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Golden Mountain: Beyond the American Dream
 
 
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Golden Mountain: Beyond the American Dream (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: second elder sister, silver lady, one evening after dinner, Wong Oi, Choi Kum, Hong Kai (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Customers buy this book with Eye on Editing 1: Developing Editing Skills for Writing (Student Book) (Book 1) by Joyce S. Cain

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  • This item: Golden Mountain: Beyond the American Dream by Irene Kai

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Golden Mountain" is a story of empowerment, courage and forgiveness, lessons that transcend even those influences that would isolate us. -- The Mail Tribune, April 2, 2004

"Golden Mountain" is a story of empowerment, courage and forgiveness, lessons that transcend even those influences that would isolate us. --The Mail Tribune, April 2, 2004


Product Description

In Golden Mountain, Irene Kai tells a deeply personal story of how she overcame cultural bias and a difficult mother to move from China to America and become an independent woman. The child of a loveless arranged marriage, Kai was born into a culture where women were told to accept their fate and not question authority. Beginning with her great-grandmother, Wong Oi, who was humiliated by her husband's concubine, Kai traces the lives of women in her family through three generations until she reaches her own childhood. As a teen, Kai was brought to New York City by her American-born mother and began to rebel against her mother's physical and psychological abuses. In New York, she also discovered art, sexuality, and herself. Finding the strength to prosper in the "Golden Mountain," Kai made her own life and became truly independent, but she could not forget from where she came—in a poignant finale, Kai comes to terms with the family she left behind. An uplifting, unpredictable story, Golden Mountain is a book about overcoming, and coming to terms with, one's culture.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 375 pages
  • Publisher: Silver Light Publications; 3rd edition (October 1, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 097448900X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0974489001
  • Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.3 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #768,904 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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More About the Author

Irene Kai
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
second elder sister, silver lady, one evening after dinner
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wong Oi, Choi Kum, Hong Kai, Hong Kong, New York, Sing Tai, Hong Guay, Doctor Lai, Mah Wah, Governor Chan, San Francisco, Lim Fung, Quai Fun, Los Angeles, New Year, Royal College, United States, Yim Fong, Yuen Fung, Bik Lan, Father Moore, Santa Monica, Sui Ping, American-born Chinese, Nathan Road
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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4.5 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for women..., April 3, 2004
By Joseph McCormick (Floyd, Virginia) - See all my reviews
Although it may seem the Golden Mountain is a "woman's book", I found it inspiring from a man's point of view. In its essense the book is about finding the courage to speak the truth to yourself and to the world about yourself, about your life. There was no sugar coating of even the most intimate details of her relationships. This to me is the greatest expression moral courage. The book is an antidote to denial. Its honesty is sometimes breathtaking.

I was also inspire by the radical transformation she underwent as a person. Her first forty odd years were spent in some way under someone elses control -- her mother, the men in her life, the expectations of her chinese heritage. She clear connected with a resevoir of strength and will deep within her that said she had a choice between freedom and suffocation. She chose freedom.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Story of a Woman's Journey to Create Her Own Destiny, November 30, 2005
I loved this book. I could not put it down. The Golden Mountain is about Irene Kai's journey to claim her power and authenticity. It's a memoir of four generations of Chinese women, but it's really "every woman's" journey. It shows her transition from Hong Kong to the U. S., and how she breaks free from the restrictions of her ethnic background in a way that her mother and grandmother could not. In America, she achieves wealth and success as an artist and businesswoman. But Kai's story of what's possible doesn't end here. She eventually leaves her business and her marriage and moves to a small town. There, she explores and heals the family patterns she realized were still influencing her, even after she thought she had broken away from them. In the process, she creates a new life and a new dream, one that takes her beyond the American dream to live her own authentic destiny.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, June 23, 2004
By J. Frost (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
After personally meeting the author at a family gathering, I was inspired to purchase the book. Once I started reading, I could not put it down. The story was amazing and just unfolded before your eyes. The descriptions of the scenery, the characters and such were so vivid and clear that you could easily put yourself in the scene and experience what they characters were experiencing. This book really opened my eyes up to the Chinese culture and gaining a better understanding and insight into the old times and new times of the Chinese culture.
This was very well written and I just finished it last night. The book cover was wonderful, very beautiful. Irene and David did a wonderful job and look forward to hearing more reviews about this wonderful book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
I have read a lot of books on the topic, historical background of Chinese women as a personal story. Fine. This one is lacking. The main character is annoying and just stupid. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Karla Kaudel

5.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting Memoir of A Chinese Woman's Journey to Becoming Whole
Irene Kai writes of her struggle to escape boundaries imposed upon her by her Chinese family while the words of her grandmother to be a dutiful daughter and wife haunt her... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Story Circle Book Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story
I loved this compelling, richly textured, vividly descriptive story. Not only was I transported into Chinese culture over four generations of the author's family, but into how... Read more
Published on December 1, 2005 by Jonah Blue

5.0 out of 5 stars There's Always Hope
I enjoyed this book enormously -- not only for what it taught me about Chinese culture -- but for what it taught me about the universality of women's experience in patriarchial... Read more
Published on November 30, 2005 by Alexis Mckenna

2.0 out of 5 stars bland
Okay, may be the story is quite emotional, but it definitely did not come across that way. Lines such as "Won-hoy got married to a rich wife, and had 5 kids" goes on and on... Read more
Published on September 21, 2005 by M. Hung

5.0 out of 5 stars You WILL enjoy this book.
This is the best book I've read in a couple of years actually, I was fortunate to stumble across it at the library. Read more
Published on May 3, 2005 by Laurie A. Rasmussen

5.0 out of 5 stars An Incredible journey!!
I don't usually read oral histories. I was intrigued by the title of this one and being an immigrant myself, my curiosity got the better of me and I opened the cover to the first... Read more
Published on January 5, 2005 by Masankho K. Banda

5.0 out of 5 stars Dive into another reality!
To read the Golden Mountain is to be immersed in the Chinese culture, as seen through women's experience over a span of four generations. Read more
Published on April 6, 2004 by Pat Spino

5.0 out of 5 stars An very powerful book!
I was deeply moved by Irene's story. I felt so touched by each woman's life and their struggle with the cultural confines of their time. Read more
Published on November 24, 2003

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