by Louis Chu

Louis Chu came to the United States from Toishan, China, as a young boy in 1924. He went on to receive a master's degree from New York University and to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. Like many Chinese American veterans, he went back to China to seek a wife as a result of the War Brides Act of 1945. Upon returning to the U.S. with their new spouses, many Chinese Americans like Ben Loy in Eat a Bowl of Tea: A Novel of New York's Chinatown found building a life in the postwar years a journey filled with both hope and bitterness. Chu, an active leader in New York's Chinese American community, witnessed the development of Chinatown from an enclave of...