The Eighth Promise by William Poy Lee [ Edited ]

[Amanda_R]

A Mother-and-Son Memoir

From the Publisher: "In The Eighth Promise, author William Poy Lee gives us a rare view of the Asian-American experience from a mother-son perspective. His moving and complex story of growing up in the housing projects of San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1960s and '70s unfolds in two voices -- the author's own and that of his mother -- to provide a sense of tradition and culture. It is a stunning tale of murder, injustice, fortitude, and survival. Already, this exquisitely wrought memoir is garnering rave notices."

Alice Walker and Gloria Steinem have already raved about this fascinating coming-of-age tale. Care to join the chorus? Post your thoughts on The Eighth Promise here.

Amanda

Message Edited by Amanda_R on 06-06-2007 11:57 AM

[PingBoy9]

Say Hey everyone -- just jumping into this HOT PICK on-line chat world with threads, moderators, and even "abuse reporting!" Very grateful to have been selected this April and hoping that my expanding base of readers will jump right in as I am.

The book's narrative interweaves and plays on several levels, in alternating historic times,and fusing the very personal with the the juggernaut of interesting times -- the Japanese genocidal invasion of China in WWII, the '60s counterculture, the civil rights movement, and the anti-Vietnam War movement. I'd be interested in seeing what readers pick up -- of the obvious, to be sure, but especially of the not so obvious.

On the road this week to U of Kansas, Lawrence and giving a talk "Placing a Human Face on the Immigration Debate." Seems my mother's voice in The Eighth Promise chronicled in very personal blow-by-blow terms an immigrant becoming a citizen, even as to this day, over a half a century later, she doesn not speak or write American fluently! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, English-only obsessives.

Will be checking daily and looking forward to our chats!!!

PingBoy9, Author

Ping Boy -- denotes a male who was raised as a child through his teen-age years in the S.F. Chinatown Ping Yuen (Peaceful Gardens) Housing Projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

[Tom_Donald]

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PingBoy9 wrote:
Say Hey everyone -- just jumping into this HOT PICK on-line chat world with threads, moderators, and even "abuse reporting!" Very grateful to have been selected this April and hoping that my expanding base of readers will jump right in as I am.

The book's narrative interweaves and plays on several levels, in alternating historic times,and fusing the very personal with the the juggernaut of interesting times -- the Japanese genocidal invasion of China in WWII, the '60s counterculture, the civil rights movement, and the anti-Vietnam War movement. I'd be interested in seeing what readers pick up -- of the obvious, to be sure, but especially of the not so obvious.

On the road this week to U of Kansas, Lawrence and giving a talk "Placing a Human Face on the Immigration Debate." Seems my mother's voice in The Eighth Promise chronicled in very personal blow-by-blow terms an immigrant becoming a citizen, even as to this day, over a half a century later, she doesn not speak or write American fluently! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, English-only obsessives.

Will be checking daily and looking forward to our chats!!!

PingBoy9, Author

Ping Boy -- denotes a male who was raised as a child through his teen-age years in the S.F. Chinatown Ping Yuen (Peaceful Gardens) Housing Projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Congrats on the selection, William. Very pleased for you, and for the book itself. I look forward to the next time we see each other. Tom Donald

[jgk]

Hi PingBoy,

My favorite part of your book is your discussion of all the special soups your mom made. Are there any soups she made that didn't get into the book? Do you have any recipes you can share with us?

jgk

[Wanga1]

Congrats, William! Do you have any plans to adapt your memoir for the screen? It would be a powerful film.

[PingBoy9]

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jgk wrote:
Hi PingBoy,

My favorite part of your book is your discussion of all the special soups your mom made. Are there any soups she made that didn't get into the book? Do you have any recipes you can share with us?

jgk

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jkg -- yes, there are many more soups than I included in the book and of course there are variations on the ones I named and provided reciepes for. A good book is one enttitled "Chinese Herb Cooking for Health" by Wang-chuan Chen, by Chin-Chin Publishing Company, 1997, which was the time located in Monterey Park, California. ISBN#0-941676-70-6. Also, a wonderful general Cantonese cookcbook and is one of my favories that contains herbal soups as well as other goodies is The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen by Grace Young. Both have photos.

