Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America

Mary Paik Lee

Book

Quiet Odyssey

A Pioneer Korean Woman in America

Mary Paik Lee
Edited by: Sucheng Chan and Sucheng Chan
Preface by: David K. Yoo and David K. Yoo

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2019

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About this book

Mary Paik Lee left her native country in 1905, traveling with her parents as a political refugee after Japan imposed control over Korea. Her father worked in the sugar plantations of Hawaii briefly before taking his family to California. They shared the poverty-stricken existence endured by thousands of Asian immigrants in the early twentieth century, working as farm laborers, cooks, janitors, and miners. Lee recounts racism on the playground and the ravages of mercury mining on her father’s health, but also entrepreneurial successes and hardships surmounted with grace.

With a new foreword by David K. Yoo, this edition reintroduces Quiet Odyssey to readers interested in Asian American history and immigration studies. The volume includes thirty illustrations and a comprehensive introduction and bibliographic essay by respected scholar Sucheng Chan, who collaborated closely with Lee to edit the biography and ensure the work was true to the author’s intended vision. This award-winning book provides a compelling firsthand account of early Korean American history and continues to be an essential work in Asian American studies.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Mary Paik Lee Mary Paik Lee (1900–1995) is the author of Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America. --- Contributor: Sucheng Chan Sucheng Chan is Professor Emeritus, Department of Asian American Studies, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has authored and edited several books, most recently Chinese Americans and the Politics of Race and Culture (co-editor with Madeline Y. Hsu, Temple, 2008); The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation (editor, Temple, 2006), Chinese American Transnationalism: The Flow of People, Resources (editor, Temple, 2005); and In Defense of Asian American Studies: The Politics of Teaching and Program Building (Illinois, 2005). --- Contributor: David K. Yoo David K. Yoo is Professor of Asian American Studies and History, and Vice Provost, Institute of American Cultures, at UCLA. He is the author of Contentious Spirits: Religion in Korean American History, 1903-1945 (Stanford University Press, 2010) and Growing Up Nisei: Race, Generation, and Culture Among Japanese Americans of California, 1924-1949 (University of Illinois Press, 2000). He has also co-edited several volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Asian American History (with Eiichiro Azuma, Oxford University Press, 2016).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword David K. Yoo Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
1. Origins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
2. Oahu and Riverside Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	9
3. Claremont and Colusa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	21
4. Roberts Island Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	27
5. Idria Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	34
6. Hollister Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	43
7. Willows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	52
8. Marriage Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	62
9. Growing Rice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	68
10. Selling Produce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	74
11. Farming Again Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	85
12. World War II Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	94
13. Discrimination Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	101
14. Sons Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	110
15. Old Age Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	117
16. Reflections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	131
Appendix A. The Historiographer’s Role Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	135
Appendix B. Operating a Korean American Family Farm Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	169
Appendix C. Korean Rice Growers in the Sacramento Valley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	173
Bibliographic Essay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	179

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

December 11, 2024

eBook ISBN:

9780295746746

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

264

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780295746746

eBook ISBN: 9780295746746

Keywords for this book

Asian American Studies; Biography; Autobiography; and Memoir

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Quiet Odyssey

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data