Customer Reviews

The Chinatown Trunk Mystery: Murder, Miscegenation, and Other Dangerous Encounters in Turn-of-the-Century New York City

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lui has written a wonderful book that uses a murder in New York to examine the complexity of race and gender in New York at the turn of the nineteenth century. Her research is first rate and the narrative she shapes is enthralling. One highlight of the book is the discussion of the ways that the Chinese community mobilized to defend itself from the attacks on Chinese, and Asians in general, that followed the discovery of the body. Her narrative is crisp and her analysis sharp.

Maybe if the book had a different title or was more forthright of the contents, I would have given it four stars. But as it stands, the book is only one third about the "Mystery" and even much of that is redundant. What the book is really about is a diatribe against the way the Chinese were treated under the 'Exclusionary Act'.

Lui must have spent an enormous amount of research time going through old records and newspapers because her data is first rate. What it isn't is about the murder and the murderer. Why? Because there is little to know beyond who they were and their relationship. You can only say the same thing so many ways and so many times and then it gets dull and repetitive (uh, redundantly redundant).

The body of Elsie Sigel is found in a trunk in New York's Chinatown. The room belongs to Leon Ling, and a massive manhunt begins. He is never found, but love letters from Elsie to Leon are found. Why was she killed, don't know; who killed her, maybe Leon.

We are then subjected to a plethora of data about interracial (asian and white mostly) marriage and mixed race children in New York at the turn of the twentieth century. Down to street and apartment addresses, baptismal and marriage date (even the names of the witnesses and godparents). Very boring and nothing to do with the murder. OK, I believe you, there weren't many single Chinese woman, so unless the bride came from China with her husband, the single men married white woman. OK, I get it.

Not recommended for anyone who is looking for a mystery story, only for those looking for a polemic as to how Asians were treated scandalously in turn of the century America.

Zeb Kantrowitz