Synopses & Reviews
Founded during the Gold Rush years, the Chinese community of San Francisco became the largest and most vibrant Chinatown in America. For those Chinese traveling between the Old World and the New, San Francisco was a port of entry and departure. Many Chinese settled there, forming one of the oldest continuing ethnic communities in urban America.
This is a detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco, relating the development of various social and cultural institutions, ranging from brothels to the powerful “Six Companies.” The book recaptures in vivid detail not only the communitys collective mentalities but also the lives of ordinary people—laborers, theater-goers, gamblers, and prostitutes. In so doing, the author achieves what has been missing from virtually all the historiographic writing on the Chinese in America—he brings to life individual personalities with their varying human qualities.
The book shows the persistence of Chinese social patterns in San Francisco Chinatown, and demonstrates how the community helped shape white Americas view of Asians in general and the development of race consciousness and strife. The author challenges several long-accepted views, such as the myth that the Chinese exodus to California in the mid-nineteenth century occurred mainly because of impoverishment in South China and the notion that the overwhelming majority of Chinese women in San Francisco were prostitutes. He also makes insightful comparisons of Chinese Americans with other ethnic groups.
The book makes imaginative use of a wide range of materials, private and public, fictional and statistical, in both Chinese and English, produced by both pro- and anti-Chinese sources. Among these are Chinese-language newspapers (including their advertisements), handbills, personal diaries, and other cultural productions. The author offers multidisciplinary analyses of such documents, showing the possibilities of extracting rich historical information from texts created for very different purposes.
Review
"A rich and nuanced account of key events in San Francisco Chinatown." Choice
Review
"General audiences will enjoy this vivd depiction of Chinatown politics and insider perspectives on tourism. Experts will find this an illuminating . . . encounter with a tantalizing new array of sources."California History
Review
"This impressively researched study of San Francisco's Chinatown is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the history of the Chinese in America."The Journal of American History
Review
"Chin has produced one of the finest first-person narratives available on the Chinese experience in America, and it will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike. As K. Scott Wong notes, Paper Son is much more than a story of one man's life in the United States; it "gives voice to thousands of paper sons.""Journal of American Ethnic History
Synopsis
Detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco.
Synopsis
“Chen gives us new insights into the San Francisco community, its inhabitants and their lifestyles, and trans-Pacific connections. . . . Highly recommended.”—Western Historical Quarterly
“A rich and nuanced account of key events in San Francisco Chinatown.” —Choice
Synopsis
San Francisco's Chinatown became the largest and most vibrant Chinese community in America, and helped shape white America's view of Asians in general. This detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco relates the development of social and cultural institutions, from brothels to the powerful 'Six Companies'. By extracting rich historical information from texts as diverse as newspapers, advertisements, handbills, and personal diaries, the author challenges myths of Chinese poverty driving emigration to California in the mid-nineteenth century, and of the prevalence of prostitution amongst Chinese women.
Synopsis
Founded during the Gold Rush years, the Chinese community of San Francisco became the largest and most vibrant Chinatown in America. For those Chinese traveling between the Old World and the New, San Francisco was a port of entry and departure. Many Chinese settled there, forming one of the oldest continuing ethnic communities in urban America.
This is a detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco, relating the development of various social and cultural institutions, ranging from brothels to the powerful “ Six Companies.” The book recaptures in vivid detail not only the community’ s collective mentalities but also the lives of ordinary people— laborers, theater-goers, gamblers, and prostitutes. In so doing, the author achieves what has been missing from virtually all the historiographic writing on the Chinese in America— he brings to life individual personalities with their varying human qualities.
The book shows the persistence of Chinese social patterns in San Francisco Chinatown, and demonstrates how the community helped shape white America’ s view of Asians in general and the development of race consciousness and strife. The author challenges several long-accepted views, such as the myth that the Chinese exodus to California in the mid-nineteenth century occurred mainly because of impoverishment in South China and the notion that the overwhelming majority of Chinese women in San Francisco were prostitutes. He also makes insightful comparisons of Chinese Americans with other ethnic groups.
The book makes imaginative use of a wide range of materials, private and public, fictional and statistical, in both Chineseand English, produced by both pro- and anti-Chinese sources. Among these are Chinese-language newspapers (including their advertisements), handbills, personal diaries, and other cultural productions. The author offers multidisciplinary analyses of such documents, showing the possibilities of extracting rich historical information from texts created for very different purposes.
Synopsis
Founded during the Gold Rush years, the Chinese community of San Francisco became the largest and most vibrant Chinatown in America. This is a detailed social and cultural history of the Chinese in San Francisco.
About the Author
Yong Chen is Associate Professor of History and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Revisiting the pre-emigration Old World; Part I. The Rise of Chinese San Francisco: 2. The 'first city' locating Chinese San Francisco; 3. The social landscape of Chinese San Francisco; 4. 'China in America': the world of ah Quin; 5. Collective identity; Part II. The Arrival of a True Trans-Pacific Community: 6. A time of anger and a time of hope: the 1905 boycott; 7. A changing mentality, 1906 to 1913; 8. The Americanness of the Trans-Pacific community between the wars; 9. Persistence of Trans-Pacific ties; 10. The road to 1943; Conclusion.