About this Book

"In his own words, Him Mark Lai, the renowned Dean of Chinese American History, shares the moving story of his life, beginning with his childhood through his career as an engineer to his evolution as community activist and historian. He also provides an intimate portrait of a San Francisco Chinatown family and community developments from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the McCarthy era of the 1950s, through the Asian American Studies Movement of the 1970s, to the present ... According to U.C. Berkeley's Professor Ling-chi Wang, Him Mark Lai's rescue, collecting, cataloguing, preservation, and sharing of historical sources in both Chinese and English opened the field of Chinese American history to scholars and researchers in the U.S. and across the Pacific"--Page 4 of cover.