Season's Savings | ₹5/mo for 3 months

₹199/month after first 3 months. Renews automatically. Terms apply.
Strangers in the Land cover art

Strangers in the Land

Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America

Preview
Get this deal Free with 30-day trial
Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
Prime logo
Only ₹5/month for first 3 months.
Get 1 credit per month to use on any title of your choice.
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals.
₹199/month after first 3 months. Cancel anytime. Renews automatically. Offer ends 28 December, 2026.
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Strangers in the Land

Written by: Michael Luo
Narrated by: Eric Yang
Free with 30-day trial Free with 30-day trial

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹842.13

Buy Now for ₹842.13

About this listen
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION • From New Yorker writer Michael Luo comes a masterful narrative history of the Chinese in America that traces the sorrowful theme of exclusion and documents their more than century-long struggle to belong.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR:
THE NEW YORKER, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, BOSTON GLOBE, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK, KIRKUS REVIEWS, LIBRARY JOURNAL, CHINA BOOKS REVIEW

"A story about aspiration and belonging that is as universal as it is profound.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing

"A gift to anyone interested in American history. I couldn't stop turning pages."—Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown


In Strangers in the Land, award-winning journalist Michael Luo tells the story of a people who, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan––Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed these Chinese arrivals, but, as their numbers grew, horrific episodes of racial terror erupted on the Pacific coast. Federal lawmakers enacted legislation aimed at excluding Chinese laborers from the country, the first time the United States barred a people based on their race. The Chinese became the country’s earliest undocu­mented immigrants: hounded, counted, suspected, surveilled.

In 1889, while upholding Chinese exclusion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field characterized them as “strangers in the land.” Only in 1965 did America’s gates swing open to people like Luo’s parents, immigrants from Taiwan. Today there are more than twenty-two million people of Asian descent in the United States and yet the “stranger” label, Luo writes, remains. Drawing on archives from across the country and written with style and sweep, Strangers in the Land is a revelatory and unforgettable American story.
Americas Emigration & Immigration Social Sciences Specific Demographics United States
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet