Claiming America: Constructing Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era (Asian American History & Cultu) [Hardcover]

K. Wong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1998 | Series: Asian American History & Cultu

This collection of essays centers on the formation of an ethnic identity among Chinese Americans during the period when immigration was halted. The first section emphasizes the attempts by immigrant Chinese to assert their intention of becoming Americans and to defend the few rights they had as resident aliens. Highlighting such individuals as Yung Wing, an ardent advocate of American social and political ideals, and Wong Chin Foo, one of the first activists for Chinese citizenship and voting rights, these essays speak eloquently about the early struggles in the Americanization movement. The second section shows how children of the immigrants developed a sense of themselves as having a distinct identity as Chinese-Americans. For this generation, many of the opportunities available to other immigrants' children were simply inaccessible.In some districts, explicit policies kept Chinese children in segregated schools; in many workplaces discriminatory practices kept them from being hired or from advancing beyond the lowest positions. In the 1930s, in fact, some Chinese-Americans felt their only option was to emigrate to China, where they could find jobs better matched to their abilities. Many young Chinese women who were eager to take advantage of the educational and work options opening to women in the wider U.S. society first had to overcome their family's opposition and then racism. As the personal testimonies and historical biographies eloquently attest, these young people deeply felt the contradictions between Chinese and American ways; but they also saw themselves as having to balance the demands of the two cultures rather than as having to choose between them.K. Scott Wong is Associate Professor of History at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. He is co-editor of "Privileging Positions: The Sites of Asian American Studies". Sucheng Chan is Professor of Asian-American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is editor or co-editor of several books including "Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America", 1882-1943 (Temple), "Peoples of Color in the American West", "Hmong Means Free: Life in Laos and America" (Temple), "Major Problems in California History", and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A collection of essays that recovers the lives and experiences of individuals who staked their claim to Chinese American identity

Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies

From the Back Cover

This collection of essays centers on the formation of an ethnic identity among Chinese Americans during the period when immigration was halted. The first section emphasizes the attempts by immigrant Chinese to assert their intention of becoming Americans and to defend the few rights they had as resident aliens. Highlighting such individuals as Yung Wing, an ardent advocate of American social and political ideals, and Wong Chin Foo, one of the first activists for Chinese citizenship and voting rights, these essays speak eloquently about the early struggles in the Americanization movement.

The second section shows how children of the immigrants developed a sense of themselves as having a distinct identity as Chinese Americans. For this generation, many of the opportunities available to other immigrants' children were simply inaccessible. In some districts explicit policies kept Chinese children in segregated schools; in many workplaces discriminatory practices kept them from being hired or from advancing beyond the lowest positions. In the 1930s, in fact, some Chinese Americans felt their only option was to emigrate to China, where they could find jobs better matched to their abilities. Many young Chinese women who were eager to take advantage of the educational and work options opening to women in the wider U.S. society first had to overcome their family's opposition and then racism. As the personal testimonies and historical biographies eloquently attest, these young people deeply felt the contradictions between Chinese and American ways; but they also saw themselves as having to balance the demands of the two cultures rather than as having to choose between them.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (January 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566395755
• ISBN-13: 978-1566395755
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,406,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sucheng Chan is Professor Emerita of Asian American Studies and Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Though her Ph.D. is in political science, she retooled herself as a historian while teaching Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley because so many questions that students asked could only be answered through historical research. She is the author or editor of 18 books, 5 of which have received awards: This Bittersweet Soil: The Chinese in California Agriculture, 1860-1910; Asian Americans: An Interpretive History; Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America; Claiming America: Constructions of Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era; and Survivors: Cambodian Refugees in the United States. Her other books have likewise been influential in the field. She has also written dozens of articles and book chapters, some of which have won awards.
A dedicated teacher, she is the recipient of 2 Distinguished Teaching Awards (the first from the University of California, Berkeley in 1978 and the second from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1998), as well as awards for service to students, the campus community, and the profession. She was the first Asian American woman to be appointed as a provost in the 10-campus University of California system, becoming Provost of Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1984. She moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1988, where she transformed the Asian American Studies Program into a full-fledged department in 1994, chairing the program and then the department from 1988 to 1997. She is also a co-founder of the Global Studies Program on the same campus.
She retired at age 60 in 2001 because the post-polio syndrome from which she has suffered for many years made it impossible to continue teaching. She has continued to write and is presently working on three book manuscripts: Asian America in Global Perspective; Vietnamese Refuge-Seekers and the Politics of Resettlement; and The Japanese in California Agriculture: Land, Labor, Race, and the Law, 1900-1942.