Meet Author Les Gee and Enjoy a Full Chinese Lunch Buffet

Tickets are only $10.00 for this event which includes a full Chinese food buffet catered fom the "Boiling Bowl" and the lecture with author Les Gee. Tickets go on sale July 1 and are limited to 144 seats. You may purchase directly on this website or you may fill out a form at the OVA office, attach your check and drop in the Asian Pacific folder. Lunch includes eggrolls, salad, rice or chow mein and your entree choice of Green Bean Chicken, House Special Beef, Prawns with Snow Peas or Vegetables and Tofu. Tea and water are provided along with your fortune cookie of course!

Les Gee is the author of two inspiring rags-to-riches stories based on his parents' lives. Seeing consistent five-star reviews on his 2018 debut, "One Small Pebble... A Thousand Ripples," Les was encouraged by many of his readers to keep writing. In October, 2023, he launched a second book. "The Sixth Jade" was recently recognized as a winner by the International Impact Books Award.

After completing his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley in Math and English, he earned a Master’s in Education at Stanford University. He spent his first seven career years teaching HS Math and English. Now after 44 years as a financial advisor, Les has turned to his passion for writing. But when he isn't writing, he spends time with his family. He also finds diversion in history, skiing and music.

Sin Wong was born into what should have been a life of ease, a life of abundance in 1920s southern China.

An arranged marriage to a poor farm boy named Suey Fong changed everything. Pregnant, she saw him off to pursue prosperity in America in a separation that was to be no more than a year. But, World War II and other complications kept them on opposite hemispheres for seven long years. Journey with her as she evades the Japanese Imperial Army while caring for her child and other family members.

What were the forces that, despite perilous and cultural headwinds, sustained Sin's indomitable expectation for a future with her husband?

In December 1946, a twist of fate brought her a nearly missed telegram that reignited her hopes for the future. After their joyful reunion, the two of them settled in Oakland, California, and built an incredibly successful business. As if preordained, this business empowered them to sponsor more than fifty other immigrant families, so that these families-and their own six children-would never have to endure the hardships of their forbears.

Ravaged by political instability and famine, 1930s' southern China offered very little hope for a fatherless young boy gathering pig dung for fertilizer. Follow his odyssey as a "paper son" immigrant to Gum Shan ("Golden Mountain"-America) in pursuit of a better destiny for himself and his future family. Experience his challenges in assimilating to Western culture, his obstacles imposed by the Chinese Exclusion Act, and his seven-year separation from his new bride and daughter, left behind amidst World War II. Cheer him on as he reunites with and brings his wife "home to America" and builds an unimaginably successful business in the Bay Area of Northern California. Through this business, he not only provided abundance for his wife and their six children, but also sponsored more than fifty immigrant families in their own quests for a better future. Embrace the powerful human instinct of "paying it forward."