[Review of] Jade Snow Wong. Fifth Chinese Daughter

I am personally delighted to see the re-issue of Jade Snow Wong\u27s autobiographical novel, Fifth Chinese Daughter. Shortly after I arrived in the U.S. in 1959 as a rather bewildered young girl immigrant of twelve, it was my good fortune to have stumbled onto -- in the local public library -- Jade Snow Wong\u27s wonderful story of growing up Chinese and female in America, in both the ethnic enclave of Chinatown and the San Francisco Bay Area\u27s white college and working worlds. It helped me better understand the experience of being an American-Chinese, the term used in those days. The re-issue has allowed me to introduce the book to my American-born daughters, 15 and 12, who not only enjoyed immensely the story itself, but have gained invaluable insights into their Chinese and Chinese American heritage

[Review of] Ko-lin Chin. Chinese Subculture and Criminality: Non-Traditional Crime Groups in America

This is probably the first monographic study to examine in-depth the present criminal subculture of New York Chinatown, focusing on the youth gangs that have plagued the community during the past thirty years. As such, it makes a valuable contribution to the fledgling field of Asian American studies, whose scholars have yet to tackle this complex and sensitive topic, as well as to the disciplines of sociology and criminology. It will also help puncture the recently created stereotype of a monolithic, model minority Asian population singlemindedly pursuing success in schooling and business

[Review of] Ivan Light and Edna Bonacich. Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982

This latest study of immigrant entrepreneurs to come out of the collaborative efforts of sociologists Light and Bonacich is another significant contribution to Asian American Studies specifically, but also to ethnic studies, immigrant studies, urban studies , and business-economic studies in general. It contributes to our understanding of the history of Los Angeles, and it constitutes an important companion piece to existing studies of Korean Americans, such as Illsoo Kim\u27s work on Koreans in New York City. As a case study, it also elaborates on the related theoretical models of middlemen minorities and immigrant entrepreneurs, and how, in this case, both models can be integrated for a more accurate analysis of Korean entrepreneurs

Ethnic Studies in Academe: Challenges and Prospects for the 21st Century. NAES Plenary Session , Kansas City,1995 Missouri, March 19, 1994

The primary intent of organizing the plenary that follows was to engage a number of dedicated and experienced ethnic studies scholar-activists in a focused conversation on the current state of ethnic studies in the academy. At this point many of us have been involved in ethnic studies for more than twenty years. The perspectives and observations offered in this monograph are transcribed from the recordings of the plenary. It offers the reader a far-ranging discussion of the field, its history, its struggles, its pedagogy, and some of its underlying principles

Multifarious Transnational Engagements of Contemporary Diaspora Members: From Revolving-door Universalists to Multi-nationals and Site-Hopping Vagabonds

Drawing on recent studies of diaspora and its members’ transnational engagements, which treat the former as fuzzy-boundary, context-dependent groupings, and the latter as multi-faceted (rather than two-pronged) relationships, in this paper I explore the notion of diasporans’ polymorphous and multi-directional transnational commitments; identify different types of such involvements; and propose a preliminary list of macro- and micro-level circumstances contributing to multifarious transnationalism. In conclusion, I consider the implications of the notion of diaspora members’ multifarious transnational engagements for the study of (im)migrant transnationalism in general and suggest some interesting questions for future research on this phenomenon generated by this discussion

Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century: Free Labor of Neoslavery

From 1847 to 1874, as many as 125,000 Chinese indentured or contract laborers, almost all male, were sent to Cuba. This is no small number, considering the time span of just 27 years. Eighty percent or more were destined for the sugar plantations. The Chinese were imported while African slavery was still in effect though undergoing gradual abolition, and worked alongside this traditional form of plantation labor. (During this same period, Peru also imported Chinese coolies - about 95,000 for its sugar plantations. In the case of Peru, however, slavery was being abolished just when coolies were being introduced, essentially supplanting slave labor on the revived coastal plantations, although initially they did work with or under free blacks.) Was coolie labor another form of slavery, or was it a transition to free labor? This paper will examine La trata amarilla [the yellow trade] from its inception to its dissolution in light of these apparently opposing propositions of free labor or neoslavery

Spanish Manila: A Transpacific Maritime Enterprise and First American Chinatown in the Ming Dynasty

Audio of full lecture with presentation slides edited into the video.Evelyn Hu-deHart, Professor of History, Brown University - The Spanish Empire not only spanned the Atlantic from Europe to the New World of the Americas, but also extended across the Pacific to Manila of Las Filipinas. The ensuing Manila Galleon Trade from Acapulco, Mexico to Manila spanning 250 years constituted the first modern globalization. The tens of thousands of Chinese merchants, artisans, and laborers who flocked to Manila built a barrio chino that can be considered America's first Chinatown because Manila was colonized as an extension of Mexico (New Spain). Not only goods, but people flowed both ways across the Pacific, beginning in the mid-16th century, the Ming Dynasty. The Chinese community of Spanish Manila also signaled the beginning of the Chinese diaspora, spreading to the rest of Southeast Asia and the Pacific and to the Americas.Cornell East Asia Program, Cornell Society for the Humanities, Cornell Latin American Studies Program1_08jxehz

La rebelión de los yaqui de 1740: Preludio a la expulsión de los jesuitas de Nueva España

This article analyses the ranges of an indigenous rebellion in the Jesuit mission context of Northwest New Spain. Supported by different indigenous nations, the Yaqui rebellion of 1740 was caused by the labor pressures imposed by civil authorities and colonizers on the population of the mission. However the insurrectional environment was originated during the previous decade in an attempt to face the autocratic and paternalist practices imposed by the Jesuits in the Missions project. Later on, the Yaqui aligned with the priests because of hunger and natural disasters. But the rebellion was one of the events that prelude the Jesuit expulsion in the region, after which a process of secularization of the doctrinas began and Spaniards and castas came to settled down in towns as judges and capataces. In this sense, the paper studies, from an specific case, the influence of borbonic reforms and the reconfiguration of the social, economic and ethnic map of northern New Spain El presente artículo analiza los alcances de una rebelión indígena en el contexto misional del noroeste de Nueva España . la rebelión de los yaqui de 1740 contó con el apoyo de diferentes naciones indígenas y se desató a causa de las presiones laborales ejercidas por las autoridades civiles y los colonos sobre la población misionera. Sin embargo, el clima insurreccional  se fue construyendo durante la década anterior frente a las prácticas autocráticas y paternalistas impuestas por los jesuitas en las misiones. Más adelante yaquis y jesuitas se alinearon a causa de hambrunas y desastres naturales. Finalmente, la rebelión constituyó el preludio de la expulsión de los jesuitas de la región, luego de la cual se produjo un proceso de secularización de las doctrinas de la región y el asentamiento de españoles y castas en los pueblos indígenas como jueces y capataces. En este sentido el trabajo muestra, a partir de un caso concreto, la influencia de las reformas borbónicas en la reconfiguración del mapa étnico, social y económico del norte de Nueva España. &nbsp