss personal matters even with close family members. Recommended reading.