The Chinese in America : a narrative history / Iris Chang

Includes bibliographical references and index

The old country: Imperial China in the nineteenth century -- America, a new hope -- "Never Fear, and You Will Be Lucky", journey and arrival in San Francisco -- Gold rushers on Gold Mountain -- Building the transcontinental railroad -- Life on the western frontier -- Spreading across America -- Rumblings of hatred -- Chinese Exclusion Act -- Work and survival in the early twentieth century -- New generation is born -- Chinese America during the Great Depression -- "The Most Important Historical Event of Our Times", World War II -- "A Mass Inquisition", the Cold War, the Chinese Civil War, and McCarthyism -- New arrivals, new lives, the chaotic 1960s -- Taiwanese Americans -- Bamboo curtain rises, Mainlanders and model minorities -- Decade of fear, the 1990s -- High tech vs. low tech -- Uncertain future

Iris Chang, the daughter of second-wave Chinese immigrants, has written a narrative that encompasses the entire history of one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the United States, an epic story that spans 150 years and continues to the present day. Chang takes a fresh look at what it means to be an American and draws a complex portrait of the many accomplishments of the Chinese in their adopted country, from building the transcontinental railroad to major scientific and technological advances. A sensitive, deeply moving story of individuals whose lives have shaped and been shaped by this history, The Chinese in America is a saga of raw human tenacity and a testament to the determination of a people to forge an identity and destiny in a strange land