An Interview with Lisa See
What is your favorite room in your home?
I love my office. It used to be an artist's studio. It has a cement floor with drains in it. We've sponge painted it in purple tones. There are three walls. One wall looks out to the garden; the other two walls are covered with books. It's the brightest and lightest room in our house. I spend a lot of time in here, even when I'm not working.
What stories do some of your favorite things in this room tell?
Oh, geez. I don't know if there are particular stories to the things I love in my office. I have a little collection of Chinese wind-up toys on my desk that I find very sweet and amusing. I have a Chinese thermos that I bargained hard for in Wuhan. I have pictures of my sons, my husband, and my parents when they were babies. I have a shelf filled with dried corsages that have been pinned on me at various (mostly Chinese) events. There's lots of little stuff. They wouldn't mean much to someone else, but they're treasures to me.
Your book On Gold Mountain chronicles your great-grandfather's voyage to becoming the godfather of Los Angeles' Chinatown. Can you tell us a bit about the experience of researching your family for the book?
On Gold Mountain was my first book and in many ways it set the pattern for how I've approached everything I've written since. I did a ton of research: I interviewed around 100 friends, family members, and enemies; I went to the towns where my grandmother and great-grandmother were from; I went to my family's home village in China; I scoured various archives; and I spent a lot of time in people's attics, garages, closets, and basements. I never knew what I was going to find or what I was going to hear. Every day brought a new discovery. I know that sounds like a clichˇ, but it's true. That sense of discovery—of finding something startling or revealing or sometimes just plain weird—has been what's kept me doing the kinds of books I do. I know a lot of writers hire researchers, but I could never do that. The research and the unexpected surprises are my favorite parts of writing a book.
What are some of your earliest memories of home?
Seeing a cockroach crawl across my crib. My grandfather bringing cases of canned fruit cocktail to the Salvation Army Nursery School, my first school. Crying when I was told that I would have to eat the sweet potatoes if I wanted to get a piece pumpkin pie on a Thanksgiving when I was four or five. There were tons of happy memories, but these are the ones that jumped into my mind when you asked the question.
What is your favorite room in your home?
I love my office. It used to be an artist's studio. It has a cement floor with drains in it. We've sponge painted it in purple tones. There are three walls. One wall looks out to the garden; the other two walls are covered with books. It's the brightest and lightest room in our house. I spend a lot of time in here, even when I'm not working.
What stories do some of your favorite things in this room tell?
Oh, geez. I don't know if there are particular stories to the things I love in my office. I have a little collection of Chinese wind-up toys on my desk that I find very sweet and amusing. I have a Chinese thermos that I bargained hard for in Wuhan. I have pictures of my sons, my husband, and my parents when they were babies. I have a shelf filled with dried corsages that have been pinned on me at various (mostly Chinese) events. There's lots of little stuff. They wouldn't mean much to someone else, but they're treasures to me.
Your book On Gold Mountain chronicles your great-grandfather's voyage to becoming the godfather of Los Angeles' Chinatown. Can you tell us a bit about the experience of researching your family for the book?
On Gold Mountain was my first book and in many ways it set the pattern for how I've approached everything I've written since. I did a ton of research: I interviewed around 100 friends, family members, and enemies; I went to the towns where my grandmother and great-grandmother were from; I went to my family's home village in China; I scoured various archives; and I spent a lot of time in people's attics, garages, closets, and basements. I never knew what I was going to find or what I was going to hear. Every day brought a new discovery. I know that sounds like a clichˇ, but it's true. That sense of discovery—of finding something startling or revealing or sometimes just plain weird—has been what's kept me doing the kinds of books I do. I know a lot of writers hire researchers, but I could never do that. The research and the unexpected surprises are my favorite parts of writing a book.
What are some of your earliest memories of home?
Seeing a cockroach crawl across my crib. My grandfather bringing cases of canned fruit cocktail to the Salvation Army Nursery School, my first school. Crying when I was told that I would have to eat the sweet potatoes if I wanted to get a piece pumpkin pie on a Thanksgiving when I was four or five. There were tons of happy memories, but these are the ones that jumped into my mind when you asked the question.