Thousand Pieces of Gold by Ruthanne Lum McCunn

When famine strikes northern China in 1871, Lalu Nathoy is sold off at age 13, is eventually taken by a slave merchant to America, and auctioned off to a seedy saloonkeeper. She becomes the prize during a poker game and is “won” by an honest man whom she marries, becoming Polly Bemis, beloved pioneer woman.

Thousand Pieces of Gold is most likely the first biographical novel of a Chinese American pioneer woman. The book was the basis for a 1991 independent film for American Playhouse, but McCunn was unhappy with the celluloid translation. She told Hong in a 1994 interview, “It was very different. The character names and the title were the same, but everything else was different.”

Review: “Asian American Titles,” What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature, Gale Research, 1997

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 1981