The Chinese Experience in America (Minorities in Modern America) - Softcover

Tsai, Shih-Shan Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253203872 ISBN 13: 9780253203878

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1986

Synopsis

How have the Chinese fared in America? What motivated them to come here in the nineteenth century? How were they received by native Americans? These are some of the questions that Henry Tsai deals with in this important new book. He treats the nineteenth-century immigration experience, the development of early Chinese communities, American exclusion and the difficulties of living in the shadow of exclusion, and the Chinese community in the post-World War II era and today. Also covered are Chinese women in conemporary American society, the problems with children and youth in a multiracial society, and international issues such as the relationships between the U.S., China, and Taiwan, and the implications of these issues for the Chinese in America. The work provides a solid statistical analysis in a way that will be accessible to students and scholars as well as general readers.

About this title

From Library Journal

This is a good, solid history of Chinese-Americans. Not simply a chronicle of great events and individuals, this traces, instead, changing relationships of Chinese in the United States to their forebears' homeland. Because Americans are quite ignorant of Chinese history, Tsai's task is difficult. He largely succeeds in briefly telling the history of an altering China, while recounting the history of Chinese-Americans. The book is particularly strong on recent decades during which China and the Chinese-American community have undergone wrenching changes. This makes the book an important supplement to Stanford Lyman's Chinese Americans (1974). Essential for libraries in communities with sizable Chinese populations, and a useful addition to other collections. Charles K. Piehl, Director of Sponsored Progs., Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Tsai, professor of history and chairman of the Asian Studies Program at Arkansas Univ., takes a comprehensive look at the history of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans in the United States, beginning with the arrival of Chinese railroad laborers in the 19th century. He presents a well-supported analysis of how the Chinese became targets of racial prejudice and victims of exclusionary labor laws while surviving and, in some cases, thriving in Chinatown ghettoes. In fact, not until the U.S. and China became allies during World War II did Americans' attitudes toward the Chinese turn favorable. Tsai also describes at length the changing roles of Chinese women in society and concludes that although recent Chinese immigrants have gained access to previously restricted jobs, racial barriers still exist.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0253203872
• ISBN 13: 9780253203878
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 223