An Evening Breeze in San Gabriel

The Evening Breeze of San Gabriel

The Evening Breeze of San Gabriel is a cross-border realist novel grounded in the century-long history of Chinese immigrants in California's San Gabriel Valley. Told through three parallel timelines, past, present, and future, it follows four generations of Chinese people as they wander, struggle, and put down roots, offering a sweeping portrait of the realities of Chinese life in North America.

At its center is Ding Yanren, an expert in cross-border tax and financial compliance and a technology entrepreneur. Based in Los Angeles's Chinese community, the novel closely depicts harsh realities such as irregularities in overseas notarization, fraudulent audits and loan applications, collusion among three parties, gray-market tax arbitrage across borders, and cutthroat competition for immigration status.

From the stoic hardships of Chinese laborers who opened up new territory a century ago, through the struggle for profit among today's Chinese people caught up in the gold rush, to a future in which technology and compliance reshape the rules of the industry, the story links the destinies of three places: the clan heritage of the Jiangxi homeland, Beijing's professional circles, and Los Angeles's cross-border business community.

Breaking away from the wish-fulfillment conventions of immigrant fiction, the novel uses a realistic style to confront the industry's unspoken rules and the shades of human nature. It tells of a generation of educated professionals who stand alone, establishing rules through technology, challenging corruption by holding to their principles, and finding their way home by staying true to their original purpose. Through the rise and fall of a century of evening breezes in San Gabriel, it captures the transformation of Chinese immigrants, from wandering in pursuit of profit to putting down roots, building a new order, and passing on their heritage.