Customer Reviews

Chinese America: The Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community

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

 

 

Every so often a history writer gets it right. This is just such a book...what extraordinary riches about the Chinese experience
such as the contrast between Uptown and Downtown Chinese, the building of Chinatowns throughout the United States, the contributions of Chinese doctors to the expansion of the West, the terrible experience of the Exclusion Act, the inroads into Hollywood. Consider that the idea of California as the vegetable capital of the United States was the result of innovative Chinese farmers who understood how to use water and irrigation techniques in the West. (They also used new water techniques to mine gold in the hills, creating "Chinese walls" of stones that can still be located in the Gold Country.) Never boring, this is a wonderful book for a gift. Highly recommended.

"Chinese America" is a fabulous book chronicling a misunderstood ethnic group. Today's stereotype is that all Chinese Americans are wealthy overachievers. This book debunks that myth and is very good at explaining how it came about as a result of only professionals being admitted to the U.S. at a certain point and most of those professionals being the creme of the crop from Taiwan. This contrasts with the early immigration which came largely from the Hong Kong region and consisted of rural people so discriminated against that 60 percent of Chinese in New York City in the 1920s were engaged in the hand laundry business, not by choice but because of discrimination.
This is not an America-bashing book, not at all. It only retells a complex story that today is not widely understood.

I am hard pressed to name any remotely comparable book covering the history of Chinese Americans. Most of the others either subscribe to the myth of the happy assimilationist Asian of mid-century or if they do, fail to address the true intra-community conflicts in recent history. This work is a true trail-blazer. Contrary to the implications of the one negative review this book provides an eye-opening and even-handed review of the real struggles in the Chinese community. Bravo!

This is a very revealing book that really focuses on how Chinese Americans have interacted with mainstream American society, and it also sheds light on class struggles within the Chinese American community itself.

OK, Anna May Wong didn't get the part in The Good Earth which went to a European about 70 years ago. Get over it; most of us have! Typical academic whine in which everything is wrong and nothing is right with America. No credit is given for repealing racist laws, expanding tolerance and opportunity. Authors think the Weathermen and Bobby Seale had something important to say. Omits many interesting and most positive aspects of the Chinese immigrant saga in America.