Photo of ruthanne lum mccunn
Ruthanne Lum McCunn
American novelist
Ruthanne Lum McCunn (Chinese: 林露德; pinyin: Lín Lùdé) (néeDrysdale;[1] born February 21, [2]) is an American novelist and editor of Chinese and Scottish descent.[3]
Early life
Ruthanne Lum McCunn was born as Roxey Drysdale on February 21, , in Chinatown, San Francisco and raised in Hong Kong.[4] Her father was a Scottish American merchant seaman from Idaho, and her mother was from Hong Kong.
Photo of ruthanne lum mccunn wooden fish song video Al Young Duane Niatum E. From books, newspapers, movies, and Americans living in or passing through Hong Kong, I had some idea--albeit much of it false--about the future I might make for myself in the United States. Retrieved September 21, Their example allowed me to believe that I could too and gave me the strength to leave Hong Kong for America in at the age ofHer parents met in the late s when her mother came to San Francisco with a cousin to visit the World's Fair, where she met Ruthanne's father, fell in love with him and got married. Interracial marriage was illegal in California at the time so they drove to Washington, where a minister, who was a friend of her father's family, married them. For the duration of World War II, they lived in San Francisco's Chinatown.
In , her mother returned to Hong Kong with Ruthanne and her sister, where they lived in Sai Ying Pun. McCunn's first language was Cantonese, and she grew up surrounded by her mother's extended family. When she was six years old, her father returned from sea, and concerned that she could not speak English, placed her in a British school.
Her father died in America while she was in Form Five at the King George V School.[5]
At age sixteen, McCunn left for America in , after passing her O Levels. She first arrived in Boise, Idaho, where her sister had already settled with their father's relatives. She then left for Walnut Creek, California, where she lived with a friend of her mother's.
For two years, she attended Diablo Valley Junior College, and worked odd jobs from janitor to short-order cook.
Photo of ruthanne lum mccunn Retrieved Their example allowed me to believe that I could too and gave me the strength to leave Hong Kong for America in at the age of In other projects. South China Morning Post.She then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, and married Don McCunn at the end of her junior year. They moved to Austin, Texas, where she completed her undergraduate degree in English at the University of Texas at Austin in [6] McCunn earned her teaching credentials from the University of California, San Francisco when they returned to San Francisco the following year.
Career
McCunn first worked as a librarian and then as a teacher in a Santa Barbara elementary school before she and her husband settled permanently in San Francisco in , where she was an English and bilingual teacher. She continued to teach until , when she decided to write full-time.
She has taught a few terms of creative writing and Asian American literature at the University of San Francisco, Cornell University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.[7]
Her work has appeared in Zyzzyva.[8] In , her second novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold, was adapted into a film of the same name.
Photo of ruthanne lum mccunn books Glickman Tino Villanueva Virginia L. Because silkworms demand round-the-clock care, the labor of every family member--including children as young as five--was needed, and the custom of footbinding was not practiced here. American novelist. She was co-editor with Judy Yung and Russell C.McCunn was reportedly unhappy with the adaptation.
She was co-editor with Judy Yung and Russell C. Leong on the Chinese American historian Him Mark Lai's autobiography. It was published by the UCLA Asian American Center Press in [9]
Personal life
McCunn lives in San Francisco, California, with her husband, Don, and their two cats.[10][11]