Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: December 12, 2020 at 12:36:39 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Diplo]: Fredman on Brooks, 'American Exodus: > Second-Generation Chinese Americans in China, 1901-1949' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Charlotte Brooks. American Exodus: Second-Generation Chinese > Americans in China, 1901-1949. Oakland University of California > Press, 2019. xviii + 309 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-520-30268-6; $85.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-520-30267-9. > > Reviewed by Zachary Fredman (Boston University) > Published on H-Diplo (December, 2020) > Commissioned by Seth Offenbach > > Between 1901 and World War II, almost half of the Chinese American > citizens born in the United States left the country and moved to > China. In her excellent new book, American Exodus, Baruch College > history professor Charlotte Brooks examines the transnational lives > these Chinese American emigrants led in China. Drawing on archival > records, periodicals, and document compilations from China, Hong > Kong, Taiwan, and the United States, Brooks argues that Chinese > American citizen immigrants, "although fully welcome in neither China > nor America," still influenced Sino-American relations, China's > society and economy, and the US government's approach to citizenship > and immigration (p. 5). > > Brooks meticulously documents the racism that drove thousands of > Chinese American citizens to move to Asia in search of better lives. > Some 1,300 Chinese American citizens left the country for Asia each > year during the first decade-and-a-half of the twentieth century out > of a population that stood at around 90,000 in 1900 (p. 3). The > exodus accelerated during the 1920s, as "US politics became ever more > xenophobic and anti-immigrant" (p. 38). Native-born Chinese American > citizens faced bigoted legislators, hostile police, and unsympathetic > neighbors. White Americans largely refused to hire people of Chinese > ancestry, regardless of their citizenship or education level, for any > work other than menial labor. Native-born Chinese Americans attended > college at rates comparable to native-born white Americans, but they > faced downward mobility after graduating. In 1910, Brooks notes, > around 1,200 were attending college or high school in the United > States, but official statistics showed just a handful of ethnic > Chinese employed in professions requiring a college degree, such as > law or engineering (p. 44). > > The search for greater economic opportunities and social mobility led > thousands of Chinese American citizen merchants and students to > relocate to Hong Kong and Guangdong. In Hong Kong, unlike the United > States, Chinese Americans with some education or savings could work > in a wide variety of professions. Wealthier families could also send > their American children to prestigious private schools, giving them > the opportunity to join the colony's non-white elite. Meanwhile, many > China-born parents who stayed in the United States enrolled their > children in school on the mainland, with hundreds being sent to study > in their ancestral villages. Parents hoped this immersion in Chinese > culture would help make children--especially daughters--more > marriageable. > > Between the Boxer Rebellion and the mid-1920s, a larger number of > highly skilled and college-educated Chinese Americans moved to China > in order to contribute to China's modernization. These modernizers, > Brooks argues, tended to be less radical than their Chinese-born > counterparts. Whereas the Chinese Americans who sought to contribute > to China's modernization focused on introducing new technologies, > organizational methods, and educational pedagogies, native-born > modernizers pursued more extensive changes by attacking traditional > culture and attempting to redefine what it meant to be Chinese. Many > of the immigrants served the tottering Qing Empire during its final > decade, rising to positions of influence that would have been > unimaginable in the United States--even for white Americans of a > comparable age. Samuel S. Young, for example, became president of the > Tangshan Engineering and Mining College in 1910, just five years > after earning his bachelor's degree at the University of California > Berkeley. The 1911 revolution opened even more favorable > circumstances for Chinese American technocrats, many of whom took up > positions of considerable influence across the fragmented republic. > > This golden age ended in the mid-1920s, when Chinese American > citizens found themselves caught between the distrustful, > anti-imperialist Guomindang (GMD) regime and a US government > unwilling to treat them as full citizens. The GMD took a radical turn > after aligning with the Soviet Union, which unnerved the merchant > class-aligned Chinese American community in Guangdong. The GMD also > launched initiatives challenging Chinese Americans' legal status as > US citizens. Most Chinese Americans in the South turned against the > GMD for good