A Selective Bibliography
Armentrout-Ma, L. Eve. Chinese and GGNRA, 1849-1949: Guests of Choice, Guests of Necessity (GGNRA = Golden Gate National Recreation Area), National Park Service, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, 1975, viewed on 9/2/2022 http://npshistory.com/publications/goga/chinese-am.pdf
“Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month Lesson Plans,” Share My Lesson, viewed on 5/8/2023, https://sharemylesson.com/collections/aanhpi-heritage
“Asian American and Pacific Islander History,” H/History, an A+E Network, 2023, viewed 5/8/2023 https://www.history.com/tag/aapi Contains articles on the Chinese experience in America.
Asian Resource Hub, viewed on 3/31/2024 https://asianresourcehub.org/
“Biblio Lotus,” Pima County Public Library, viewed on 5/8/2023 https://www.library.pima.gov/bibliolotus/ “Biblio Lotus supports and values the culture and voice of our Asian communities in Pima County by providing resources and programs and by establishing ongoing partnerships with Asian organizations therein.”
Billhimer, Ruth Kretzler. Pawns of fate: Chinese/Paiute intercultural marriages, 1860-1920, Walker River Reservation, Schurz, Nation, Schurz, Nevada, 1998, Master’s Thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, viewed on 11/13/2023 https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1916&context=rtds
Berglund, Barbara. “Opium Dens in Chinatown: Historical Essay,” FoundSF, viewed on 9/2/2022 http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Opium_Dens_in_Chinatown
Block, Melissa and Elissa Nadworny. “The Legacy of the Mississippi Delta Chinese,” NPR: Special Series Our Land, March 18, 2017, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.npr.org/2017/03/18/519017287/the-legacy-of-the-mississippi-delta-chinese
Broad, William J. “The Volcanic Eruption that Reverberates 200 Years Later,” New York Times, August 24, 2015, viewed 9/2/2022 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/science/mount-tambora-volcano-eruption-1815.html?_r=0
Bronson, Bennet and Chuimei Ho. Chinese Opium in America 1850-1920, Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee, Seattle, Washington, 2023.
Bronson, Bennet and Chuimei Ho. Coming Home in Gold Brocade: Chinese in Early Northwest America, Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee, 2015.
Brown, Miranda. “The Hidden, Magnificent History of Chop Suey: Discrimination and Mistranslation Have Long Obscured the Dishes True Origins,” Atlas Obscura, November 30, 2021, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chop-suey-history
Carson, Scott Alan. “The Biological Living Conditions of Nineteenth-Century Chinese Males in America,” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 37 no. 2 (Autumn 2006).
Chan, Sucheng, editor. Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943, Temple University Press, 1991.
Chang, Gordon H. and Shelley Fisher Fishkin. “The Chinese Helped Build America,” Forbes, May 12, 2014, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2014/05/12/the-chinese-helped-build-america/?sh=7a85310439bc
Chang, Jason, et al. The Cargo Rebellion: Those Who Chose Freedom, PM Press, 2023, viewed on Amazon on 6/19/2023 https://a.co/d/hC2WRNg. This graphic novel is “a deft graphic account of the rebellion in the context of the ‘coolie trade’ and the struggle to end traffic in human ‘cargo’ . . .”
“Cheung Sum Shee v. Nagle, 268 U.S. 336, 69 L. Ed. 985, 45 S. Ct. 539 (1925),” Caselaw Access Project, Harvard Law School, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://cite.case.law/us/268/336/
Chinese American WWII Veterans Recognition Project, viewed on 6/6/2023 https://www.caww2.org/ The mission of this organization is to “recognize, honor and celebrate the military service of Chinese Americans who fought in the Second World War through advocacy, education and preservation.”
Chinese Historical Society of America visited on 9/2/2022 https://chsa.org/
Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee (CINARC), last updated August 30, 2018, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.cinarc.org/index.html
“Chow Manderien’s Grave,” Atlas Obscura, n.d., viewed on 1/26/2023 https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/chow-manderien-grave-boston The first documented Chinese person in the United States.
Dhillon, Hardeep. “How the Fight for Birthright Citizenship Shaped the History of Asian American Families,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 27, 2023, viewed on 5/8/2023 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-fight-for-birthright-citizenship-reshaped-asian-american-families-180981866/
Diaz, Jaclyn and Jonathan Franklin. “A pair of Levi’s that sold for $76K reflects anti-Chinese sentiment of 19th century,” CULTURE, NPR, October 14, 2022, viewed on 11/21/2022 https://www.npr.org/2022/10/14/1128843922/vintage-levis-jeans-1880s-sold-thousands-racist-anti-chinese
Dirlik, Arif, editor. Chinese on the American Frontier, Rowman, Littlefield Publishers, Inc., first paperback edition 2003.
