Page 4 - YY Media Kit 2.16 final

The story of how a few Chinese immigrants found their way to the Mississippi River Delta in the late 1870s and earned their living with small family operated grocery stores in neighborhoods where mostly black cotton plantation workers lived. What was their status in the segregated black and white world of that time and place? How did this small group preserve their culture and ethnic identity? "Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton" is a social history of the lives of these pioneering families and the unique and valuable role they played in their communities for over a century.
.. your book presents the most definitive and accurate account of the Chinese in the Ms Delta--what it was like to be Chinese and growing up in the segregated South during that time. Thanks for all your time and effort in researching and telling the story of the Ms Chinese Grocers in the Land of Cotton. Peter Joe
"What a juicy read! The hard work, the social isolation, the networking, the solutions of problems such as education in a segregated society which never had them in mind - it's mind-boggling! And the similarities and differences in the Chinese relationships with whites as opposed to blacks - fascinating! Your books are a significant contribution to the social history of this nation." Nan McGehee
Thanks for the informative and educational presentation at Berkeley CCC. It was very well received. ... The southern friends were delighted to meet you and hear the lecture. Rachel Wong
I completely understood your sense of "not being Chinese enough." Even today, when I am in a room full of Chinese adults, I feel like a foreigner, too much "white" attitude to be Chinese. Not only was I the ONLY Chinese kid in Baton Rouge, La... I was also an only child in a typical Chinese family (be seen but not heard) so I led a very lonely existence. I did not make a Chinese friend until I was in the 4th grade, when we moved back to New Orleans...
I am grateful for your willingness to share your story with us last Saturday in Washington, D.C. I felt like you overwhelmed the audience and left them wanting to hear more... We have heard nothing but positive comments from many of the folks who attended. Stan Lou
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"Chopsticks" tells the story of yet one more example of Chinese tenacity in which John Jung traces the paths of pioneer Chinese immigrants in Mississippi as they moved from laborers to become successful grocery store merchants for decades with family members and relatives serving as the backbone. "Chopsticks" pays tribute to the resilience and "can-do" attitude of these enterprising entrepreneurs.
Sylvia Sun Minnick, Sam Fow,The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy
John Jung has done it again! Plunging into the history of Chinese grocers in the Mississippi- Yazoo Delta, he traces their migration history, work, families, and social lives. His work is anchored in a creative mix of oral history, community historical documents and public records, and includes a generous fill of photos. As a study of the complexities of triangular race relations in the Jim Crow South, his work rivals James Loewen's classic study, The Mississippi Chinese.
Greg Robinson, By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans (2001)