A volume in the series The Asian American Experience, this book is a collection of essays by Him Mark Lai, a prominent Chinese American non-professional historian who was originally trained as an engineer. This book records the history of Chinese American communities with a focus on the Chinese leftists' struggles in the United States with other political actors such as traditional Chinese powers and the Nationalist government during the nineteenth and twentieth century. It also discusses the interactions of the Chinese leftists with the American Communist Party, the Communist International, and relevant actors of China, which are all embedded in the transnational and national historical contexts.
This book is organized in chronological order, including an introduction by Madeline Hsu and five essays written and revised over three decades by the author. Hsu's introduction puts Chinese American history in the national context of United States history. Hsu also discusses the significance of Chinese American history in understanding not only minorities but also America at large, while acknowledging that only a minority of Chinese Americans were leftists. I find the introduction very informative and useful.
Chapter 1 is an overview of the political history of Chinese Americans in the United States, which was influenced by historical events both in the U.S. and China. Its central theme is that if an immigrant group is limited from settlement and assimilation, this group is likely to be heavily influenced by homeland events for an extensive period. This was especially true for the Chinese American community in the early decades.
Chapter 2 concerns itself with the Chinese left movements in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the end of the 1920s. It first discusses how socialist philosophies were introduced into China through merchants and missionaries and through visits by Chinese intellectuals to Western countries. It then introduces major Chinese American labor organizations and student radical associations. Finally, it records the establishment of the Grand Alliance Supporting the Chinese Workers and Peasants Revolution (ACWP). This organization was closely related to the American Communist Party and served as a platform for the Chinese Communist Party to participate in the Communist International. In 1929 the ACWP was reorganized as the All-America Alliance of Chinese Anti-Imperialists, which was connected to the World Anti-Imperial League. These Chinese leftist organizations, together with the American Communist Party and progressive members of the student associations, organized anti-Nationalists protests in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles simultaneously.
Chapter 3 discusses the activities of Chinese American communists during the Great Depression, especially in the two major centers of San Francisco and New York. During this time, the Chinese left functioned as part of the American Communist Party, which in turn was closely connected to the Communist International, although the Chinese party membership was quite small (18 members in 1927, 24 in 1928, and 51 in 1929). For instance, in San Francisco Chinese Marxist leftists established the Chinese Workers Mutual-Aid Association in 1937, which at its peak had a membership of 600 and strove to improve Chinese workers' status and working conditions. In New York, the Chinese left managed to work through the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA), one of the many guilds in the Chinese-owned businesses, to fight against racial discrimination, the dominance of the traditional Chinatown and the Nationalists powers. I found this chapter to be the most well organized and convincing.
Chapter 4 focuses on American journalists in China, other anti-Japanese powers in Hong Kong, and the activities of the Chinese Americans in the US during the war of resistance against Japan. In Hong Kong, the underground Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the Eighth Route Army office, through which the American Communists dispatched medical teams to China. In the United States, various groups cooperated to raise funds for China's war efforts, leading to the formation of the United China Relief in 1941. Further, with the help of CHLA, the CCP initiated the effort to establish the China Daily News in the Chinese American community in July 1940.
Chapter 5 surveys the activities of the Chinese American Left since the end of World War II. During the Chinese civil war, the Nationalists still dominated most of Chinese American media, schools, and organizations. With the founding of the PRC in 1949, many scholars and students returned from the US to China; and the outbreak of the Cold War and the anti-Communist movement in the US effectively weakened the Chinese American left by the end of the 1950s. The Left movement in the Chinese American community had largely disappeared by the 1970s when the US and China were improving their relationship. This book also provides more than 60 pages of notes and a Chinese-English glossary, which are both very helpful.
This book provides a remarkable account of the history of Chinese American communities, although its transnational politics are often buried in the rich materials included in the notes that need to be sorted out by the reader.
