Product Description

In an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day, Iris Chang tells of a people’s search for a better life—the determination of the Chinese to forge an identity and a destiny in a strange land and, often against great obstacles, to find success. She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendents: building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #928851 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-31
• Format: Bargain Price
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this outstanding study of the Chinese-American community, the author surpasses even the high level of her bestselling Rape of Nanking. The first significant Chinese immigration to the United States came in the 1850s, when refugees from the Taiping War and rural poverty heard of "the Golden Mountain" across the Pacific. They reached California, and few returned home, but the universally acknowledged hard work of those who stayed and survived founded a great deal more than the restaurants and laundries that formed the commercial core-they founded a new community. Chinese immigrants building the Central Pacific Railroad used their knowledge of explosives to excavate tunnels (and discourage Irish harassment). Chinese workers also married within the Irish community, spread across America and survived even the racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1880, which lost much of its impact when San Francisco's birth records were destroyed in the earthquake and fire of 1906 and no one could prove that a person of Chinese descent was not native born. Chang finds 20th-century Chinese-Americans navigating a rocky road between identity and assimilation, surviving new waves of immigrants from a troubled China and more recently from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Many Chinese millionaires maintain homes on both sides of the Pacific, while "parachute children" (Chinese teenagers living independently in America) are a significant phenomenon. And plain old-fashioned racism is not dead-Jerry Yang founded Yahoo!, but scientist Wen Ho Lee was, according to Chang, persecuted as much for being Chinese as for anything else. Chang's even, nuanced and expertly researched narrative evinces deep admiration for Chinese America, with good reason.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Chang is the author of the best-selling Rape of Nanking (1997), a very disturbing but well-prepared and necessary account of the sacking of that important Chinese city by the Japanese army in the late 1930s. Her writerly acumen is again in evidence in her latest book, which, in her words, tells an epic story--and, indeed, it is shown to be exactly that. Her purview is wide: the immigration of Chinese people to the U.S. from the early nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Chinese immigration falls naturally into three waves: those who came here to be laborers during the days of the California gold rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad, those who came to escape the 1949 Communist takeover, and those who came in the 1980s and 1990s as relations between China and the U.S. eased somewhat. The reasons why the Chinese came to the U.S. are only half the story; the other half consists of what they did here and how they were received. But this is not just a bland narration of events. Chang threads personal stories of individuals she came across in her research into her book, making it a much more human account. A final chapter looks at possible future definitions of racial identity. This is history at its most dramatic and relevant, and the book deserves all the attention it undoubtedly will receive. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A thought-provoking overview of how the Chinese have been an integral part of American history... An exemplary achievement." -- Christian Science Monitor

"Richly detailed... I know of no better introduction to this multilayered and emotionally charged story." -- Jonathan D. Spence

Customer Reviews

Rest In Peace, Iris
We deeply miss Iris Chang already in the days following her death. She was a favorite writer, and certainly among the best of current popular historians. Her work is both highly scholarly and superbly readable, suffused with feeling for victims of history and anger at cruelty and injustice. This leads some critics to fault her for bias, but her passionate partisanship compells attention to overlooked injustices of modern history. This is the common thread running through all her work ("Rape of Nanking," Chinese in America," "Thread of the Silkworm"). The horrific subjects she dealt with possibly played a part in the circumstances leading to her death, although we should refrain from passing judgement. She was working on a book on Americans in the Philippines during the Pacific War; we can only hope that enough progress was made so that a final gem will appear under her name.

Well written; occasionally biased.
Before I start commenting on this book, let me mention my own background: I came to America from Hong Kong when I was 18, and only recently became a naturalized American citizen. I have lived in America for 15 years.

I came across The Chinese In America first because a white friend who adopted a Chinese girl recommended the book to me. Since I have little interest in history, I was reluctant to read it at first; but a few pages later I was engrossed by the book. In history classes in college I learned a little bit about the Chinese building rail roads and the Exclusion Act, but not much more. This book gave much more detail and is so well written that I had no trouble reading it to the end. I am sure my being Chinese helped spark the interest in a subject I normally don't care about. When I was done, I was so impressed with the book that I ordered a copy from amazon.com so that my kids can read it when they grow up.

I think most of the book is accurate, but there are some errors. For example, the book mentioned the Imperial Examination in China as being initiated by the Ching (Manchurian) emperors. I am quite certain that's not true. That Exam's been around for thousands of years, as a lot of ancient literature mention it, such as the famed Journey to the West, whose background was set back in the Tang Dynasty. Ms. Chang's point was that the Manchurians used the Imperial Exams to control the Chinese people, and her attitude towards them is clearly hostile. But the Manchurians are also considered Chinese these days, so it seems ludicrous that a historian should be incensed about a 400 year old injury.

Throughout the book, Ms. Chang's sense of hostility towards the non-Chinese Americans (meaning white) is quite apparent, and her emphasis is always on the prejudice and suppression of the Chinese American. Her sense of resentment becomes blatant as her time frame draws to the modern day for which I also have personal experience. The prejudicial practices she describes are at best frivolous and ambiguous, and when you really think about it, you realize they are merely daily difficulties that every race faces in this country, or any other country. In my personal experience, during the last 15 years in America, I cannot think of a single incidence I experienced that can be classified as "prejudice." I have met jerks in this country, no doubt; but they were jerks just because that's who they are, not because of me. I have never had any conclusive evidence demonstrating that someone mistreated me just because of my skin color. I think if anything, the Americans think overly highly of the Chinese. I have heard so many times the statement "Chinese people are so smart," a statement I know to be not always true. There are plenty of idiots in China too, just like any other country.

Despite all the faults, this book is fast paced, fact-filled and engrossing, unlike the dreary history books I ploughed through in school. I want my kids to know the history of the Chinese Americans, and also to learn how not to have a victim mentality that this book demonstrates. I think every Chinese American should read it to learn about what happened to the Chinese people who came here before them. And even if you are not Chinese, you will still find this book difficult to put down. It will definitely provide a glimpse of the mentality of Chinese and other minority groups in this country. A good, interesting history book is hard to find, and Ms Chang is very definitely gifted in writing.

A message of condolence
I came across 'The Rape of Nanking' in my libray the other day, and it is curiosity that prompted me to have a look at the book. Though I only skimmed it, I was terrified by some of the passages depicting the atrocities the Japanese army did to the Chinese civilians. It even surprized me more to know that the author of the book, Iris Chang,is a woman - I, a man, cannot think of myself going through such frightening documents and writing a book about what I find. Thus, I feel deep respect and admiration towards her and almost came to a shock with her death. She was a model advocate for justice, and I belive that her works will be a reminder for us all of the struggle that we have to fight for justice and equality.

May her rest in peace

Viet