The historical transpacific connections between the United States and China have attracted enormous public and scholarly attention since the late nineteenth century, especially since the 1980s when the rising Chinese economy started to transform the Pacific Rim. Elizabeth Sinn's Pacific Crossing deepens our understanding of the historical roots of such connections. Several historical studies of the topic, such as Madeline Hsu's Dreaming of Gold, Dreaming of Home (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2000) focus on interactions between California and the Pearl River Delta in South China. Sinn gives us the first comprehensive examination of Hong Kong as an extreme linking point—an “in-between” place (p. 9), in her words—in the Pacific China-U.S. world in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Sinn's book significantly enriches our knowledge of important developments and issues that have already received considerable attention in previous studies, such as the emigration of the Chinese to California; the shipping, merchandise, and opium trade between China and the United States; California-bound Chinese women; and the repatriation of the remains of Chinese immigrants.
What makes Hong Kong important for understanding nineteenth-century emigration to California is that almost all the Chinese emigrants left from Hong Kong. In her book, Sinn includes detailed accounts of the Chinese passengers' experiences as well as the British and later American governments' efforts to regulate passenger trade and the emigration process. During this time, the U.S. Consul in Hong Kong assumed the role of issuing certificates for departing emigrants. Sinn also discusses the involvement of the Chinese, especially those of the Hong Kong-based Tung Wah Hospital, in such efforts.
Chinese women were a focal point of such efforts. Sinn's analysis provides new insights into the traffic in Chinese women. For example, even some merchants in “legitimate business” (p. 239) were engaged in the selling of women along with other goods.
In recent years, a growing number of scholars have recognized the transnational nature of Chinese Americans' experiences. Sinn offers further evidence of the extensive transpacific connections in the Chinese American world. For example, she shows that many Chinese firms had branches in both San Francisco and Hong Kong (called lianhao). And Hong Kong-based Chinese merchants worked closely with their counterparts in San Francisco to transport the bones and coffins of their deceased compatriots in the United States. Besides, Hong Kong also existed as the main source of supply for opium, an extremely important pastime for many Chinese immigrants in the United States. Since 1841, Hong Kong had emerged as the premier distribution center for opium. The island's prepared opium products, especially the Fook Lung and Lai Yuen brands, dominated the market for decades.
Moreover, Sinn's book also helps us better understand the history of Hong Kong. She points out that the Gold Rush was a critical moment in the development of Hong Kong. Until that point, it relied mainly on opium trade. Thereafter, however, Hong Kong gained great importance as a center for cargo and passenger trade.
Pacific Crossing is marked by meticulous empirical research. Sinn has unearthed evidence from British, Kong Hong, and American archives as well as primary sources of individuals and companies, such as the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. She has also used many newspapers in both Chinese and English. Scholars of Chinese America and transpacific interactions will benefit from the encyclopedic reservoir of information contained in this volume.
