Author: Bernard P.Wong

Publisher: Chopmen Enterprises

Year: 1979

Call Number: F128.9C5W872c

Introduction: There are 435,062 Chinese in America. They live mostly in urban areas and are engaged in ethnic niches comprising restaurants, laundry, garment factories and gift shop. Since their first arrivals in the 1850’s, the Chinese in America have experienced diverse adaptive strategies for survival which include the following: working as menial laborers; entering non-competitive business to avoid conflicts with the white entrepreneurs; geographical dispersion and formation of ethnic niches; concentrating in Chinatown in major urban areas such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago. This book is written in the believe that there is a need for a specific description about the economic adaptation of the Chinese in America. The Chinese community in New York City is particularly important for an understanding of the economic adaptation of the Chinese in America. It is one of the most important Chinese population centers. Of the two most important Chinese communities, New York’s and San Francisco’s, the former is highly dynamic and fast growing. In its initial stage, New York’s Chinatown had only a population of 120. The population swelled to 36,502 in 1960. Today(1979) its population is estimated to be around 90,000. From 1960 to 1979, the population has increased 200 percent. Further, it has been estimated that 7 out of 12 Chinese who landed in San Francisco will sooner or later end up in New York City. Moreover, the adaptive strategies of the Chinese in New York are representative of the Chinese survival strategies in America. Thus, an understanding of the Chinese in New York will help understanding of the Chinese in New York will help understanding the Chinese and the various Chinatowns in U.S. This book deals with the economic niches of the Chinese in New York City, the intricate processes by which their ethnic businesses are maintained, and the cultural identity this economic adaptation engendered. The emphasis is on the management of the resources ( economic, social and ethnic) within the contexts of the Chinese community of the New York and the U.S. society. In his analysis, the author uses and intergrates concepts and theories from a variety of disciplines in the Social Sciences. It should be of interest to sociologists, economists, anthropologists, sinologists as well as laymen who are interested in the non-white ethnic groups, especially the Chinese-Americans.

Author：Victor G. and Brett de Bary Nee

Publisher：Stanford University Press

Publishing Year：1986

Call Number：F869.S39N372

Introduction：This book is about a community and a people whose roots extend deep into the American past. Most Americans know of San Francisco’s Chinatown, yet few can claim an understanding of this community, the role which its people played in the making of the American West, and the rich tradition and culture which it spawned in its one hundred and twenty year history. In a very real sense Chinatown has been a blind spot of American interest and concern, its people too small in number to pose a serious threat, and the reality of their history in America too painful an experience to remember. This book attempts to bring to the surface the past of Chinatown which has for so long been ignored as well as the present-day life of the people who make up the community. What forces created Chinatown and continue to perpetuate its existence? What has been the source of its exceptional cohesiveness and resilience as an American ethnic community? What is the consciousness of its people? Against the background of the historic process of Chinese immigration as that of the broadest questions with which this book attempts to deal.

Author：Wing Chung Ng

Publisher：UBC Press

Publishing Year：1999

Call Number：F1089.5.V22N576

Introduction：Vancouver has one of the largest Chinese populations in North America. In The Chinese In Vancouver Wing Chung Ng captures the fascinating story of the city’s Chinese in their search for identity between 1945 and 1980.

Ng juxtaposes the cultural positions of different generations of Chinese immigrants and their Canadian-born descendants and unveils an ongoing struggle between them over the definition of being Chinese. It is an engrossing account of cultural identity in a context of migration and settlement, where the influence of the native land and the appeal of the host society continue to impinge on the consciousness of the ethnic Chinese.

In writing this book, Ng shuns the tendency among some Canadian scholars to portray Chinese people as hapless victims of racial prejudice and discrimination and Chinese identity as a matter of Western cultural hegemony. Through not denying the reality of Anglo-Canadian racism, which was especially virulent in British Columbia, his account gives Chinese people their own voice, showing how the Chinese had much to say and to disagree among themselves about the meaning of being Chinese.

In a final chapter Ng goes beyond the Canadian context of his study to engage in a useful comparative discussion of the experiences of ethnic Chinese in various Southeast Asian countries and in the United States, inviting readers to rethink the meaning of ‘Chineseness’ in the diaspora. He closes with reflections on Vancouver’s Chinese community since 1980.

Author：Hyung-Chan Kim

Publisher：Greenwood Press

Publishing Year：1999

Call Number：E184.A75D614

Introduction：Asian Americans have made significant contributions to American society. This reference work celebrates the contributions of 166 distinguished Asian Americans. Most people profiled are not featured in any other biographical dictionary on noted Asian Americans. The Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Filipino Americans, Korean Americans, South Asian Americans(from India and Pakistan), and Southeast Asian Americans(from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) profiled in this work represent more than 75 fields of endeavor. From historical figures to figure skater Michelle Kwan, this work features both prominent and less familiar individuals who have made significant contributions in their fields. A number of the contemporary subjects have given exclusive interviews for this work.

All biographies have been written by experts in their ethnic fields. Those profiled range widely from distinguished scientists and Nobel Prize winners to sports stars, from actors to activists, from politicians to business leaders, from artists to literary luminaries. All are role models for young men and women, and many have overcome difficult odds to succeed. These colorfully written, substantive biographies detail their subjects’ goals, struggles, and commitments to success and to their ethnic communities. More than forty portraits accompany the biographies and each biography concludes with a list of suggested reading for further research. Appendices organizing the biographies by ethnic group and field of professional endeavor make searching easy. This is the most current biographical dictionary on Asian Americans and is ideal for student research.

Author: Judy Yung

Publisher ：University of California Press

Publishing Year：1995

Call Number：F869.S39Y94

Introduction: As a “second-generation Chinese American,  born and raised in San Francisco”,  Judy Yung has heard and experienced all the unfairness towards Chinese, especially women in San Francisco in her childhood.  Starting from the difficulties in her mother and grandmother’s immigration, she began to collect stories of Chinese women in the U.S. and eventually completed this book describing Chinese females in San Francisco during the first half of twentieth century.  She used the metaphor of giving up the “crippling custom of footbinding” in the title to indicate the courage and action of Chinese women to change their status and life in San Francisco, and thus changes their stereotype of simply being passive victims.  As Vicki L. Ruiz says, ” It represents a major contribution to research in U.S. women’s history.”  This book is highly valuable both in terms of scholarly history research and literary value.