Saturday, June 11, 2011

Author Lisa See and the 'Dreams of Joy' of Two Chinese Sisters

VOA Learning English: Author Lisa See and the 'Dreams of Joy' of Two Chinese Sisters

We talk to Chinese-American writer Lisa See about her new book.Music from Broadway plays nominated for Tony Awards. And a visit to a job-training program for immigrants AMERICAN MOSAIC (download mp3)

LISA SEE: “I’m part Chinese. But I have red hair and freckles so I don’t look very Chinese, but I did grow up in a very traditional Chinese American family. I live in Los Angeles and today, in Los Angeles, I have about four hundred relatives, of which the majority of them are still full Chinese and there there’s this spectrum with me on one end – there are about a dozen that look like me – but then, sort of, this spectrum all the way up to the majority being full Chinese.”

She says she is also part Irish. Like most Americans, she celebrates her ethnicities.

LISA SEE: “I think all of us here in the United States, we all had someone in our families who was brave enough, scared enough, dumb enough, crazy enough to leave their home country to come here. But there is still a part of us that is tied to our original homeland and we all share in that feeling no matter where you came from.”

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