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Western Journeys

by Teow Lim Goh

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In Western Journeys, Teow Lim Goh charts her journeys immigrating from Singapore and spending the last fifteen years living in and exploring the American West. Goh chronicles her lived experiences while building on the longer history of immigrants from Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, bringing new insights to places, the historical record, and memory. These vital essays consider how we access truth in the face of erasure. In exploring history, nature, politics, and art, Goh asks, "What does it mean for an immigrant to be at home?" Looking beyond the captivating landscapes of the American West, Goh uncovers stories of the Chinese people who came to America during the era of Chinese Exclusion Act, as well as the stories of the Indigenous peoples who have been written out of popular narratives, and various others. She examines the links between the transcontinental railroad, the cowboy myth, and the anti-Chinese prejudice that persists today. These essays explore the early efforts to climb Colorado's highest peaks, the massacre of Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and the increasingly destructive fire seasons in the West. Goh's essays create a complex, varied, and sometimes contradictory story of people and landscapes, a tapestry of answers and questions.… (more)
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This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.
These essays are short, calm, finely detailed snapshots of regions in the Western U.S. that reveal the assortment of people who passed through them over the years. Often starting with her own present-day treks around a mountain or a park, the author delves into the history of the workers, investors, and immigrants who shaped the current parks, towns, museums, and universities in each region.

In the first section, she mixes in pieces of poetry from American, Mexican, and Cantonese authors who captured the daily conflicts that each group experienced. Later sections connect to visual art that has been positioned in these western regions, including plans for a Cristo piece across the Arkansas River in Colorado, a multi-part project of Ai Weiwei’s on Alcatraz, and an exhibit of WWI gas masks that brings reverberations of disasters visited while the author was simultaneously tracking the news of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plan damage.

It's a personal and eclectic set of ruminations, which worked well to dip in and out of. I was pleased to learn so much about the history of the region from these thoughtful pieces.

  Ling.Lass | Aug 3, 2023 |
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In Western Journeys, Teow Lim Goh charts her journeys immigrating from Singapore and spending the last fifteen years living in and exploring the American West. Goh chronicles her lived experiences while building on the longer history of immigrants from Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, bringing new insights to places, the historical record, and memory. These vital essays consider how we access truth in the face of erasure. In exploring history, nature, politics, and art, Goh asks, "What does it mean for an immigrant to be at home?" Looking beyond the captivating landscapes of the American West, Goh uncovers stories of the Chinese people who came to America during the era of Chinese Exclusion Act, as well as the stories of the Indigenous peoples who have been written out of popular narratives, and various others. She examines the links between the transcontinental railroad, the cowboy myth, and the anti-Chinese prejudice that persists today. These essays explore the early efforts to climb Colorado's highest peaks, the massacre of Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming, and the increasingly destructive fire seasons in the West. Goh's essays create a complex, varied, and sometimes contradictory story of people and landscapes, a tapestry of answers and questions.

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