Synopses & Reviews
This book is a highly original study of transnationalism among immigrants from Taishan, a populous coastal county in south China from which, until 1965, the majority of Chinese in the United States originated. Drawing creatively on Chinese-language sources such as gazetteers, newspapers, and magazines, supplemented by fieldwork and interviews as well as recent scholarship in Chinese social history, the author presents a much richer depiction than we have had heretofore of the continuing ties between Taishanese remaining in China and their kinsmen seeking their fortune in “Gold Mountain.”
Long after the gold in California ran out and prejudice confined them to dismal Chinatowns, generations of Chinese—mostly men from rural areas of southern China—continued to migrate to the United States in hopes of bettering the familys lot by remitting much of the meager sums they earned as laundrymen, cooks, domestic workers, and Chinatown merchants.
Economic hardships and U.S. Exclusion laws extended the immigrants separation from their families for decades, “sojourns” that in many cases ended only in death. Men lived as bachelors and their wives as widows, parents passed away, and children grew up without ever seeing their fathers faces. Families and village communities had to adapt to survive the stress of long-term, long-distance separation from their primary wage-earners.
At the same time, men raised in the rural communities of a faltering imperial China had to negotiate encounters with an industrializing, Western-dominated, often hostile world. This history explores the resiliency and flexibility of rural Chinese, qualities that enabled them to preserve their families by living apart from them and to survive the intertwining of their rural world with global systems of race, labor, and capital. The author demonstrates that through migration to dank and narrow enclaves, they came to live, and even to flourish, in a transnational community that persisted despite decades of separation and an oceans width of distance.
Review
An outstanding book, and exemplar of how to do a transnational study that captures the often globe-spanning histories of migrants out of Asia. . . . Hsus imaginative use of both English and Chinese language sources is impressive. . . . Besides being a wonderful archival historian, Hsu also writes well, and she weaves a tapestry of the larger contexts of historical events in both China and the United States by threading in the poignant examples of individual lives.”Journal of Asian American Studies
Review
"Most previous studies have tended to set the spotlight on the Gold Mountain, and had very little data on the impact of overseas Chinese immigrants on their homeland. The present volume fills this research gap. It demonstrates how a transnational approach can print a balance sheet showing how the Taishanese measured the long periods of hardship they endured in the Gold Mountain against the opportunities to actualize their committments to their families in Taishan and to thd Taishan community. Unlike other studies of the Chinese in America, this volume tells a complete story."Ethnic and Racial Studies
Review
"Well-argued"International Migration Review
Review
"A work of impressive scholarshipthere is new and important information on almost every page of this book. It will be required reading for Asian Americanists, immigration historians, students of transnationalism and diaspora, and social historians of 20th-century China."Robert G. Lee, Brown University
Review
"This well-researched book is an important addition to the literature on Chinese American history; and as a well-written social history with insights into the key links between Taishan and America, it enhances our understanding of the richness and complexities of Taishanese transnational experiences."The Journal of American History
Review
"Most previous studies have tended to set the spotlight on the Gold Mountain, and had very little data on the impact of overseas Chinese immigrants on their homeland. The present volume fills this research gap. It demonstrates how a transnational approach
Synopsis
“An outstanding book, and exemplar of how to do a transnational study that captures the often globe-spanning histories of migrants out of Asia. . . . Hsus imaginative use of both English and Chinese language sources is impressive. . . . Besides being a wonderful archival historian, Hsu also writes well, and she weaves a tapestry of the larger contexts of historical events in both China and the United States by threading in the poignant examples of individual lives.”—Journal of Asian American Studies
“Well-argued”—International Migration Review
Synopsis
How immigrants from southern China to California integrated socially and economically, and how communities in China coped with long-term separation.
Synopsis
This book is a study of the immigration to the United States of Chinese from Taishan, a coastal county in southern China, from which until 1965 over half the Chinese in America originated. This immigration provides a revealing picture of how individuals raised in rural communities of a fading imperial China interacted with an industrializing, Western-dominated world. Chinese were among the fortune seekers from around the world who hoped to find gold in California in the mid-nineteenth century. Long after the gold ran out and prejudice confined them to dank and narrow Chinatown enclaves, the immigrants' earnings as laundry men, cooks, domestic workers, and Chinatown merchants enabled them to advance their families up the social ladder. Such successes, however, demanded considerable sacrifice, and village communities had to adapt in order to survive the duress of long-term, long-distance separations from primary wage-earners.
Synopsis
This book is a highly original study of transnationalism among immigrants from the county of Taishan, from which, until 1965, a high percentage of the Chinese in the United States originated. The author vividly depicts the continuing ties between Taishanese remaining in China and their kinsmen seeking their fortune in "Gold Mountain."
About the Author
Madeline Y. Hsu is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin, and Director of the Center for Asian American Studies.