Lisa See

Lisa See is an American author best known for historical novels exploring Chinese and Chinese American history, family relationships and women’s experiences. Born in Paris and raised in Los Angeles, she spent considerable time with her father’s Chinese American family in Chinatown. Her first major work, On Gold Mountain, traces the experiences of her own family across several generations and established many of the themes that would shape her later fiction.

See achieved international recognition with Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, set in nineteenth-century China and centred on an intimate friendship between two women. Her other novels include Shanghai Girls, Dreams of Joy, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, The Island of Sea Women and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. Her fiction combines extensive historical research with stories of migration, cultural tradition, political upheaval and the bonds between women.