[PingBoy9]

Wanga -- thanks for thinking highly enough of The Eighth Promise that you feel it is screen-worthy. My main goal this year it to help get the book out as widely as possible and I could help from fans and readers like you. So please tell friends and colleagues and ask them to do themselves a great, big, fat favor and buy this book! For themselves, for Moms and off-spring, and for anyone they care about.

But in the long term, who knows, someone might wish to pick it up. We can always hope.

[SonneyChong]

Hi William,
It is nice to see your book moving steadily up the charts and slowly across the nation. People are interested for many reasons ... culturally it presents a interesting perspective of a Chinese American boy growing in America specifically in SF Chinatown. Spiritually .. we get a great view from an immigrant facing the many challenges of assimilating and living in America. Historically .. it sets the truth on what really happened during that turbulent time in Chinatown. And from a straight entertaining point of view .. it is a new approach to telling a story that is common to many of us who grew up in SF Chinatown during that period of time in history.
The book with its story that spans approximately 50 years is real insightful source for what really happened in SF Chinatown that is of interest to many Asian Americans in United States.
Congratulations on your fine piece of writing .. and look forward to more eye opening books from you in the future.
Sonney Chong

[dedan]

I just finished reading The eighth Promise and it was both facinating and informative.
Facinating in the sense of the magic and passion that the journey of this Toisan family was woven. Informative in regards to the mystery of the Chinese storey and how it has remained invisible to those outside of its cultural experience. Revealed in such an intimate style, the relationship between a mother and son, I am now both inspired and determined to spread the wisdom of the Toisan I have learned from William Poy Lees story of his family. And such a cosmic story, from the deepest reaches of space ancient stardust have migrated into humans and we continue. The story of the Lee family is our story, we are all migrants in the great drama of the universe. Thank you William for sharing yours.

[cskwock]

Hi William,
I've enjoyed reading your book. I especially reading the two voices--yours and your mother's. When growing up, were you made to feel like a second class citizen by your Chinese peers because of your Toisanese background?
cskwock

[PingBoy9]

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dedan wrote:
I just finished reading The eighth Promise and it was both facinating and informative.
Facinating in the sense of the magic and passion that the journey of this Toisan family was woven. Informative in regards to the mystery of the Chinese storey and how it has remained invisible to those outside of its cultural experience. Revealed in such an intimate style, the relationship between a mother and son, I am now both inspired and determined to spread the wisdom of the Toisan I have learned from William Poy Lees story of his family. And such a cosmic story, from the deepest reaches of space ancient stardust have migrated into humans and we continue. The story of the Lee family is our story, we are all migrants in the great drama of the universe. Thank you William for sharing yours.

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Dedan -- I'm so pleased you have been inspired to spread the word about Toisanese ways, tthat although ancient, have wide application for today's speeded up, ungrounded, and somewhat alienating society.

I love the 30-day ritual breaks that say, a just married bride takes BEFORE leaving with her new husband, in preparation for the rest of her life. She spends it with her mother exclusively to get the last full wisdom and teachings as well as to thank her. I still love Mother's description of Lucky Day, that last day of this ritual, where her own mother loveingly washes, cuts, shampoos, dries, and combs out her hair.

What a rite of passage! Would be that we could all experience similar deep rites of passage besides the celebratory party with booze and food.

Same for the 30-day post-partum isolation where the elder women lovingly helps a newly birthing mother to rebuild her chi energy and outer energy body with a prescribed formula of rich, organic, herbal soups.

There's more of course, but readers can catch it in the book!

Thanks again -- PingBoy9

[PingBoy9]

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cskwock wrote:
Hi William,
I've enjoyed reading your book. I especially reading the two voices--yours and your mother's. When growing up, were you made to feel like a second class citizen by your Chinese peers because of your Toisanese background?
cskwock

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Dear CSKwock -- not so much by my Chinese-American peers, since most of us were Toisanese anyway. That feeling, when it was engendered by other Chinese-Americans, was from Chinese school where Cantonese was the lingo to sling and master.

I've been finding out that Toisansese is not a dying language. I witnessed it being spoken by thousands of children, teens, and young adults in Hoisan, the largest town near my mother's clan village Suey Wan -- and Hoisin is a boom town! I'm hearing it more again in SF Chinatown and it has always been strong in Oakland Chinatown across the bay from SF.

Toisanese and Toisan are alive and well!

PingBoy9