Songs of Gold Mountain: Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatown
Songs of Gold Mountain: Cantonese Rhymes from San Francisco Chinatown
by: Marlon K. Hom | University of California Press | 1992 | ISBN 0520081048 | PDF | 2.7 MB
Marlon Hom has selected and translated 220 rhymes from two collections of Chinatown songs published in 1911 and 1915. The songs are outspoken and personal, addressing subjects as diverse as sex, frustrations with the American bureaucracy, poverty and alienation, and the loose morals of the younger generation of Americans. Hom has arranged the songs thematically and gives an overview of early Chinese American literature.
Reviews:
"A good introduction to the Chinese American experience and literature through the songs of a particular area. . . . It would make an exciting text." – David R. Mayer, Asian Folklore Studies
"An enjoyable and informative work which will be of value to anyone studying the Chinese experience in America." – Jeannette L. Faurot, Journal of the American Oriental Society
"Dispels once and for all stereotypes of Chinese immigrants as the 'heathen Chinese' – the foreign, docile, illiterate, and sexless character popularized in American literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth century." (Judy Young, Amerasia Journal
Amazon comment:
unique window into early Chinese-American life
Hom, a scholar of Asian-American studies and an amazing linguist, collected these written-Cantonese poems originally printed in early Chinese-language newspapers from San Franciso, translated them into English, and annoted them with historical and cultural information. Where the written Cantonese differs from standard (Mandarin) written Chinese, he also provides Chinese footnotes translating the expression into Mandarin. Excellent both for historians studying Chinese Americans and for advanced-level students learning Cantonese. Chapters cover various aspects of the life of first-generation Chinese immigrants, from longing for home to dealing with abusive immigration officials.