Chinese American Transnationalism: The Flow of People, Resources, and Ideas between China and America During the Exclusion Era

Chinese American Transnationalism considers the many ways in which Chinese living in the United States during the exclusion era maintained ties with China through a constant flow of people, economic resources, as well as political and cultural ideas. Continuing the exploration of the exclusion era begun in two previous volumes (Entry Denied and Claiming America), editor Sucheng Chan and the contributors underscore the complexities of the Chinese immigrant experience and the ways in which its contexts changed over the sixty-one year period.The collection’s topics (and contributors) include: changing patterns of Chinese immigration and strategies for circumventing exclusion laws (Erika Lee); Chinese trade networks that facilitated Chinese migration (Madeline Hsu); female migration, marriage, and family formation (Sucheng Chan); Chinese herbalists in America (Haiming Liu); the significance of Chinese Americans’ economic ties with China (Yong Chen); Chinese American debates about ideological currents in China (Shehong Chen); the role of Chinese-language schools in the United States in promoting ethnic authenticity (Him Mark Lai); and two classic autobiographies that reflect an emerging Chinese American consciousness (Xiao-huang Yin).