after the August 1924 Merchant Corps Incident, when GMD > premier Sun Yat-sen's forces crushed an uprising by the Guangzhou > Merchant Volunteer Corps, killing hundreds and laying the blame on > the city's overseas Chinese community. Physical danger was a constant > over the next few years, as the party encouraged local activists to > attack foreign-backed institutions throughout Guangdong, compelling > most Chinese Americans to flee to Hong Kong or return to the United > States. US consular authorities, for their part, excluded Chinese > Americans in China from protection under the extraterritorial system, > beginning with the refusal in 1925 to defend Chu Shea Wai, a New > York-born American citizen imprisoned for alleged involvement in the > assassination of GMD party leader Liao Zhongkai. > > But despite the GMD government's suspicions about their loyalty, > Chinese Americans continued to immigrate to China in large numbers > during the Nanjing Decade. China did not suffer a deep economic > downturn until 1934, nearly five years after the Depression began in > the United States. So many Chinese American citizens continued to > relocate there in search of decent jobs. The Nanjing government, as > Brooks illustrates, offered these recent immigrants few opportunities > to serve the country, tacitly restricting them to work in the private > sphere. As a result, few Chinese Americans came to associate the GMD > with China, despite the party's insistence that Chiang Kai-shek's > regime was the sole legitimate focus of Chinese patriotism. > > The war against Japan convinced many Chinese Americans to try to > return to the United States, but racist State Department policies, > costly travel, and Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and Southeast > Asia left many stranded. Those who returned to the United States > fared far better than nearly all who remained in occupied China, > Brooks shows. But as before the war, US consular authorities > prioritized the needs of white Americans when helping with the > evacuation of US citizens. Among those who stayed, some perished in > the famines that gripped overseas districts in the Pearl River Delta > between 1942 and 1944. Others attempted to survive under Japanese > occupation in the former treaty ports. A handful actively resisted > the occupation, while the majority had to struggle to decide just how > much they would accommodate Japanese demands. Boston-born lawyer > Russell Chen became the highest-ranking Chinese American > collaborator, serving as foreign relations committee chairman in the > Japanese Reformed Government. Another Chinese American collaborator, > Herbert Moy, became the star broadcaster for the Shanghai-based Nazi > radio station, XGRS. Moy's brother Ernest, on the other hand, was one > of many Chinese Americans who sought work in Free China. He did > better than most, serving Chiang's government as a senior official in > the GMD's War Area Service Corps, which provided food and housing for > the US Army in China. > > By 1945, new political and economic opportunities had opened to > Chinese Americans in the United States, and most of those who had > remained in China during the Second World War chose to return to > America by the late 1940s. Brooks argues that most Chinese American > refugees who spent the war in GMD-controlled areas grew completely > disillusioned with Chiang's regime and tried to leave for the United > States as soon as possible. Only those with positions in GMD > agencies, like Ernest Moy, chose to remain, but most of this group > left for good during the Civil War. Collaboration hampered the lives > and careers of those who worked with the Germans and Japanese, and > most middle-age professionals never achieved the same degree of > success in America as they had in China, but many younger people with > good English skills went on to successful careers as the US job > market opened to Chinese Americans during the postwar years. > > With Brooks's careful attention to larger trends and individual > experiences, _American Exodus_ is an engrossing read. Most impressive > are the details about the liminal spaces--American-run organizations, > Hong Kong, Shanghai's foreign concessions, and the Pearl River > Delta--where Chinese Americans could define their identity for > themselves. These are histories, Brooks explains, that have largely > disappeared from the record because they subverted Cold War-era > nationalist narratives. By telling these stories, _American Exodus_ > makes insightful contributions to our understanding of migration, > US-China relations, and modern Chinese and American history. > > _Zach Fredman is an assistant professor of history at Duke Kunshan > University in Jiangsu, China._ > > Citation: Zachary Fredman. Review of Brooks, Charlotte, _American > Exodus: Second-Generation Chinese Americans in China, 1901-1949_. > H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. December, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55268 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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