Chinese American Artists

Gus Lee

Born:  1946 
Place of Birth: 
San Francisco, CA 

Profession: Novelist

Major works:  China Boy (1991) Honor and Duty (1994), and Tiger Tails
(1996) All three are autobiographical novels.

	Raised in a largely African American neighborhood in Panhandle, San 
Francisco, Lee was five years old when his mother died. His father married 
a non-Chinese woman. At age seven, he was sent to the local YMCA to learn 
boxing. He later recalls, "I was no more interested in boxing than dying 
by any other form of physical confrontation... I was sent there by my 
father and by a man in the neighborhood who felt that if I did not get 
boxing lessons I would get killed."
	
	Lee attended West Point in 1968. He originally went to West Point to 
fulfill his father's expectations but he quickly found out that he had his 
own reasons to be there. Back in Panhandle, he had been at the mercy of 
kids on the street who were a lot tougher than he was. Later Gus Lee 
earned a law degree. At the time "China Boy" was published, he was the 
Director of Attorney Education for the State Bar of California. 
Speaking of his autobiographical novel "China Boy," Lee said, "I'm really 
dedicated to the ideal of diversity, and I think mine is a multiethnic 
novel, a collage of Asian, African, Italian-and Hispanic-American 
elements." "China Boy" was a story about Lee's family in China before 
immigrating to the United States during the war and then (after we settled 
in the US) my own attempts to become a successful African-American male 
youth in the Panhandle of San Francisco. Lee felt that "China Boy" is the 
book "That had to be written in order to save me and my son from repeating 
the errors of the past. It reminded me of the father I was supposed to be, 
and described the father I could be, if there was any fairness in the 
world. It was a huge wake-up call as to the real priorities in my life, 
which had nothing to do with professional accomplishment, but everything 
with taking care of my family and being the best I could, relationally, 
with everyone I know."

	Lee's second book, "Honor & Duty" is the sequel to "China Boy." In it, the 
Gus Lee character named Kai Ting goes to West Point and finds to his 
surprise that it is a Chinese institution in Western dress, committed to 
the ancient saying: "Subdue the self and honor the rituals." Lee and Kai 
Ting adapted to life at West Point with ease.

	Discussing "Tiger's Tail," his third novel, Lee reveals his writing style 
and intention as a novelist. "I guess I'm an offshoot of any tribal 
storyteller who seeks to deliver a message with the story . . .  I think 
novels represent the continuing repository of human morality. It's a 
tremendous journal about the struggle against consequences and 
circumstance, and attempts to find moral resolutions and moral victories. 
The other objective (in my writing) is to honor the great faiths of all 
persons, not because that somehow fits me politically, but because that's 
who I am." In his exploration of a man's responsibilities to his country, 
himself and his family, Lee's journey has carried him to an atypical locus 
of human empathy and understanding, but his fiction does honor the best of 
what a modern storyteller has to offer. 

Gus Lee lives in Spring, Colorado with his family.