Chinese Americans: The Immigrant Experience combines a powerful historical text about the Chinese experience in America--from the earliest immigrants through the present day--with close to 2oo extraordinary images carefully selected to provide new perspective. Early chroniclers of Chinese life in America dwelled on the "exotic" and "alien" image of the Chinese people, as evidenced in nineteenth and early twentieth century photographs, drawings, and posters. Despite the fact that they made an enormous contribution to the development of the American West by working in the mines and on the railroads, once the railroads were completed, they found themselves ostracized by the exclusion and miscegenation laws and isolated in urban ghettos as undesirable aliens.

The powerful story of one of the most heavily persecuted immigrant groups to arrive on our shores is a poignant, often somber, look at the struggles and triumphs of the more than two million Chinese who left their native land for a chance at a better life. The Chinese arrived here around the same time as the so-called old immigrants, (the Germans and the Irish), and much earlier than any of the southern and eastern European groups. But unlike European immigrants, they found themselves ostracized by exclusion laws, never expected to assimilate. Only after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943 could they embark on a typical American immigrant path to success.

Chinese Americans: The Immigrant Experience combines a powerful historical text about the Chinese experience in America--from the earliest immigrants through the present day--with close to 2oo extraordinary images carefully selected to provide new perspective. Early chroniclers of Chinese life in America dwelled on the "exotic" and "alien" image of the Chinese people, as evidenced in nineteenth and early twentieth century photographs, drawings, and posters. Despite the fact that they made an enormous contribution to the development of the American West by working in the mines and on the railroads (9,000 of the initially planned 10,000 laborers on the Central Pacific P,,ailroad were Chinese), once the railroads were completed, they found themselves ostracized by the exclusion and miscegenation laws and isolated in urban ghettos as undesirable aliens. The early visual records presented in Chinese Americans set the somber mood for the story of the Chinese in America. But the book also provides ample evidence that the Chinese have made the best of the opportunities given them: from the poor peasants lured into indentured servitude by greedy American employers, to the chosen members of the educated elite who took refuge in the U.S.during civil strife in China.

INTRODUCTION

EARLY SINO-AMERICAN CONTACTS

CHINA TRADE AND THE OPIUM WARS

EARLY CHINESE IMMIGRATION

CHINESE EXCLUSION

THE RISE OF CHINESE GHETTOS

PARTIAL ACCEPTANCE

THE NEW ERA

UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN CHINESE AMERICANS

CHINESE-AMERiCAN WOMEN

ARRIVED AT LONG LAST

CHINESE SITES ON THE INTERNET

INDEX AND

PHOTO CREDITS