Explore the research and philosophy behind Tom Lin’s novel The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, a fast and savage tale of revenge, featuring a Chinese American protagonist carving a path across the American West. We’ll begin with a geological history of the American landscape before examining the poorly archived and often harsh lives of Chinese American railroad laborers in the 1860s. Finally, we’ll pass what we’ve learned through the lens of philosophy, investigating the relationship between personal identity, memory and metaphysics.