In conversation with UC Irvine’s Erika Hayasaki, we are thrilled to welcome New Yorker Executive Editor Michael Luo for an incisive and gorgeously written history of Chinese American experience. This exciting new book uncovers an epic history of exclusion, belonging, and the complications of America’s multiracial democracy.
Join us at the San Diego Central Library @ Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common to celebrate the release of Strangers in the Land. This event will be located in the Shiley Suite on the 9th floor.
This free author event includes a conversation, Q&A, and the opportunity to get your book signed. This will be a popular event, so pre-order your copy of Strangers in the Land early to guarantee your book! Published on April 29, copies will be available for pick up in store after that date, or at the event doors on March 4. Proceeds support the San Diego Public Library System.
About the Book
“Strangers in the Land is what history should be — richly detailed, authoritative, and compelling. Luo pieces together the stunning and shocking story of a people’s journey to this country, and in the process reveals an essential part of the story of America.”
—David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager
In Strangers in the Land, New Yorker Executive Editor Michael Luo delivers a powerful and timely exploration of the Chinese American experience, tracing over a century of exclusion, xenophobia, and resilience. Accosted in the streets by a racist shout in 2016, instead of “Going back to China!” Luo dove deep into history to track the origins of anti-Chinese sentiment. Tracking this thread through time, he takes readers from the Gold Rush to the violent uprisings and on to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with descendants, Luo reveals how Chinese-Americans persevered through racial violence and legal discrimination, challenging the nation to fulfill its promises of equality and justice. Strangers in the Land counterpoints prejudice with hope and the power of identity.
A seasoned journalist, Luo originally wrote a viral New York Times piece on his experience in the streets that day. Taking that journalism deeper with this new book, he blends personal reflection with historical insight to tell a broader story about race, immigration, and belonging in America. Strangers in the Land links the 1965 Immigration Act to our present moment, noting how early Chinese American experience mirrors that of many immigrant groups currently under attack.
Told with warmth, deep insight, and an almost cinematic literary reach, Luo crafts a poignant account of how America’s struggles with race, exclusion, and inclusion have shaped — and continue to shape— this country.
About the Speakers
Michael Luo is an executive editor at The New Yorker and writes regularly for the magazine on politics, religion, and Asian American issues, since joining in 2016. Before that, he spent thirteen years at the New York Times as a metro reporter, national correspondent, and investigative reporter and editor. He is a recipient of a George Polk Award and a Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
Erika Hayasaki is a Southern California journalist, a celebrated author, and a professor in the Literary Journalism Program at the University of California, Irvine. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, Wired, Slate, and others. A 2021 – 22 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow and a 2018 Alicia Patterson Fellow, she won NPR Best Book of the Year and received a Nautilus Book Award for her most recent book, Somewhere Sisters.
