The Chinese in America: A History from Gold Mountain to the New Millennium

Cassel's volume traces the history of the experience of Chinese immigrants to America. The recent extraordinary tragedy of Wen Ho Lee regarding accusations at the nuclear facility at Los Alamos point to an ongoing systemic and institutionalized racism in American society. The contributors to this volume review how the Chinese in America have alternately been courted as "model workers" by American business but also perceived as perpetual foreigners. These two opposing threads are examined in this collection, from a variety of disciplinary fields, to contribute to our understanding of the themes and issues that have shaped Chinese American studies, beginning with the arrival of Chinese gold miners in 1849 to the present. As we embark upon the "Pacific Century" with an increasingly large presence of Asians in America—in the United States, Canada, and Mexico—the authors trace the changes, heterogeneity and tenacity of immigrants who continue to live in a world in which a pervasive and simultaneous politics of polarity has come to define the Chinese experience on this continent. "The Chinese in America" is published in cooperation with the Chinese Historical Society of Greater San Diego and Baja California.The book should be a valuable text in Chinese American studies, Asian American history, immigration studies, and American history.

Author Biography: Susie Lan Cassel teaches Literature and Writing Studies at California State University, San Marcos, specializing in Asian American and Multicultural American literature.