Yuansan's Golden Mountain

When Yuansan arrived in the 1860s, he and his countrymen still referred to California by its gold rush name, Gom San. Although that era had long since passed, the feeling amongst the new arrivals was that through their luck and determination they were going to strike it rich. The family who raised me only ever spoke about them in whispers. They said they were big wigs in Chinatown, and I didn't even know what that meant.