The Girls of Good Fortune

Celia is the main protagonist of the novel, and the 1885-1888 storyline is told from her point of view. Her father, Chung Jun, was born in China, where he met and fell in love with the daughter of white Christian missionaries. Jun converted to Christianity in order to marry Celia’s mother, and after the Second Opium War in China (1856-1860), the couple traveled to the American West. Jun found work with the Union Pacific railroad and was often gone during Celia’s youth. She and her mother lived in a town made for railroad employees, where there was a one-room school at which Celia received her education. In June of 1885, when her story begins, Celia is 18.

As Celia’s reflections illustrate, she often felt that she was perceived as different by her classmates because of her parentage, and she sought refuge in novels about other individuals who were cast as “different.” One of her favorites is The History of Tom Thumb, which features a small-statured fairy-tale figure who has extensive adventures and is admired for his bravery and cleverness. While Celia has no grand ambitions to make her mark on the world, the perception of difference keeps her on her guard around other people, especially when she notes the rising anti-Chinese sentiment that potentially endangers her and her young daughter, Pearl.