Ch 5 Ninety-five percent of cadres redeemable and “touch men’s very souls” from Mao’s China and After: A History of the People’s Republic by Maurice Meisner. 3rd ed., Free Press, 1999, p. 307-308.
Ch 5 “Bombard the headquarters” from Mao: A Reinterpretation by Lee Feigon. Ivan R. Dee, 2002, p. 158.
Ch 5 “If the father…” from “The Role of the Red Guards and Revolutionary Rebels in Mao’s Cultural Revolution” by the CIA Directorate of Intelligence. CIA, Nov. 1968, p. 15.
Ch 5 “Sharing the Blue Sky” campaign from “Paying the Price for Economic Development: The Children of Migrant Workers in China” by Aris Chan. China Labour Bulletin, Nov. 2009, pp. 19-20.
Ch 5 Eligibility to attend Robeson Rivera Academy from “The Repeat Offenders Prevention Project (ROPP) of the City/County of San Francisco: A Final Evaluation Report” by the California State Board of Corrections, June 2003, p. 7.
Ch 6 “His rap style…” from “Nas’ 25 Favorite Albums” by Insanul Ahmed. Complex.com. 22 May 2012.
Ch 6 Quotes from Long Night’s Journey into Day: South Africa’s Search for Truth & Reconciliation. Directed by Frances Reid and Deborah Hoffmann. Iris Films/Cinemax Reel Life, 2000.
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank my sister for her unwavering support throughout this project. Your courage gave me the strength to write this. Thanks to my mom for always be willing to answer questions, including all the random questions about Cantonese. To Willie for his patience and understanding. To my father for giving me permission to use his emails. To my brother for showing me what it means to be a loving father. To my aunts, uncles, and cousins, I hope for your understanding. To my grandparents, who have passed on, we miss you each day. And to our next generation, I wrote this for y’all.
To the homies who’ve been there from day one of this journey: Maritez Apigo, George Alonzo, Eric Bastine, Sherilyn Tran, Tiffany Saechao, Han Fan. To Ken Ja and Dave Maduli, who I turn to continuously for pretty much everything, next drink’s on me. To my oldest and best friend, Koitt Robbins, let’s go for another one of those rides. To my brother Rob Santos, rest in power. Wish you were still here so you could read the stories of us and tell me, “That ain’t how it happened, man!”
Shout-out to all the students and families I’ve had the privilege to work with. Keep grinding, keep shining. Rest in power to Javon King, George Hurtado, and Joshua Cameron, stars who had so much more to give. Rest in power to Randy and Keino. We remember.
To Urban Academy, especially my mentor Avram Barlowe, for teaching me how to listen, how to create questions that make a classroom pop, and how to organize the chaos. To the co-founders of June Jordan School for Equity, Kate Goka, Matt Alexander, and Shane Safir, thank you for your visionary leadership and the years that y’all put into laying the foundation. To the other JJSE teachers and staff that I had the honor to work with, so much love and admiration for each of you.
To the Contra Costa College community, especially the Puente Project, for inspiring me with your stories each day. Special shout-out to my Puente partner, Norma Liliana Valdez. You knock it out every time in the classroom and on the poetry stage. To Elvia Ornelas-Garcia for being willing to share joint custody of a program she loves so dearly.
For the gift of time and space to write, thank you to the Millay Colony for the Arts and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.
To my teachers for their generosity and wisdom, from the MFA program at the University of Houston: Alex Parsons, Antonya Nelson, Chitra Divakaruni, Mat Johnson, Nick Flynn, Peter Turchi, and ZZ Packer; from the MFA program at Rutgers-Newark: Alice Elliott Dark, Jayne Anne Phillips, Rigoberto González, and Tayari Jones; from VONA: Chris Abani, David Mura, Junot Díaz, Andrew Pham; and my very first workshop instructors who gave my crappy writing so much love, care, and guidance: Elmaz Abinader and Faith Adiele.
Extreme gratitude to the readers who have shaped this book through their encouragement and insightful feedback, especially to Hirsh Sawhney, Armin Tolentino, Leslie Ann Murray, Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Nancy Pearson, Elizabeth Winston, Austin Tremblay, Celeste Prince, Julia Brown, Jameelah Lang, Talia Mailman, Aja Gabel, Michelle Mariano, Claire Anderson, Sara Rolater, Selena Anderson, Tyson Morgan, Thomas Calder, Justin Chrestman, and Jessica Wilbanks. Also, thanks to Ted Closson for adapting my work to comic form.
Special thanks to the editors who have published pieces from this book in earlier iterations: Jennifer Derilo, Roxane Gay, Steven Church, Karissa Chen, David Lynn, and Paul Lisicky.
Deepest thanks to Alison Hawthorne Deming for choosing my work. Forever in debt. Also, Christine Stroud and Alison Taverna at Autumn House Press for their untiring work to put this book in your hands.
And my wife, Jessica Morrow, who wouldn’t let me stop believing. You came right on time.
* * * * * *
The following essays originally appeared in the journals noted:
“Cross the Line,” Kartika Review, Fall 2011
A shorter version of “What’s in a Name?” was published as “An Echo,” PANK, Spring 2014
“The Key to the Combination,” The Normal School, Fall 2014
“Snowmen,” Hyphen Magazine, February 2015
“What’s in a Name?”, Kenyon Review Online, Fall 2015
The opening section of “An Unreliable Narrator” was published as “Sitting on the Toilet in the Alley Is the Hugger Who Waits for the Drunk Ear Picker to Bring the Red Bean Soup,” StoryQuarterly, February 2016
Questions for Discussion
Teaching resources including lesson plans, essay prompts, and creative writing prompts are also available at www.dicksonlam.net.
1. What is the significance of the memoir’s title, Paper Sons? In what ways is Lam a paper son?
2. How is Lam’s mother portrayed in the book? How would you describe the relationship between Lam and his mother?
3. Lam’s father is a primary focus of Paper Sons, while Lam’s sister seems to be a secondary character. What might be the author’s rationale for this? Did Lam inadvertently silence his sister by centering the book on