“EPPC: Library Guides Borderlands: Home,” El Paso Community College District, viewed on 6/6/2023 https://epcc.libguides.com/borderlands “A unique resource of faculty edited college student articles on the history and culture of the El Paso, Juárez, and Southern New Mexico regions.” To see articles on the Chinese input “Chinese” into the search box.
Ewbank, Anne. “The Tragic Roots of America’s Favorite Cherry,” Atlas Obscura: Gastro Obscura, June 19, 2018, viewed on 1/26/2023 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bing-cherry
Fong, Kelly N., et al. “Race and Racism in Archaeologies of Chinese American Communities,” Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 51:233-250 (October 2022), viewed on 6/6/2023 https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-anthro-041320-014548
Fritz, Christian G. “A Nineteenth Century Habeas Corpus Mill: The Chinese Before the Federal Courts in California,” American Journal of Legal History, vol. 32 (1998) viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facultyscholarship/619.
Fu, Xianyan. “’The Six’: an Untold Story of Titanic’s Chinese Survivors,” The Independent, November 23, 2021, viewed on 6/6/2023 https://independent-magazine.org/2021/11/23/the-six-an-untold-story-of-titanics-chinese-survivors/
Gilfoyle, Timothy J. A Pickpocket’s Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. The story of George Appo, the son of a Chinese father and an Irish mother, who grew up to lead a life of crime in 19th century New York City.
Ghosh, Amitav. Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2023.
Grant, Richard. “The First Chinese Restaurant in America Has a Savory—and Unsavory—History,” Smithsonian Magazine, n.d., viewed on 11/21/2022 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/history-first-chinese-restaurant-in-america-180980552/
Guide to Chinese in California, Online Archive of California, viewed on 9/2/2022 http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt5p3019m2;developer=local;style=oac4;doc.view=items
Him Mark Lai Digital Archive presented by the Chinese Historical Society of America, 2020, viewed 9/2/2022 https://himmarklai.org/
“A History Bursting with Telling: Asian Americans in Washington State,” Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://depts.washington.edu/cspn/resources/curriculummaterials/a-history-bursting-with-telling-asian-americans-in-washington-state/
“How the Chinese Massacre of 1871 Became One of the Largest Lynching’s in U. S. History,” All That’s Interesting, May 9, 2018, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://allthatsinteresting.com/chinese-massacre-of-1871
Hough, Walter. “Oriental Influences in Mexico,” American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Jan. 1900), pp. 66-74, visited 6/23/2017 http://www.jstor.org/stable/658862
Hoy, William. The Chinese Six Companies: A Short, General Historical Resume of Its Origin, Function and Importance in the Life of California Chinese, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Six Companies), 1942, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015019233439&view=1up&seq=5&skin=2021
Hua, Jordan. “They Looked Askance”: American Indians and Chinese in the Nineteenth Century U.S. West, 2012 Honors Thesis, Rutgers, School of Arts & Sciences, viewed 11/13/2023 https://history.rutgers.edu/docman-docs/undergraduate/honors-papers-2012/402-they-looked-askance-american-indians-and-chinese-in-the-nineteenth-century-u-s-west/file
Hubbell, Diana. “The Debonair Restauranteur Who Inspired the First Chinese-American Cookbook: Chin Foin Forever Changed America’s Relationship with Chinese Food,” Atlas Obscura: Gastro Obscura, November 10, 2021, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/chicago-chinatown-history
Jung, Moon-Ho. “Making sugar, making ‘coolies’: Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations.” The Conversation, January 13, 2022, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://theconversation.com/making-sugar-making-coolies-chinese-laborers-toiled-alongside-black-workers-on-19th-century-louisiana-plantations-173831
“K12 AANHPI (Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) Curriculum Project,” OCA (Organization of Chinese Americans) National Center, viewed on 5/8/2023 https://digitalvalle.website/aanphi/
Knapp, Francky. “Don’t Call Her the Dragon Lady: Hollywood’s First Chinese American Star,” Messy Nessy: Cabinet of Chic Curiosities, January 25, 2018, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/01/25/dont-call-her-the-dragon-lady-hollywoods-first-chinese-american-star/
Lee, Erika. At America’s Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943, University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Levine, Shira Morag. “A ‘Vital Question of Self-Preservation’: Chinese Wives, Merchants, and American Citizens Caught in the 1924 Immigration Act, Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, vol. 9 issue 1 (2013) viewed on 9/2/2022 https://law.stanford.edu/publications/a-vital-question-of-self-preservation-chinese-wives-merchants-and-american-citizens-caught-in-the-1924-immigration-act/.
