The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people’s search for a better life—the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success. She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendents: building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

Introduction   vii

1. The Old Country: Imperial China in the Nineteenth Century   1
2. America: A New Hope   20
3. "Never Fear, and You Will Be Lucky": Journey and Arrival in San Francisco   29
4. Gold Rushers on Gold Mountain   38
5. Building the Transcontinental Railroad   53
6. Life on the Western Frontier   65
7. Spreading Across America   93
8. Rumblings of Hatred   116
9. The Chinese Exclusion Act   130
10. Work and Survival in the Twentieth Century   157
11. A New Generation is Born   173
12. Chinese America During the Great Depression   199
13. "The Most Important Historical Event of Our Times": World War II   215
14. "A Mass Inquisition": The Cold War, the Chinese Civil War, and McCarthyism   236
15. New Arrivals, New Lives: The Chaotic 1960s   261
16. The Taiwanese Americans   283
17. The Bamboo Curtain Rises: Mainlanders and Model Minorities   312
18. Decade of Fear: The 1990s   334
19. High Tech vs. Low Tech   348
20. A Uncertain Future   389  

Notes   405

Acknowledgements   477

Index   481