Preface to the Paperback Edition viii
Author's Note x
Tape Family Tree xiv
Maps xv
Part I : Strivings (1864-1883)

1. The Lucky One 3
2. The First Rescue 14
3. Joseph and Mary 24
Part II : School Days (1884-1894)

4. "That Chinese Girl" 43
5. Chinatown's Frontier 58
Part III: Native Sons and Daughters (1895-1904)

6. Suburban Squire 71
7. Two Marriages 83
8. The Chinese Village 95
Part IV: The Interpreter Class (1905-1917)

9. Blood and Fire 119
10. In Pursuit of Smugglers 135
11. Modern Life 150
12. The Trial 161
13. "Sailors Should Go Ashore" 173
Part V : Reinventions (1917-1950)
14. The New Daughter-in-Law 189

15. Loss 201
16. Service 207
Epilogue 223
Glossary of Chinese Names 231
Acknowledgments 233
Notes 235
Appendix: Documents from the Chinese Exclusion Era 277
Index 315

The Lucky Ones uncovers the story of the Tape family in post-gold rush, racially explosive San Francisco. Mae Ngai paints a fascinating picture of how the role of immigration broker allowed patriarch Jeu Dip (Joseph Tape) to both protest and profit from discrimination, and of the Tapes as the first of a new social type--middle-class Chinese Americans.
Tape family history illuminates American history. Seven-year-old Mamie attempts to integrate California schools, resulting in the landmark 1885 case Tape v. Hurley. The family's intimate involvement in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair reveals how Chinese American brokers essentially invented Chinatown, and so Chinese culture, for American audiences. Finally, The Lucky Ones reveals aspects--timely, haunting, and hopeful--of the lasting legacy of the immigrant experience for all Americans.
This expanded edition features a new preface and a selection of historical documents from the Chinese exclusion era that forms the backdrop to the Tape family's story.

Mae Ngai is professor of history and the Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America.