Excerpt from China Dolls by Lisa See, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Hawaii?" Grace burbled. "So exciting! That's not even the United States. Is that why you talk the way you do?"

"Talk the way I do?"

"Hot? Kicks? Beat it?"

"Sailors! As for Hawaii, it's a protectorate or a territory or something like that." Ruby shrugged. "My family has been there about five years. Now my parents say they want to go all the way home. Beat it while the beating is good. But I told my pop I love glitter. I told him I want to be famous."

"I want to be a star— " Grace began.

"My pop asked why I would want to be in America at all," Ruby continued, once again speaking right over Grace. "He says we'll never be accepted as Americans."

"My dad says that too," I volunteered hesitantly.

But Ruby didn't seem all that interested in what I had to say either.

"I went with them to Hawaii," she chattered. "I kept up with my ballet and tap, but I also learned hula. I'll show you how to do it."

She took a breath before zeroing in on Grace. "What about you?"

"I've studied ballet, tap, piano, and voice— "

Just then, one of the men sitting next to the male dancer stood and clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. Now that I got a good look at him, I knew who he was: Charlie Low. He'd built the first grand apartment building for Chinese— the Low Apartments— up on Powell. He probably deemed himself the grandest man in Chinatown, but if he was, then he would have identified me on sight, and he didn't. He was just a middle- aged lucky so- and- so with a healthy girth that proclaimed to all that he could eat well even in these hard times. But, as they say, the fish is the last to realize he lives in the water, meaning Charlie was just another creature in the pond until someone bigger and better— like my baba— pulled him out and showed him what was what.

"I'm Charlie Low," he announced. "This is my wife, a little gal with a big voice, Li Tei Ming." Then he motioned to the two other men still sitting on their chairs. "These two cowboys are Walton Biggerstaff and Eddie Wu. One is your choreographer, and the other is a dancer. You can guess who is who." That earned some giggles, and Charlie threw his shoulders back in response. "This will be the best nightclub San Francisco has ever seen. Okay, so it won't be the first Chinese nightclub, but it will be the first Chinese nightclub outside Chinatown. We'll appeal to the most discriminating San Franciscans. I'm talking about lo fan."

Grace frowned. Her ignorance of even the most basic Chinese words amazed me. I whispered, "He's talking about Occidentals— white ghosts."

When Charlie said, "I want girls who can sing and dance," I started to rise as did a couple of others. Grace and Ruby pulled me back to the floor.

"Wait!" Ruby whispered. "Just listen!"

Charlie chuckled at the reaction he'd gotten. "You kids got me wrong," he went on. "We know most of you don't know how to dance. How could you? You're proper Chinese daughters. Am I right?" The other girls, who'd gotten up, sat down again too. "We want to see if you can move. If you can move and you're pretty, then we'll teach you to dance. It won't be hard, I swear. The main thing I want is pretty. Got it?"

"Well, then, we don't have anything to worry about," Ruby whispered again. "We can't miss!"

"I won't have a lot of rules around here, except for one," Charlie continued. "I'm going to hire only Chinese for my floor show. This is our chance, and we're going to make this place unique . . . and fun! Now, here's Walton. Consider him your maestro and call him Mr. Biggerstaff." The tall and lanky lo fan got to his feet and spoke in a voice as smooth as caramel. "I want to see you all onstage."

Excerpted from China Dolls by Lisa See. Copyright © 2014 by Lisa See. Excerpted by permission of Random House. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.