Dreams to Ashes
The 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown Massacre
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
In the mid-1800s, a wave of Chinese immigrants traveled to the West Coast of the United States. They were following rumors of Gold Mountain, a land rich with treasure for all who came. When gold proved elusive, they began to seek their fortunes in other ways—as doctors and launderers, as cooks and musicians.
A number of Chinese immigrants settled in Los Angeles, California. It was a rough, occasionally lawless city, and newspapers routinely published anti-Chinese articles, fueling sparks of hatred. On the night of October 24, 1871, the city exploded in violence. In the ensuing massacre, eighteen Chinese men were killed, their dreams turned to ashes.
New York Times bestselling author Livia Blackburne and illustrator Nicole Xu illuminate a tragic episode in our nation’s past in the hope that future generations can move toward a brighter tomorrow.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Decades before the events traced in this narrative nonfiction work that's focused on the massacre of 18 Chinese men in 1871 Los Angeles, Blackburne writes, difficulties in China prompted thousands of young men to seek gold in California. When it proved elusive, "these travelers chased their fortune in other ways, as doctors and launderers, cooks and gangsters. Vegetable peddlers and houseboys.// As immigrants. Humans." Contextualizing lines introduce Los Angeles and, briefly, three men who lived there in the 1860s, during a time when physical violence toward Chinese people increased. A conflict that escalated in 1871 resulted in the deaths of 18 Chinese men and the destruction of Chinese businesses by a violent mob. Fire-oriented metaphors that hint at the coming conflagration describe growing tensions, while Xu's thick-lined ink and digital media illustrations incorporate images of fire, smoke, and sparks. A historical note and bibliography conclude. Ages 7–11.
