June 2014, when Lucy Liu purchased the film rights to the book. She will star as Anna May Wong in this biopic. â Anthony Chan, 2015
       A BOUT THE A UTHOR
Born and raised in Victoria, BC, Anthony Chan returned to Canada after thirty years in the US with eighteen years at the University of Washington as an associate professor of journalism. Before his academic career, he was an anchor and journalist at HK-TVB, producing fifty documentaries, and a television reporter at CBC Calgary. Chanâs independent films include a series on Asian-Americans and the Vietnam War. He has published Arming the Chinese (2010), Gold Mountain (1983), Li Ka-shing (1996), and Perpetually Cool (2003).
My Great-Grandfather, the Necromancer
Ricepaper 10, no. 2 (2005)
Ann Marie Fleming
Iâve been given a missionâto revisit the life of my great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam. If you talk to American magicians, theyâll tell you he invented the âgoldfish bowlâ trick, a feat of great skill and strength. If you talk to people in China, theyâll tell you he had many wives, which is not impossible for world-travelling vaudeville performers. There are many stories of who he was and where he came from. Are any of them true?
In all the legends, Long Tack Sam was born in 1885 in a small village in Northern China. According to one tale, his father was a high official at the Imperial Palace. As a boy, my great-grandfather ran away from home after breaking a jade bracelet in the market and encountered a magicianâs apprentice who introduced him to a new life. In another story, the famous magician Wang came to the village and performed dazzling tricks. Sam begged him to make bread appear because he was so hungry. The magician took him on as his apprentice and trained him in the arts of acrobatics and Chinese necromancy.
In yet another version, Sam was born near Wuqiao, the home of acrobatics in China. He was trained by his cruel older brother (also named Long Tack Sam), and it was the elder and not the younger who was meant to go on to an international career. Sam told peoplehe escaped from his brother and found his own fortune. Most likely, he was recruited by a circus travelling through China. In any case, it was the younger Sam who went on to fame with the name Long Tack Sam, which is an English approximation of the Shandung family name, Lâung.
Sam was short, stocky, strong, and extremely handsome. He would have been about eight years old when he joined the Tan Kwai troupe, a Chinese circus run by Julian Kwai that had already toured the West. In those days, there were few Chinese acts that toured internationally on the vaudeville circuit. There was an inherent audience of Chinese workers spread all over the world, and among non-Chinese, orientalism was popular. People loved the colours and spectacle of the stage shows, from opera to martial arts to magic.
Friends of his insist that Sam told them he ran away from home and made his way to Shanghai, where he stowed away on a boat to England. This is probably a romantic vision, since it was difficult for Chinese to travel during that period due to barriers like the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States and the head tax in Canada. It is likely Sam left China with the Tan Kwai troupe, travelling under a special dispensation for performers. The troupe went to San Francisco, toured the United States and Canada, and around 1903 started touring the vaudeville circuits in Europe. By 1908, Long Tack Sam had become the director of the troupe. They were known particularly for their hair tricks, performing feats of strength by hanging things from their long braids, or queue, which was the custom under the Ching dynasty.
While preparing for a performance at the Coliseum in Linz, Austria, Sam went to a haberdashery to buy supplies. He met Leopoldine Roessler, the shop clerk. They had nothing in common:no language, no culture, but love was a quick
       A BOUT THE A UTHOR
Born and raised in Victoria, BC, Anthony Chan returned to Canada after thirty years in the US with eighteen years at the University of Washington as an associate professor of journalism. Before his academic career, he was an anchor and journalist at HK-TVB, producing fifty documentaries, and a television reporter at CBC Calgary. Chanâs independent films include a series on Asian-Americans and the Vietnam War. He has published Arming the Chinese (2010), Gold Mountain (1983), Li Ka-shing (1996), and Perpetually Cool (2003).
My Great-Grandfather, the Necromancer
Ricepaper 10, no. 2 (2005)
Ann Marie Fleming
Iâve been given a missionâto revisit the life of my great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam. If you talk to American magicians, theyâll tell you he invented the âgoldfish bowlâ trick, a feat of great skill and strength. If you talk to people in China, theyâll tell you he had many wives, which is not impossible for world-travelling vaudeville performers. There are many stories of who he was and where he came from. Are any of them true?
In all the legends, Long Tack Sam was born in 1885 in a small village in Northern China. According to one tale, his father was a high official at the Imperial Palace. As a boy, my great-grandfather ran away from home after breaking a jade bracelet in the market and encountered a magicianâs apprentice who introduced him to a new life. In another story, the famous magician Wang came to the village and performed dazzling tricks. Sam begged him to make bread appear because he was so hungry. The magician took him on as his apprentice and trained him in the arts of acrobatics and Chinese necromancy.
In yet another version, Sam was born near Wuqiao, the home of acrobatics in China. He was trained by his cruel older brother (also named Long Tack Sam), and it was the elder and not the younger who was meant to go on to an international career. Sam told peoplehe escaped from his brother and found his own fortune. Most likely, he was recruited by a circus travelling through China. In any case, it was the younger Sam who went on to fame with the name Long Tack Sam, which is an English approximation of the Shandung family name, Lâung.
Sam was short, stocky, strong, and extremely handsome. He would have been about eight years old when he joined the Tan Kwai troupe, a Chinese circus run by Julian Kwai that had already toured the West. In those days, there were few Chinese acts that toured internationally on the vaudeville circuit. There was an inherent audience of Chinese workers spread all over the world, and among non-Chinese, orientalism was popular. People loved the colours and spectacle of the stage shows, from opera to martial arts to magic.
Friends of his insist that Sam told them he ran away from home and made his way to Shanghai, where he stowed away on a boat to England. This is probably a romantic vision, since it was difficult for Chinese to travel during that period due to barriers like the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States and the head tax in Canada. It is likely Sam left China with the Tan Kwai troupe, travelling under a special dispensation for performers. The troupe went to San Francisco, toured the United States and Canada, and around 1903 started touring the vaudeville circuits in Europe. By 1908, Long Tack Sam had become the director of the troupe. They were known particularly for their hair tricks, performing feats of strength by hanging things from their long braids, or queue, which was the custom under the Ching dynasty.
While preparing for a performance at the Coliseum in Linz, Austria, Sam went to a haberdashery to buy supplies. He met Leopoldine Roessler, the shop clerk. They had nothing in common:no language, no culture, but love was a quick
Similar Books
Sea of Christmas Miracles
Christine Dorsey
Deep End: A Bad Boy Sports Romance
Roxeanne Rolling
A Fine Family: A Novel
Gurcharan Das
Paxton's Promise
L.P. Dover
The Dead in River City
S.A. McGarey
Asylum
Patrick McGrath
Elysium
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Flicker
Anya Monroe