In writing what seems like a strictly personalized biography of her eminent Chinese forebears, Cornelia Lichauco Fung has, in the process, produced a fascinating history of Filipino-Chinese connections. Herself the child of a prominent Filipino-Chinese father, Mrs Fung is married to a Hong Kong resident and has long made the territory her home. Her chronicle starts with the history of the waves of Chinese migration into the Philippines during the era in which scores (mainly from Fujian province) fled famine and the dire conditions of their homeland.