Joy Lee Han and the Chinese Immigrant Experience

One of the thousands of Chinese immigrants to the United States in the 1950s was nineteen-year-old Joy Lee, whose inspiring journey to a new world—and a new life—personifies the immigrant experience. Almost sixty years later, with US immigration policy in the headlines, Joy Lee Han will discuss her story, documented in her new book, "Rice Paper Memoirs."

In the program, Han will recount her early life in Kaifeng in north central China, describing both idyllic childhood days spent raising silkworms and tending her grandmother’s goats, and the terror of Pearl Harbor Day, when she was forced, with her parents and five siblings, to flee the American Baptist Compound where they lived. Nine years later she would find herself on the run again, this time sneaking across the Chinese border into Hong Kong on her way to America.

Han also will discuss her experience writing a memoir, read from "Rice Paper Memoirs," take questions, and sign copies of her book. Refreshments will be served.