Mary Ann
Mary Ann asked Lisa See:

I love your books and so appreciate the detail that goes into them. I recently finished "On Gold Mountain" (had a hard time putting it down!) How often do you base characters on members of your family and their experiences? Their history is fascinating, and I'm happy to have learned so much about the early Chinese-American experience ... thanks for sharing these courageous, strong, amazing people with us!

Lisa See Thank you so much for your kind words.

On Gold Mountain is the only one of my books where I was writing completely and solely about my family. In Shanghai Girls, I used some of the interrogations of women in my family during their stays at Angel Island, but that was just in a chapter or two.

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