The Eighth Promise

This powerful memoir explores the Asian-American experience through the dual perspectives of a mother and son navigating 1960s San Francisco's Chinatown housing projects. William Poy Lee captures the generational divide between immigrant parents and their American-born children with raw honesty, examining conflicting views on survival, tradition, and cultural identity. The narrative weaves together personal history with broader social commentary about assimilation and belonging.

What makes this family memoir particularly compelling is its structure as a dialogue across generations, giving equal weight to both the mother's wisdom and the son's evolving understanding. Readers interested in immigration stories, mother-son relationships, and cultural preservation will find themselves deeply moved by this exploration of how traditions transform across generations while still maintaining their core promises.