“What has emerged is a story of melting–how people and cultures melt in all directions. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that when my grandmother included herself among the Chinese who had to wear buttons during the war, she might be tucking loose strands of red hair into her bun. My grandmother–like my great-grandmother–was white, but she was Chinese in her heart. She had melted into that side. Over the years, she had packed away her eyelet dresses with their cinched waists, and had adopted black trousers and loose fitting jackets, which she always wore with a beautiful piece of Chinese jewelry. She learned how to make lettuce soup, how to give those brides their lai see, how to be a proper Chinese daughter-in-law. My great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother were as white and “American” as they could be, yet they all chose to marry men whose culture was completely different from their own” (OGM, page xx).”What has emerged is a story of melting–how people and cultures melt in all directions. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that when my grandmother included herself among the Chinese who had to wear buttons during the war, she might be tucking loose strands of red hair into her bun. My grandmother–like my great-grandmother–was white, but she was Chinese in her heart. She had melted into that side. Over the years, she had packed away her eyelet dresses with their cinched waists, and had adopted black trousers and loose fitting jackets, which she always wore with a beautiful piece of Chinese jewelry. She learned how to make lettuce soup, how to give those brides their lai see, how to be a proper Chinese daughter-in-law. My great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother were as white and “American” as they could be, yet they all chose to marry men whose culture was completely different from their own” (OGM, page xx).
- Lucinda Pruett (Ticie’s mother)
- Ticie’s Father
- Ticie, as a baby
- Ticie, late in life
- Fong See, c. 1880s
- Fong See, as an old man
- See Family Portrait, c. 1908
- Ming, Fong See, Ray, and Ticie, in China, 1901
- Ming and Ray in the F. Suie One Co., c. 1904
- See Family Portrait, c. 1914
- Ming, Fong See, Ray, and Ticie, in China, 1901
- The Leong Family in China, 1919
- Fong Yun, 1903 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Fong Yun, 1908 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Immigration photo of Ngon Hung and Chuen, 1927 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Immigration photo of Leong-shee and her children (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Immigration photo of Lui Ngan Fa, 1927 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Fong Yun, 1927 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Ming and Ray with customers outside F. Suie One
- Ming See, 1920s
- Ray See, 1920s
- Bennie See, 1919 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Eddy See, 1919 (National Archives, Pacific Sierra Region)
- Sissee, as a young girl
- Sissee, late 1930s
- Sissee and Ticie in China, 1919
- Painting of Sissee by Benji Okubo
- Eddy, Stella, Sissee, and Gilbert Leong
- Stella’s grandparents
- Stella with her mother, Jessie, by a cook wagon, c. 1913 Stella , 1912
- Stella , 1912
- Stella’s parents, Harve and Jessie Copeland
- Fong See’s children from the second family, c. 1945
- Eddy and Peanut
- Richard Edward See, c. 1935
- Leslee Leong, 1945
- Carolyn Laws
- Sissee receiving an award
- The wedding of Richard See and Carolyn Laws, 1954
- Lisa at the F. Suie One Company, 1963
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