Lisa See is an American writer and novelist. Her books include On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family, a detailed account of See's family history, and the novels Flower Net, The Interior, Dragon Bones, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love and Shanghai Girls, which made it to the 2010 New York Times bestseller list. Both Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan received honorable mentions from the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. See's novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane , is a powerful story about circumstances, culture, and distance among the Akha people of Xishuangbanna, China. It paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond of family. See's most recent novel, The Island of Sea Women, is a story about female friendship and family secrets on Jeju Island before, during and in the aftermath of the Korean War. It was released on March 5, 2019. Flower Net, The Interior, and Dragon Bones make up the Red Princess mystery series. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love focus on the lives of Chinese women in the 19th and 17th centuries respectively. Shanghai Girls chronicles the lives of two sisters who come to Los Angeles in arranged marriages and face, among other things, the pressures put on Chinese-Americans during the anti-Communist mania of the 1950s. See completed a sequel titled Dreams of Joy, released in May 2011. China Dolls deals with Chinese American nightclub performers of the 1930s and 1940s. Writing under the pen name Monica Highland, See, her mother Carolyn See, and John Espey, published two novels: Lotus Land, 110 Shanghai Road, and Greetings from Southern California, a collection of early 20th Century postcards and commentary on the history they represent. She has a personal essay included in the anthology Half and Half. See has donated her personal papers to UCLA. During the 2012 Golden Dragon Chinese New Year Parade in Los Angeles Chinatown, See served as the Grand Marshal.
Early life
On February 18, 1955, See was born in Paris, France. See's mother was Carolyn See, an American student who later became an English professor, writer, and novelist. See's father was Richard See, an American student who later became an anthropologist. See's parents were later divorced, and her mother married Tom Sturak. See has a stepsister, Clara Sturak. See has spent many years in Los Angeles, California, especially in and around the Los Angeles Chinatown.
See was the West Coast correspondent for Publishers Weekly. See has written articles for Vogue, Self, and More; has written the libretto for the opera based on On Gold Mountain, and has helped develop the Family Discovery Gallery for the Autry Museum, which depicts 1930s Los Angeles from the perspective of her father as a seven-year-old boy. Her exhibition On Gold Mountain: A Chinese American Experience was featured in the Autry Museum of Western Heritage, and the Smithsonian. See is also a public speaker. Her paternal great-grandfather was Chinese, making her one-eighth Chinese. This has had a great impact on her life and work. She has written for and led in many cultural events emphasizing the importance of Los Angeles and Chinatown.
Liu, Xian. "Lisa Lenine See". In Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Biblical Critical Sourcebook, pp. 323–331. Ed. Nelson, Emmanuel S. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group Inc..