Liestman, Daniel. “Horizontal Inter-Ethnic Relations: Chinese and American Indians in the Nineteenth-Century American West,” Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Autumn, 1999).
Linchong, Victoria. “Behind the Curtain of the 1940s Chinatown Nightclubs that Shattered Asian Stereotypes,” Messy Nessy: Cabinet of Chic Curiosities, March 23, 2022, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.messynessychic.com/2022/03/23/behind-the-curtain-of-the-1940s-chinatown-nightclubs-that-shattered-asian-stereotypes/
Linchong, Victoria. “Ode to the Asian-American Faces in the Shadows of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” Messy Nessy: Cabinet of Chic Curiosities, October 26, 2021, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/10/26/ode-to-the-asian-american-faces-in-the-shadows-of-hollywoods-golden-age/
Littman, Sarah. Race, Immigration and a Change of Heart: A History of the San Francisco Chinatown, Master’s Thesis, Central Washington University, 2016, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/377/ There are numerous dissertations and theses on the Chinese Americans at this repository.
Lou, Michael. “America Was Eager for Chinese Immigrants. What Happened?” New Yorker Magazine, August 30, 2021, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/30/america-was-eager-for-chinese-immigrants-what-happened
Louie, Emma Woo. Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition, McFarland & Company, 1998.
Miller, Greg. “1885 Map Reveals Vice in San Francisco’s Chinatown and Racism at City Hall,” Wired, September 30, 2013, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.wired.com/2013/09/1885-map-san-francisco-chinatow/
Ngai, Mae M. Dr. Ngai is a professor of history at Columbia University and a noted Chinese scholar. Her videos on various topics relating the Chinese experience in America are available on C-SPAN, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.c-span.org/person/?66657/MaeMNgai
Nosowitz, Dan. “What the Heck is Crab Rangoon Anyway?” Atlas Obscura: Gastro Obscura, August 12, 2019, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-crab-rangoon A nice brief history of American Chinese cuisine.
Nuyen, Suzanne. “4 U.S. Supreme Court Cases Where Asian Americans Fought For Civil Rights,” SPECIAL SERIES: Asian American And Pacific Islander Heritage Month, NPR, May 27, 2021, viewed on 11/22/2022 https://www.npr.org/2021/05/27/999550296/4-u-s-supreme-court-cases-where-asian-americans-fought-for-civil-rights
Odo, Franklin, ed. Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, Series: Finding a Path Forward, National Parks Service, no date, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=37E8E9F7-1DD8-B71B-0B828D45BDC9222D
Park, Roberta J. “Sport and Recreation Among Chinese American Communities of the Pacific Coast from the Time of Arrival to the ‘Quiet Decade’ of the 1950s,” Journal of Sport History, vol. 27, no. 3 (Fall 2000), viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/1556/rec/1
Patel, Samir S. “America’s Chinatowns,” Archaeology Series, May/June, 2014, includes articles on: “Women,” “Food,” “Health,” “Labor” & “Culture” (links to individual articles at end of article), viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.archaeology.org/issues/131-1405/features/1955-excavating-chinatowns-of-the-american-west
“Photograph album of Chinese men and women in Sierra County,” California Historical Society, Digital Library, 1890 -1930, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digitallibrary.californiahistoricalsociety.org/object/22481 To learn more about the album read Michael Luo’s “The Dark Purpose Behind a Town Constable’s Journal,” The New Yorker, January 28, 2022, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/the-dark-purpose-behind-a-town-constables-journal
“Qing China’s Internal Crisis: Land Shortage, Famine, Rural Poverty,” Asia for Educators, Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University, viewed on 9/2/2022 http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1750_demographic.htm
Rodriguez, Olga R. “California City [San Jose] Apologizes for 1887 Chinatown Destruction,” The Business Journal, September 30, 2021, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://thebusinessjournal.com/california-city-apologizes-for-1887-chinatown-destruction/
Schwendinger, Robert J. “Chinese Sailors: America’s Invisible Merchant Marine 1876-1905,” California History, vol. 57, no. 1 (Spring 1978).
See, Lisa. On Gold Mountain, Vintage Books, 2012.
Segregated Seattle, The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, University of Washington, 2020, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/segregated.htm Racially restrictive community covenants designed to keep neighborhoods white were used for many years through out the United States. Seattle area communities discriminated against Asian Americans, African Americans, Mexicans, and other minority communities. See my Arizona Bibliography for a link to a similar website for racist covenants in Tucson, Arizona.
