Read Dead Man's Gold and Other Stories Online
Authors: Paul Yee
AFTER THE
publication of
Tales from Gold Mountain
in 1989, I found I had more New World folk tales to tell, and they have emerged in this collection as ghost stories, a popular narrative form in China. As with the first collection, I wanted to dramatize the history of the Chinese in North America and create a New World mythology where immigrant stories can be told and retold.
Although I invented all these stories, they are tales much like the ones early Chinese immigrants told one another in bachelor halls or shared with their children and grandchildren during family banquets. Those tales described the very real occupations and immigration laws that the early Chinese experienced when they first came to North America. They also contained suspense and surprise, as well as elements of heartfelt folk culture that would remind Chinese Americans and Chinese Canadians of their ancestors.
GROUNDWOOD BOOKS, established in 1978, is dedicated to the production of children's books for all ages, including fiction, picture books and non-fiction. We publish in Canada, the United States and Latin America. Our books aim to be of the highest possible quality in both language and illustration. Our primary focus has been on works by Canadians, though we sometimes also buy outstanding books from other countries.
Many of our books tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of global publishing by media conglomerates. Books by the First Peoples of this hemisphere have always been a special interest, as have those of others who through circumstance have been marginalized and whose contribution to our society is not always visible. Since 1998 we have been publishing works by people of Latin American origin living in the Americas both in English and in Spanish under our Libros Tigrillo imprint.
We believe that by reflecting intensely individual experiences, our books are of universal interest. The fact that our authors are published around the world attests to this and to their quality. Even more important, our books are read and loved by children all over the globe.