Lisa See's New Novel Illuminates 1871 Chinese Massacre Through Lives of Women in Los Angeles An exploration of Lisa See's historical novel 'Daughters of the Sun and Moon,' which reconstructs the lives of three Chinese women in Los Angeles during the 1870s and weaves their personal stories with the tragic 1871 Chinese Massacre, drawing from archival records and the author's own family history in the city. Novelist Lisa See's latest work, Daughters of the Sun and Moon, plunges readers into the turbulent world of Los Angeles in 1870 and 1871, a period marked by stark racial divisions and culminating in one of the city's darkest chapters: the Chinese Massacre of 1871. The narrative centers on three compelling Chinese women-Petal, Dove, and Moon-who come from vastly different circumstances but find their lives intersecting in the city's Chinatown. Their stories are not mere inventions; See has based her principal characters on four Chinese women documented in historical records from that era.This grounding in fact extends to the catastrophic events of October 24, 1871, when a mob descended upon the neighborhood then known as Calle de los Negros, violently killing at least 18 Chinese men and boys. The novel meticulously reconstructs this violent eruption, embedding it within the daily struggles, hopes, and community bonds of its female protagonists, thereby personalizing a widely reported but often impersonal historical tragedy.The setting for much of this drama is the Coronel Block, a complex of adobe buildings on Calle de los Negros-now part of Los Angeles Street-which historically housed a diverse mix of residents, including Chinese families and businesses. See's own familial connection to this geography adds a profound layer of reflection to her historical inquiry. During the writing process, she often held meetings at Pico House, a historic building nearby.From her seat, she could gaze upon the very corner where her great-grandparents, Fong See and Letticie Pruett, began their lives together after moving from Sacramento to Los Angeles in 1897 to open an antiques shop in Chinatown. This personal lineage, intertwined with the city's Chinese American history, creates a palpable sense of inheritance and remembrance.She notes the haunting continuity of place: the same streets and corners that witnessed her family's entrepreneurial beginnings also framed the lives of her fictional characters a generation earlier, during the massacre. This blend of personal and public history fuels the novel's emotional depth and its commitment to historical authenticity. To flesh out the world of 1870s Los Angeles, See employs extensive visual and documentary research.The text is accompanied by a wealth of period photographs that depict the city as a sprawling, dusty municipality far removed from its modern metropolis image. Images show the tentative layout of streets, the prevalence of stagecoaches like those from the Lafayette Hotel, and the modest adobe structures of the Coronel Block. These visuals underscore the novel's recreation of a city grappling with lawlessness, economic competition, and deep-seated prejudice.The massacre itself was not an isolated incident but a product of this volatile atmosphere, where tensions between white labor unions, nativist sentiments, and the established Chinese community frequently boiled over. See's narrative does not shy away from this brutality, but it contextualizes it by showing the vibrant, resilient society that existed before the violence and the long, difficult aftermath of grief and rebuilding.The planned construction of a memorial near the historical site, close to the present-day Chinese American Museum housed in the 1890 Garnier Building, signals a contemporary effort to officially acknowledge this history, a history See's novel helps to keep alive in the cultural imagination