Customer Reviews

New York City's Chinese Community (Images of America: New York)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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I found this book to be very informative on the
history of NYC's Chinatown the pictures are
just beautiful, & tells a story of a very old
culture.

The captions are lovingly written for photos ranging from a century ago to today, many of which are hard to find. Many aspects of New York's rich Chinatown history are explored, although it typically fixates on the daily life and away from the gorier or more political aspects.

The writing and photography selection show a deep understanding of the Chinese-American experience on the part of the author making this work a great way for any American-born Chinese to reconnect or for a researcher to gain a substantive yet personal insight into the subject matter.

My only complaint is that as the book moves forward into the modern era, it moves from a larger scope to one zooming in on only one or two families - which in many ways fails to show the greatest changes made to Chinatown in the past 25 years. However, I can also understand the author had limited time and reach to secure more recent material.

This book is comprehensive, especially regarding early Chinatown history, and makes for a very breezy but immersive ready for any audience, no matter the age.