The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung

This story is about a young Chinese boy who lived in China around 1852. His Uncle goes to the U.S. to hunt for gold during the gold rush and Runt, as he refers to himself, ends up going to join his Uncle there.

It’s really interesting how they describe the journey to the U.S. and how harsh it could be. There is also a very interesting description of what the port looked like where the ship, and numerous other ships, had docked and been abandoned. Then there’s the description of the journey to the camp, the life in the camps, and especially the material showing just how hated the Chinese were and the dangers they were exposed to.

This is the type of hatred that led to various laws aimed at the Chinese and even later the was related to the type of hatred towards Japanese-Americans in the late 1800's and early 1900's, leading to the internment camps of the Forties.

There is also a moderate amount of material on the Chinese culture itself, so the book has a wide variety of material; it’s good reading throughout and it also has the normal historical section. Definitely one of the better books.

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