Product Description

The Chinese American Museum of Chicago (CAMOC) is pleased to host this FREE book talk with Ed Shew, author of the historical novel Chinese Brothers, American Sons. Register here

Two Chinese brothers arrive in America in 1854 on a death ship to escape poverty and oppression in China. Li Chang and Li Yu, ten years younger, search for Gold Mountain in the historical novel, Chinese Brothers, American Sons. Fighting the inhumanity and discrimination of the West, they work perilously to drive in the Golden Spike in 1869 and become inspirational builders of the first Transcontinental Railroad and this country.

From the author
“It’s the story of two Cantonese brothers who along with tens of thousands of men from southern China conquer the back-breaking construction of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s, the tunnels through the granite of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. No first-hand account describing the life of a Chinese railroad worker of the Transcontinental Railroad has ever been found. Historians have searched this nation and the winding road back to China, to the roots of these forgotten, invisible men. Many were literate, yet not a scrap of their writing remains. As a Chinese American, my goal is to tell this little-known story of these brave adventurers.”   – Ed Shew