Date: Tuesday, April 29 | Time: 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY 10013
General Admission: $5 | Free for MOCA Members
VIP Admission: $35 – Includes an autographed book, reserved seating, early check-in at 6:30 PM, and access to a post-conversation reception
The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) invites you to a compelling conversation with Michael Luo, Executive Editor of The New Yorker and author of the highly anticipated book Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America (Doubleday, April 29, 2025). In this deeply researched narrative, Luo explores the long and fraught history of Chinese immigrants in America, tracing their century-long struggle for belonging, the origins of anti-Asian hate, and the creation of the modern immigration surveillance system.
Drawing from over two dozen archives, Chinese-language sources, and interviews with descendants, Luo unveils an epic history of exclusion and resilience, placing Chinese American history within the broader context of America’s multiracial democracy. Written in the tradition of The Warmth of Other Suns, with the depth and nuance of a New Yorker writer, Strangers in the Land is a character-driven examination of race in America—one that situates Chinese American experiences alongside other pivotal moments in the nation’s post–Civil War history. At its core, this book is more than just the story of the Chinese in America; it is the story of all immigrant communities who have been seen as outsiders. It is the story of our diverse democracy.
Moderating this discussion is Min Jin Lee, acclaimed author of Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. Lee is a recipient of the Manhae Prize for Literature and holds fiction fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
About Michael Luo
Michael Luo is an executive editor at The New Yorker and writes regularly for the magazine on politics, religion, and Asian American issues. Before joining the magazine in 2016, he spent thirteen years at The New York Times as a national correspondent, metro reporter, and investigative reporter and editor. He is a recipient of a George Polk Award and a Livingston Award for Young Journalists. He is a second-generation Chinese American and lives in New York City with his wife and two children.
About Min Jin Lee
Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and a New York Times “100 Best Books of the Century.” Lee is the 2024 recipient of The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence. From South Korea, Lee has received the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award, and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity. She is the recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lee is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Lee served as the Editor of Best American Short Stories 2023. Lee’s essays and criticism have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue, and The Times of London. She is a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College. She is at work on her third novel, American Hagwon and a nonfiction work, Name Recognition.
About Strangers in the Land
Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America is an urgent, deeply felt narrative history of a more than century-long struggle to belong; the creation of the modern immigration surveillance apparatus; and the origins of anti-Asian hate in America. Drawing on more than two dozen archives from across the country, Chinese-language sources, and interviews with descendants, Luo tells the story of a people who, beginning with the gold rush in the middle of the nineteenth century, migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan, or Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed the Chinese arrivals, but as their numbers grew on the Pacific coast, sentiment towards them shifted, and horrific episodes of racial violence erupted. A prolonged economic downturn that commenced in the mid-1870s and idled legions of white working men helped create the conditions for what came next: federal legislation aimed at excluding Chinese laborers from the country, marking the first time the United States barred a people from entering the country based on their race. Violence soon crested. Chinese residents were driven out from towns across the American West, a shameful and little-known chapter of American history.
Yet the Chinese in America persisted amidst suspicion, casual injustices, and legal persecution. The Chinese weren’t simply the victims of barbarous violence and repression. They were protagonists in the story of America. They continually pressed their adopted homeland to live up to its stated ideals. Finally, in 1965, lawmakers passed an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and America’s gates swung open, enabling people like Luo’s own parents, who were born in mainland China and fled to Taiwan during the Communist takeover, to immigrate to this country. Nevertheless, even that legislation was made possible only because of proponents’ mistaken impression that it would do little to alter the nation’s demographics. Understanding this reality is necessary for understanding the cleavages over immigration that continue to inflame this country.