Serdiukov, Stepan. “White landowners in Hawaii imported Russian workers in the early 1900s, to dilute the labor power of Asians in the islands,” The Conversation, November 29, 2022, viewed on 1/24/2023 https://theconversation.com/white-landowners-in-hawaii-imported-russian-workers-in-the-early-1900s-to-dilute-the-labor-power-of-asians-in-the-islands-192387
SFA Staff. “Rolling History Revisited, with Dragons,” BorderLore, June 27, 2013, viewed on 11/21/2022 https://borderlore.org/rolling-history-revisited-with-dragons/
Shelton, Tamara Venit. “Chinese Medicine,” Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, September 17, 2020, viewed 6/26/2023 https://youtu.be/o14GcfVuOY8
Shelton, Tamara Venit. “Curiosity or Cure? Chinese Medicine and American Orientalism in Progressive Era California and Oregon,” Oregon Historical Society, OHQ vol. 114, no. 3 (Fall 2013), viewed on 6/6/2023 https://www.ohs.org/oregon-historical-quarterly/back-issues/upload/Venit-Shelton_Chinese-Medicine_OHQ-114_3_Fall-2013_spread.pdf
Shelton, Tamara Venit. Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace, Yale University Press, 2019.
Shelton, Tamara Veit. “Op-Ed: Panic over the coronavirus recalls other racist chapters in California’s history,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2020, viewed on 6/19/2023 https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-07/coronavirus-asian-racism-california-history
Shoichet, Catherine E. “On this day 141 years ago, a new law (Chinese Exclusion Act) began reshaping America. More than a century later, Congress apologized for it,” CNN, May 6, 2023, viewed on 5/8/2023 https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/06/us/chinese-exclusion-act-1882-cec/index.html
Skeldon, Ronald. “Migration from China,” Journal of International Affairs, vol. 49 issue 2 (Winter 1996) viewed on 9/2/2022 https://anthkb.sitehost.iu.edu/a104/china/chinamigration4.htm
Tung, William L. The Chinese in America, 1820-1973: A Chronology & Fact Book, Ethnic Chronology Series: No. 14, Oceana Publications, 1974.
Twain, Mark. Roughing It, Chapter LIV (Chinese of Virginia City, NV), viewed 9/2/2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3177/3177-h/3177-h.htm#linkch54
“UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER’S RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES, 1905-1907,” Arizona Historical Society Library/Archives Department, Tucson, AZ, Manuscript Collection MS 0819, viewed on 5/8/2023 http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/upLoads/library_US-Commissioners-Criminal-Case-Proceedings.pdf This collection is one of my favorites. It contains records pertaining to “the arrest and deportation of illegal Chinese immigrants for unlawful entry into the United States at Nogales. Portraits of most of the defendants are pasted into the book and relevant correspondence and notes are tipped in.”
Weeks, Linton. “Chinese Basketballers of Yesteryear,” GBH News, June 4, 2015, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.wgbh.org/news/post/chinese-basketballers-yesteryear
Weiss, Daniel. “Nose to Tail,” Archaeology Magazine, September/October 2023, viewed on November 11, 2023 https://www.archaeology.org/issues/524-2309/digs/11650-digs-discoveries-los-angeles-chinatown-pigs
Well, Robert S. Voices from the Bottom of the South China Sea: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Chinese Emigrant Disaster, Fortis, 2014. What it was like for Chinese immigrants to travel to and from China in the mid-19th century.
Wunder, John R. “Territory of New Mexico v. Yee Shun: A Turning Point in Chinese Legal Relationships in the Trans-Mississippi West,” New Mexico Historical Review vol. 65, no. 3 (1990) viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol65/iss3/2.
Yu, Xiaowei. “They were There, Playing! An Examination of Baseball Experience of Chinese in America, 1870s-1930s,” North American Society For Sport History (NASSH), Proceedings And Newsletter, May 2010, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/15947/rec/1
Wilson, Charles Reagan. “Chinese in Mississippi: An Ethnic People in a Biracial Society,” Mississippi History Now, November 2002, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/mississippi-chinese-an-ethnic-people-in-a-biracial-society
Yee, Amy. “New Chinese Canadian Museum Spotlights Hidden Histories,” Bloomberg, June 30, 2023, viewed on 7/3/2023 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-06-30/museum-in-vancouver-chinatown-spotlights-chinese-immigrants-who-built-canada
Yee, Amy. “A Push to Save North America’s Chinatowns,” Bloomberg, June 20, 2023, viewed on July 7, 2023 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-20/north-america-s-historic-chinatowns-find-strength-in-numbers
Zhu, Liping. A Chinaman’s Chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier, University Press of Colorado, 1997.
Zhu, Ming M. “The Page Act of 1875: In the Name of Morality,” Sustainability Research & Policy Network, Posted: 27 Mar 2010 Last revised: 1 Jul 2010, viewed on 9/2/2022 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1577213