To my grandparents who came from Tangshan, the land beyond the mountains of Perak, and to my farsighted mother, who made sure that I was sent to school.

And lest we forget where we came from, this novel is also dedicated to the descendants of Chinese immigrants—Tay Kok Leong, Tay Kok Kiong, Lim Chi Minh, Lim Chi Sharn, and Shannan Wong, and to the descendants of Straits-born Chinese—Ophelia Ooi, Ngiam Gek Kim, Juliana Lim, and the late Aileen Lau.